At the end of my Bible study group a few weeks ago, one of the ladies at my table asked about the note books I had with me during group. It got me thinking a bit more about all of the things I use when I Bible study and I did realize that I prefer to study when I have all of my favorite Bible study tools. I still remember when I bought my first Bible as a new Christian, I had recently stared going to church with my husband (then boyfriend) and his family; it was a Protestant church and many people brought their Bibles with them. It is a Bible that I still have today and it took me a very long time to feel that I was able to highlight or take notes in it. I would see other people writing in their’s and feeling like I would mess up my Bible if I wrote the wrong thing or it didn’t look nice. I do not mean to share the same thing over and over, but as I have worked on healing from past hurts, my struggle with perfection has shown up again and again. I treated highlighting my Bible or taking notes as something that I could do right or wrong, and that if I somehow did it wrong I was messing up God’s word. Which could not be further from the truth and I see that now.
That first church we went to mostly did topical messages, which I do enjoy hearing at times. And at that time, topical messages were all I knew. When we started going to our home church now it was about seven years ago and our pastor has almost always preached books of the Bible verse by verse. The only reason I say almost always is because he has done short series on a certain topic such as prayer or the Holy Spirit that I suppose could be considered topical, yet the majority of these past seven years I have spent each weekend listening to books taught from the Bible with nothing skipped over. Our oldest was one when we started going to Trinity and I spent a good amount of time holding babies or nursing during sermons so I was unable to take notes, but once I got to the point where I didn’t have a baby attached to me I found that when I took notes, I learned so much more. There are people I know who can hear something and remember details very well, for myself writing things down helps me remember what was taught. Once I started taking notes on the little half sheets provided, it then extended to my Bible. If something really stuck out I would jot it down before I forgot, I think that must have been the beginning of the best things that has happened for me.
Typically I prefer things to be done a certain way and I lean towards being a rule follower, so when I started marking up my first Bible, I actually decided that I wouldn’t have any “rules” for highlighting or writing. I could use whichever color I wanted and whichever pen I was in the mood for that day. It was quite freeing to just notate whatever I wanted and gave me the ability to focus on scripture and what God was prompting me to write down. I loved taking notes during sermons and it really added to my experience at Bible study because I would open my Bible to see what had stood out to me. As moms we have so many things in our brains and most of the time if you ask me how yesterday was I’d have to think before answering. By the time I’d get to Bible study on Wednesday I’d have very little conversation to add before I started taking notes!
These are the highlighters I used to use, and the colors are beautiful. They are made for use in Bibles so would not bleed through the pages which I think is always a plus. And these were the pens I used, now I will warn you that these did bleed through but I loved the colors so it didn’t bother me. Also as I mentioned before, I took the carefree approach and that allowed me to embrace marking up my Bible however I wanted. The other thing I did with this Bible was add washi tape at the beginning of each book of the Bible. That project was one that took me a few days but did a little at a time while the kids played outside. I took my Bible from something that I was nervous to touch or really use and made it become something I had fun with. I had fun adding the washi tape and highlighting however I wanted because I made it more of my own. This then extended into my note taking, they became a creative outlet for me. And something I love is that creative outlet is something all of our kids have picked up. Eva especially loves to highlight in her children Bibles, and I let her use my old pink one since it is not my main Bible anymore. I also love the idea that someday when I am gone, my children will have the actual Bibles that I used and took notes in as keepsakes.
I started to show my age though when that Bible’s text became too small for me to read comfortably. ESV is my favorite translation to read so I knew I wanted another ESV journaling Bible, so I purchased a single column journaling Bible from Crossway. I love the brown color and that the text is large enough for me to read comfortably. The same time that I got a new Bible I grabbed some new Bible highlighters and this time I ordered them from Daily Grace Co. Their website has such wonderful Bible Study tools and they often have sales.
Typically I prefer things to be done a certain way and I lean towards being a rule follower, so when I started marking up my first Bible, I actually decided that I wouldn’t have any “rules” for highlighting or writing. I could use whichever color I wanted and whichever pen I was in the mood for that day. It was quite freeing to just notate whatever I wanted and gave me the ability to focus on scripture and what God was prompting me to write down. I loved taking notes during sermons and it really added to my experience at Bible study because I would open my Bible to see what had stood out to me. As moms we have so many things in our brains and most of the time if you ask me how yesterday was I’d have to think before answering. By the time I’d get to Bible study on Wednesday I’d have very little conversation to add before I started taking notes!
These are the highlighters I used to use, and the colors are beautiful. They are made for use in Bibles so would not bleed through the pages which I think is always a plus. And these were the pens I used, now I will warn you that these did bleed through but I loved the colors so it didn’t bother me. Also as I mentioned before, I took the carefree approach and that allowed me to embrace marking up my Bible however I wanted. The other thing I did with this Bible was add washi tape at the beginning of each book of the Bible. That project was one that took me a few days but did a little at a time while the kids played outside. I took my Bible from something that I was nervous to touch or really use and made it become something I had fun with. I had fun adding the washi tape and highlighting however I wanted because I made it more of my own. This then extended into my note taking, they became a creative outlet for me. And something I love is that creative outlet is something all of our kids have picked up. Eva especially loves to highlight in her children Bibles, and I let her use my old pink one since it is not my main Bible anymore. I also love the idea that someday when I am gone, my children will have the actual Bibles that I used and took notes in as keepsakes.
I started to show my age though when that Bible’s text became too small for me to read comfortably. ESV is my favorite translation to read so I knew I wanted another ESV journaling Bible, so I purchased a single column journaling Bible from Crossway. I love the brown color and that the text is large enough for me to read comfortably. The same time that I got a new Bible I grabbed some new Bible highlighters and this time I ordered them from Daily Grace Co. Their website has such wonderful Bible Study tools and they often have sales.
Here is a breakdown of my favorite Bible study tools at the moment. I won’t go over my Bible again because I have already covered that
- Prayer Journal: I use a journal similar to this for my own prayers as well as prayer requests shared at my Bible study group. This journal does not come to church with me on the weekends because I do not use it for sermon notes. I also make sure to keep it safe since it has my own personal prayers as well as the requests of others. The main reason that I journal out prayers though is because I enjoy looking back at previous entries and seeing which prayers have been answered! When I am feeling discouraged that is a great way to remember the goodness of God. I also have found that often times I will journal out a prayer and then find myself reading scripture directly related to that request and can journal out the scripture with the prayer entry.
- Sermon Notebook from Daily Grace Co. I am currently using the teal version but also have the blush. I love bringing this to church with me each weekend to take notes in, I am able to write out who the speaker is (which is most commonly my pastor), the Scripture and the topic. This notebook may look small but I have been using mine for a little over a year now and still have plenty of pages to fill! And there are weekends that I have taken up to four pages of notes. There is also a box at the bottom of the page that says “Remember This” which I enjoy because it gives me a spot to write down that main takeaway that God has given me for the sermon. This notebook is great to bring to my Bible study. Each weekend I have my Bible open and this notebook on top of it, I allow God to direct me with what things to write down in my Bible and what to write in the notebook. There are weekends that I write in my Bible a lot and barely in the notebook or vice versa but having both with me gives me the freedom to just write and learn from God’s word.
- Pens: there are a few different pens that I use but I try to use ones that do not bleed through too much. My favorite are micron pens. My go to size is the 05 but I also have the 08. The 08 is good to use if you like to hand letter because I do not use calligraphy pens but like to color in the thick parts of letters and microns are good for that. My other favorite pen would be the Sharpie Felt Tip. The Sharpie will bleed through a little bit but not so much that you can’t write notes on the back of a page.
- Extra Bible ribbons and pencil pouch: both of these are things that I have made so I enjoy using them even more, but the Bible ribbons have been especially handy. My Bible originally came with one ribbon for bookmarking but I made a tab to insert in the spine of your Bible with two more ribbons so that I have a total of three. Often times I am reading in more than one book of the Bible or may be doing a personal Bible study on one book while my church is going through another so I enjoy being able to hold more than one spot in my Bible. The pencil pouch is one I made while ago that holds all of my pens and highlighters in one spot. (You can always email me to order Bible ribbons and a pencil pouch) In my brown Bible I do have a highlighting system, it took me a little bit to have memorized but after using it for a long time I no longer need to look at my guide. I know that anything highlighted in green is a characteristic of God, anything in blue is in reference to the Holy Spirit, anything yellow is a general highlight that stuck out. There is a total of six highlighters and I could do a whole other blog post on my highlighting system so I won’t go into that right now. But I like in this Bible that there is a little more structure than the first one. At this point I don’t feel like it prevents me from marking up my Bible, probably because I am more used to doing it after all these years.
I don’t know where you are in your walk with Jesus, maybe you are just starting and like I was, you are nervous to write or highlight in your Bible. Maybe you don’t know Jesus at all and have a Bible but it hasn’t been opened in a long time. Maybe you have been a longtime follower of Jesus and have a shelf full marked up Bibles, but I do pray that where ever you are in your walk you feel the word speaking to you as you read it. I pray that if you haven’t opened a Bible in a while, you’d be encouraged to do so. Jesus will meet you where you are at and start to work in your life. It took me a long time before I was opening my Bible on a regular basis but once I did, I started seeing God work in my life in really big ways. I started hearing him speak to me through the words that I read and I have faith that He will do the same for you.
Blessings, Ellen
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