Exploring a New Bible

I am both a visual and hands on learner.  In High-school I discovered that if I physically underlined the info I was reading in a bright highlighter it would stick better.  When I could not underline the info due to it being in a text book I rewrote it in a note book pretty much verbatim.  When I took notes in class I also doodled and made designs, and these images helped to cement the new material into my mind and memory. 

As you can see this has carried over into how I study my Bible.  My Bible is highlighted, underlined and marked in a wide variety of colors and each color stands out as something significant to me.  I make notes in the margins, in the gaps between paragraphs and in the white space as I find a need.  In last two years maybe I even started to sketch little images sometimes nothing more then a stick figures to remind me of something I learned about the passage or a sermon heard over the passage.   This practice has helped me to commit much of God’s Word to memory and I can draw upon it as needed.  However I don’t recall a verse or passage  in the “normal way” by its book and number, nearly as much as I can see the array of the colors I have highlighted on the page.  

 “There is a promise in the New Testament marked in Purple, and the verses right below it are in lime green cause they are a prayer, while on the opposite side are some favorite verses on how to walk in blue, warnings against sin in pink etc, etc.”  

I relish reading the Bible in various translations.   So often you get to glimpse a familiar passage in a completely new light!  Still, I always go back to the the NKJV as that is the bible I owned soon after accepting Christ and therefore that is the Bible I first read and started committing to memory.  For me it always sounds better in that version then in other versions; it feels most like “Home”.  

For Christmas I bought myself a new Bible.  It had wide margins with lines meant for taking notes or illustrating.   I have been exploring my artistic side, recently and I thought I would fill those margins with pictures and artsy lettering.  I forgot how short my attention span is for things like that.  Besides my heart and inquisitive mind took over and I soon found I could fill the whole margin with notes, ideas and even partial teachings to share with others.  Funny how I now more room then I have ever had before to make observations and yet I often find I am running out of room to write.  I guess it is like women and big purses. 

Personally, I have never understood the appeal of lugging around a large and bulky purse. I see one so large and think how could you ever need that much stuff?   Yet the ladies I know who own them, have them filled with things they find essential.  In a restaurant once my Grammy pulled scissors out of her purse to trim a straw shorter for one of my little brothers.  One friend kept granola bars and a small bottled water for her kids when they were close to a melt down from hunger.   I have seen sewing kits, band-aids and books pulled out to kill time.  , partly cause I have never felt the need to take the Kitchen sink on any outings...but truthfully I am afraid I would find essentials to fill it and then I would need a larger handbag....wait how did we start talking about purses?  Weren't we discussing the Bible?  Sorry for the random tangent.  It wont be the last I am sure.  It's like my friend Kayla....... No, back on topic!

  There is a real thrill to taking a Bible with its plain white pages, that has not yet been read and making them mine, marking them.  Is this normal? Or am I a bit strange?

God's Rainbow - Genesis 9

I will never win any awards for penmanship! 

and how does one manage to spell Egypt Eggipt?

I am seriously running out of room for writing???