Marking Your Bible
NaBloPoMo Day 11…
I’ve been using my Personal Size Reference Bible for 2.5 years now. A few weeks ago, I found an old Thinline that I’d never underlined. I decided to start using it for awhile since it had larger print, and I could “start fresh” with marking it.
Unfortunately, last Sunday it met with a tragic demise involving coffee, water, or some combination of the two.
Thanks to the generosity of certain extended family members, I had some discretionary funds available, so I ordered a replacement, which arrived yesterday. I like it and I’m thankful I was able to buy it.
Putting Pencil to Page
When I read through my Bible in a year back when I was (I think) 12, I had a green NIV and I underlined it a lot. It’s still meaningful to me. I continued underling through high school.
During college, I read a suggestion about not marking your Bible from Elisabeth Elliot. She said it can be helpful not to read the Word through a grid of your old impressions, and to try writing notes in a journal instead.
That was why I never underlined the (now coffee-stained) Thinline. I’ve always journaled anyway, so I wanted to experiment with not underlining.
I can definitely see the value in that, but I missed the freedom of emphasizing my impressions as I read. And I always enjoyed flipping through my Bible later and reading underlined verses at random… and stopping to meditate on passages based on their markings.
Marking my Bible helps it feel like home to me… an application tool for eternal truth, is how I think of it.
How Do You Do It?
I was saying to A.J. the other night that I love seeing how other people mark their Bibles. It’s especially neat to me to see the Bible of a veteran Christian… someone who’s been living in it for decades.
So since this topic was brought to mind by my having a new Bible to mark, I thought I would ask you, dear readers: what is your preferred method of marking your Bible? Maybe you use a dozen highlighters… or maybe you underline an average of one verse every 6 months. It’s certainly no mark of spiritual maturity either way (love this post on that!). I’m merely asking for curiosity’s sake.
Do tell… 
I’ll be honest: I don’t mark my Bible and I kind of wish I did now, but I’m glad I didn’t ten years ago. I love the idea of underlining special verses and drawing hearts and flowers beside some of them and writing notes beside others … and dating everything, so I’d have a record of what I was feeling and when and why. It was be lovely to have one Bible for my entire life and mark it that way. But … I was an honest and full-of-conviction 16-yr-old and some things I would have recorded ten years ago that I don’t want to remember every. single. time. I read my Bible NOW! I also have this “issue” with marking my Bible because it’s the Word of God. What if I mark it wrong … ?!? I’m happy for people (like you!) who feel comfortable marking and maybe I will someday too.
For now, I have a Bible – the one I’ve had since I was 7 – bulging with bits of paper. My equivilent to marks! : )
I enjoyed the link about judging someone’s faith by their Bible marking. I’d DEFINITELY be a hearts and flowers / colours / notes girl! And you … ?
“I also have this “issue” with marking my Bible because it’s the Word of God. What if I mark it wrong … ?!?”
I really appreciate the reverence communicated by your comment. I think it’s entirely a matter of conscience, and I respect your heart in this!
As for me, I’m more of just a pencil underlining girl… sometimes I’ll write a small note, but that’s mostly what my journal is for.
Aww … thank you, Anna, you’re so sweet!
Pencil sounds like a good option – a respectful sort of option. It’s one I’ve never thought of and I’ll tuck it away, for a day when I may decide to mark my Bible.
Thank you for thinking of something so interesting to discuss!
I like it because it’s not permanent and it doesn’t bleed through thin pages!
I have the ESV Journaling Bible, so I do write notes and underline in it, though not all the time. I like being able to see what I wrote down when I re-read a passage, and notes from sermons can be particularly helpful.
P.S. That breadstick recipe I mentioned is now on my blog.
I used to have a green NIV too! I still like to use it at times. Now I have a leather ESV study Bible. I mark mine by highlighting. I don’t write anything in it, I do that in my journal.
I remember your green NIV Probably because that color of green was one of my favorites!!
The only time I underline is usually in church, when the pastor emphasizes a few words, and I want to remember the emphaseses. I will write a few words occassionally it in, but not too much. I usually take notes on the sermon on a separate sheet of paper, and then stick that in a box…which I need to organize…I have about 5 years of notes in there
Do you remember my big pink NIV?
I remember reading that comment by Elisabeth Elliot, too, but I never put it into practice because I had already marked in my Bible and haven’t planned to get a new one, yet.
I have no certain way to mark up my Bible. But it’s usually the nearest writing instrument. In college, most of markings are in pen or highlighter. While I was student teaching, I often had a red pen handy. Some of the markings underlined in red have a date next to them which indicates I marked it during my last semester of college. Often at home, I use a pencil because I love writing with pencils. In church, it’s typically a pen because that’s what I have in my purse.
I think I get your pink niv mixed up with Kayla’s big ESV? Was it the fancy ones that GOJ used to sell with the plastic covers?
Im undecided as well :/. I’ve marked and highlighted in some and left some blank lol. My ESV Study Bible isn’t marked in but, very much worn in.
I never did growing up because my dad didn’t approve. The “marking in error” thing was his thought (I think), but it took me quite some time to realize that my dad has got an amazing memory, and that might be partly why he can study and retain without marking. I’ve heard him reference different books of ministry at least a hundred times with the page number of the thought he’s speaking of, and if you check him, he’s always right. He’s not nearly so uptight about stuff now, so i think he’d get a kick out of it if I told him my thoughts. Anyway, I mark mine occasionally with a LIGHT pencil now…
This made me smile – my father has an amazing memory too and he can do that: reference the Bible and different books “just like that” in the course of preaching or ministery!
That is awesome!
I have a NASB that I’ve had since 1989… I use highlighters in it, plus write margin notes in ink (not ballpoint). Many of my notes are cross-references to other verses, or a phrase from a sermon that explains something. I love flipping through and reading my highlights… they commemorate times that God spoke so clearly to me in my time of need. Highlighting them helps me remember His interaction in my life.
Yes, that’s why I love marking too! So good!
I have a NKJV thompson chain reference Bible and I love that thing so much! I am a journaling girl but I also am a underlining girl. Normally though the things I write in my Bible are prayers almost to the Lord or what I was convicted on. I love it!
I had the same Bible for seven years (before my current Bible) and one night I was witnessing to someone and I ended up giving it to her with 7 years of notes in it! I went home and cried and ate chocolate! I felt like I had parted with my best friend. But I knew that the Lord had wanted me to. So then my Dad gave me my current Bible
I love this story, Katy. What a blessing that you were able to give her your Bible… but I’m sure that must have been so hard! That’s one reason I don’t like to spend a lot of money on a fancy Bible… because I want to be able to give it away and replace it easily.
Yeah I should think about that more often just randomly giving Bibles to people would be so awesome!!!! Especially if I went through and underlined verses like that have to do with salvation. Hmmmm….lol. I should try that!
I think when my parents pass away…all of kids will be fighting over 2 things. Their bibles. I LOVE the worn pages, the markings…the notes, the crinkles, the duct tape(to hold my mom’s together)…maybe we’ll just have to each have them for a time and then pass it on to the next sibling:)
That is amazing! Makes me want to take a peek myself.
Oh goodness, am I ever an underliner…actually, my method of highlighting a verse is to put brackets around it (so it doesn’t make small-print text harder to read). My current NIV Study Bible has a purple pen always clipped to the cover, so the majority of the underlining/bracketing/notes are in purple. But I’ve been known to underline any phrase in any book I own if I like it and want to remember it or reference back…it makes a story belong to you more if you interact with it, I think. God speaking when I read Scripture and me underlining what I read and hear is like a conversation.
I never used to underline in any book but the Bible and textbooks, but A.J. has me enjoying it now… depending on the book!
[...] Marking Your Bible [...]
I definitely mark up my Bibles – it helps me to find the verses that I refer to often a little easier, and I love flipping through and reading the verses that I’ve underlined too! It’s really hard for me to not make marks in my Bible.
I’m a 50-something Mother of 4 girls who has always had problems with both sustained reading and a poor memory. Also, I don’t journal. I have found that careful marking of verses and passages that I wanted to remember works well using crayola crayons and a soft pencil to write in the margin – it doesn’t seem to be as damaging as pen and high-lighters. I have a colour-code adapted from the back of a Thompson Chain Reference, where I us green for commands, orange for prayer; yellow for promises and “specials” to me; purple for prophecy and so on.
I have always assumed that my family disapproved of this habit, although they understood why I did it, until a few weeks ago my 19 year old wanted a verse and hadn’t got her Bible downstairs.. I said that I thought it was Psalm 19, look it up in my Bible, sweetie. She came back a while later, glowing, and said she thought it was so precious that I had things underlined as they were easy to find and told a story of my spiritual progress!
Welcome, Belinda, and thank you for sharing that sweet story!!!
I’m absolutely in love with my ESV Study Bible, and I probably mark in it on a daily basis. Mostly highlighting verses, writing thoughts I had while reading a certain passages, quotes from sermons, etc. I love how it kinda serves as a scrapbook in that way. It celebrates which passages God was using at different times in my life to draw me closer to Him. I’m all for marking in a Bible!