I honestly do not remember where I first learned about this approach to exploring God's Word, but I was intrigued. I'm not a crafty person, and although I've done some scrapbooking and card making and I enjoy digital photography, I am not particularly artistic either. Nevertheless, because of my desires to be more creative and to study the Word in new ways, I decided to say "Yes" to trying something new in 2016.
Because I didn't want to invest much money in something I viewed as an experiment, I decided to pick up an inexpensive large print copy of a KJV Bible. (By the way, I grew up with the KJV and it's the text used at my church, but I've been using the NIV quite a bit in my personal study.) I'd looked at journaling Bibles but they cost more than I wanted to spend, figuring I'd be more willing to try my skills if I wasn't worried about ruining the Bible. I went with the large print version as a means to give myself more space to create. I also like its heft.
I started the year with a 31-Day Bible Journaling Challenge from Move the Mountains, and while I didn't create something all thirty-one days, I did get a good start on this project.
I've done a lot less work in my Bible since then (more planning than executing) — but I've used Illustrated Faith as a resource, my teenage son Jonathan has helped with some artwork, and I've joined a local Bible journaling group on Facebook and even met with them in person once.
I'm not giving up on Bible journaling. I've just got to figure out how to better utilize the 168 hours I have in each week!
