MY Bible

I wanted my bible to look like all the bibles I saw at church. 

Worn out, well used and well loved. 

Only problem is, I wanted mine that way now.

I bought this bible a year and a month after we were baptized, and I wanted it to instantly look like I had used it so long that it was barely holding together. 

I'm a bible nut, I admit it, I have at least six at home and I have bought and given away so many I have lost count. I have NIV, NKJV, HCSB the Apocryphal Bible, a Life Application Bible, a John McArthur Study Bible and an Apologetics Study Bible that my BFF bought me for my birthday in 2017. I mainly stick to my CBP KJV Bible and it is the one that goes with me everywhere. I never leave it at home. You never know when you may need to show someone something, or find a quick prayer to keep from becoming 'unchristian' on someone.
I use the other versions when I can not understand a verse, when I need to see it in plain english for me to wrap my head around it. But I always, always read my KJV. I'm not fanatical about it, you can read whichever version helps you the most. I just prefer it, and have found a few discrepancies in other versions that I just can't reconcile in my head, and since my God is not a God of confusion, I chose to go with the KJV. 

With all of this bible buying going on, God put it on my heart that I was more obsessed with having the bible than being in the words in the bible.

So when the CBP bible finally came in the mail, that was it, I was finished. I had found the bible I wanted to stick with and make my own. 

The first thing I did was come up with my own color coding system. I'm a simple gal so it's a very simple system.

Red means don't do this
Green means do this (duh)
Orange is for anything that shows me the love of God
Blue is for prayers
Pink for prophecy about Jesus
Yellow is the plan of salvation 
Everything is just basic. But it works for me.
When I first started digging, I mean really digging, into the Word, and because I was so new to all of it, everything stood out to me. A ton of verses showed practical application for my life. I highlighted all the time. Just about every time I opened my bible there was something I could relate to.
Isn't that the amazing thing about God? When you are new and searching, he shows you so much, when the Spirit comes to you, your eyes are opened and you understand what you could not before.
There are so many verses marked with "I literally just prayed about this".
I believe that is how He draws you closer, everything in the beginning is an amazement. You can open your bible and just point to any verse, and wherever your finger lands, it has an application in your life at that moment.
When we first started really getting into it, I can remember just about every sermon on Sundays and Wednesdays was on something I had been wondering about, or thinking about or wanted to ask a question about. It was amazing! And I thank God for every one of those moments. It drew me closer, showed me just how much He really IS there. All the time.
Now it doesn't happen as much, I have moved from milk to meat.
Now I dig for answers, remember pieces of verses that force me to go through two or three books in the bible and then finally pull out the Strong's Concordance to find them. (sure, there's Google, but what fun is that?) Now that He has me hooked, he is forcing me to go deeper. To pull out the applications, to learn to trust in Him to give me the 'meat' when I am hungry.


To personalize my bible even more I started writing things in it that touched me, that I wanted to remember.
I was reading blogs one day and came across My Home Far From Home
She had the sweetest poem written in her bible, and I hope she doesn't mind, I copied it to mine. For some reason it just struck a chord with me and I wanted to remember it, so there it went, in the first blank page in my bible. I glance at it all the time. I just really like it.

Verses I want to remember, I put in the front. With the date I wrote them down and a brief note. I can usually look at the date and the description and remember exactly what I was thinking or feeling and my reason for writing them here. It's almost like a memory page.

I decided the empty back pages would be perfect for me to have my friends and brothers and sisters sign. Fair warning, people look at you funny when you ask them to sign the back of your bible, but they always leave you notes of support and love.
Side note: I haven't gotten up the nerve to ask our Preacher to sign it yet, but I'll get to it one day.

I even write lyrics that seem to fit the passages in there.

This is my color coding card. Just written on the back of a label I found on the floor, it was handy, it fit my purpose, so I rolled with it.


All in all my bible has become my constant companion and guidance through the good times and the bad.It feels like home.

Pay no attention to the awful hand writing. When you're as shaky as I am, you just thank Jesus it is legible.
I've seen those people who can draw amazing pictures to coincide with the scriptures, I think they are awesome, I was just not blessed with those gifts. Even a ruler can't help me draw a straight line.
My only issue is with those who draw all over their bibles and make it completely useless for what it was intended for. My advice to you when starting out new in faith, and new to marking your bible? The meat is the important part, don't spill milk all over it.