I have just purchased a new bible journal. I am so excited. It is all crisp and clean and I can't wait to get started on it. It's empty and I'm filled with ideas of how I can decorate it and draw closer to God through his word! I had a look online at all the different types of Bible Journals - Its a minefield - How can you choose? So I thought I'd share my process.
Perhaps where you live there's a christian book store or just book shops that have a huge array of journal bibles and you can physically look at them all to make your decision. I don't have this so I had to look online. As you imagine sometimes online all you see are the front covers and its really hard to imagine what the pages will be like inside, how thick they are, etc. Due to this I started to read other peoples blog reviews on journal bibles and watched videos. I saw a great one, it had everything I was looking for but it was only available in America! it was quite disappointing but I realised I needed to look at reviews etc of bibles I could actually purchase. Blog reviews are a great way of finding out more about the product.
My last bible journal was The one year bible expressions. I did like this at first and was filled with great intentions of how I was going to bible journal everyday. However I found that sometimes reading the bible can be a battle - not because I don't want too but because Satan doesn't want me too. Life can be hectic and I just didn't have enough time to devote to journal in it everyday alongside reading. I ended up doing small little pictures that I weren't really happy with but felt compelled to do 'something'. I started focusing on the art rather than God. I get that the purpose is to read and journal each day but I ended up missing days because I wouldn't have time, then feeling guilty and thinking there's no way I'd catch up on that now. It ended up discouraging me from spending time in the word, which was not the point.
Also sometimes I just wanted to journal a psalm and I didn't always wanted to go in daily plan order. I found it hard to use as reference, as that's not what it is intended for. If i was inspired by a sermon I didn't want to have to wait a few months till I reached that scripture. I know technically I could have but I didn't like too as it felt wrong. I know I'm a little strange - it went against my need of organisation. I then decided to add tabs to easily find the different books of the bible. The short side was labelled with old testament and the longer side with old testament. I then used washi tape on the inside, to reference each month to see if this would work better. It didn't work for me. The passages were broken up by the reading date which annoyed me. I couldn't turn my one year journal bible into a regular journal bible. So whilst I love the idea of a one year bible journal perhaps its just not for this season. Perhaps this would be better for 'micro-journal-ling'
I still wanted to bible journal but without the pressure which is why I decided to buy a new one. After my last purchase I wanted this time to be more successful so I had to look at the reasons why I wanted to journal. I think this is the key to choosing the right bible journal. I wanted:
A translation that is accurate, trusted and easy for me to read/understand
To keep as a reference of how God has spoken to me, so it needs to be sturdy and in regular format
Freedom to use the median I want, so thick pages!
Large clear font as it's important to me to see the words after its been decorated
Space to journal notes or use my creativity to convey what God is saying to me, not just colouring pages
Available and fits my budget
Now that I know what I wanted, especially from previous experience, I just had to find it! I looked at online shops and then when I found one that appeared to fill the above. I looked at the reviews left by previous customers. I then searched on google for more images, as online store photo's are limited, and read any blog reviews. I then found the one!
It has everything I was looking for! I'm so excited to get started. I will review this bible in my next post. I hope this has given you some pointers for choosing your journal bible!