A year or so ago while scrolling through Pinterest (I'm sure during a late night feeding with the youngest son,) I came across a new bible study that caught my eye. Illustrated Faith or bible journaling is literally using a bible as an art journal to illustrate verses or write them in the margins in a creative way.
Honestly, at first I thought it might be a tad bit sacrilegious especially ones that had paint covering the word of God, but growing up in a family that the women especially are
notorious for hi-lighting, underlining, scribbling notes in the margins and filling the back pages with quotes from their favorite sermons AND the fact that I'm an extremely visual and hands on learner, I couldn't resist this new way of studying the bible.
I did a test run of this last Christmas in my art journal with Artful Advent.
So come August 2015, I picked up an ESV journaling bible before our vacation, packed a few goodies from my art supply stash and dove in when we got to the beach.
First up was Ephesians because the depth and breadth of the ocean kept reminding me of the depth and breadth of his love.
Testing out the water with pens and colored pencils.
Getting warmed up with washi tape.
Swimming in the shallow end with black gesso and white gel pen.
Diving on in with water colors, pens and Stephanie Ackerman's online class.
I'll be honest that I have NEVER had a regular quiet time, ever. My "go with the flow mentality" just revolts agains scheduled regiments. So just picking one book of the bible and focusing on one page at a time and illustrating one verse that speaks truth into my life has worked out well for me and has allowed God to reveal things that I would miss had I just had a check list of reading through the bible. And the beauty of it for me is that it's not on a time schedule, while my boys play in the sandbox I can do a page in 10 minutes or an hour or work on a page off and on for a few days. I can be as simplistic as it gets with just a pen or go hog wild with any supply I have already!
Ah the beauty of flexibility!