Review and Giveaway of Journal and Doodle Through the Bible: Galatians

It’s no secret that I really enjoy the Journal and Doodle method of inductive bible study. When Kari of Stone Soup for Five announced that she was finishing up her Galatians bible study and looking for launch team partners, I jumped at the opportunity to help. I received a copy of the Galatians study for free in exchange for an interview and honest feedback. Some of the resource links may be affiliate links, my full disclosure policy can be read here.

I’m still working through the study, but I wanted to put up a quick peek and review post because Kari offered me a copy of Galatians to give away to one of my readers!

Learning to find answers, more than bible highlighting.

There was a season in my life that I enjoyed sitting in the women’s bible studies hosted through church. You know the kind: watch a video, fill in the blanks, and then do 5-6 days worth of lengthy homework assignments in order to be ready for the following week. As our family grew I could not keep up with it.

Bible study to strengthen your personal understanding of scripture.

I started craving a different way to study. I wanted to dig deep, verse by verse, but I needed gentle guidance.

Finding Kari’s Legacy Bible Journals on Pinterest opened up a new door of bible study for me. I joined along as she shared her tips during the Bold Year Challenge and created her first few Journal and Doodle studies.

Digging through Galatians with the Journal and Doodle guide has been awesome.

Deep study without the worry of falling behind.

The new layout of Kari’s bible study is really easy to follow. She has broken the process into steps. If you don’t have hours to spend studying, you won’t be missing out, or fall behind. Work at your own pace to systematically dig through the Word.

Only have time to read? That’s okay! Kari has instructions for reading the chapters and making small notations right in your bible margins. You can go over the chapter as many times as you desire, as you unpack the meatiness of the verses.

Study scriptures in their context.

Too often we’re fed verses that are pulled from their passages and we can easily miss key points that are found in the surrounding passages. The bible is a complete book, a seamless story of redemption. Isolating verses is frustrating and doesn’t help to build a fuller understanding of God’s Word.

The Journal and Doodle bible study guides bring you through a complete book of the bible at a time, no hunting for proof texting. Kari does help guide your attention to related passages that help you see verses in their proper timeline and location.

Go visit Kari’s blog Stone Soup for Five and get a free study when you subscribe to her email list.

Print your copy and turn it into a booklet.

I currently use a traveler’s notebook system for my bible study and sermon notes. After downloading the Journal and Doodle guide I printed it out to add to my traveler’s notebook, which is similar to the Moleskine cahier size (which I use for my journaling). For my printer (it’s an HP C7200) I choose the option to print on both sides and flip on the short side. You may need to check your printer’s duplex printing options. After printing I just folded each sheet, stacked them in order, and creased the edge. I pierced two holes to run embroidery thread through and knotted the string. No fancy stitching. I trimmed the long and short edge to fit in my notebook. I used the EK tools 1/2″ corner rounder to finish the edges.

Are you ready to give bible journaling a try? What questions do you have?

The post Journal and Doodle: Galatians Bible Study appeared first on CreativLEI.

Using a Journaling Bible Without an Art Journal Focus

Bible art journaling is wildly popular right now with groups, classes, and Instagram feeds devoted to showcasing beautiful creations.

But what if you don’t feel creative?

What if you don’t want to cover up the word of God?

Is the journaling bible made for artists only?

I’ve never been afraid to make notes in my bible. When I first began reading the bible I would highlight verses that seemed important to remember, or passages that were particularly meaningful to me, but I wasn’t really taught how to study the bible.

Throughout this post I’m going to link you to many of the books and supplies I find useful. Some of these links are affiliate links, if you make a purchase through these links I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Feel free to read my full disclosure policy here.

Allow me to clarify: I had been through many bible studies… but I was not truly taught how to study the word of God and dig deeply for His revelation of truth through the Holy Spirit, directly to me. A few years after we had started attending an independent bible church I replaced my old worn NIV Study Bible with a big, brand new, NASB Inductive Study Bible.

I was overwhelmed with the blank spaces.

I’d read along in it and browsed through the introduction that gave clues on how to use it, but I didn’t make a mark in it. Maybe I was afraid to do it ‘wrong’, I’m just not sure. Most of the time it sat on a shelf and I reverted to my older study and devotional bibles.

I wanted clearer instruction on how to study the Word and go further than highlighting bible verses.

I received a copy of Doorpost’s Busy Mamas study of Colossians 3 in my swag bag at the Titus 2:1 conference. When I set aside the time to begin that study, I found it was just the pace and depth that I was longing for. In truly manageable bites for my season of life I learned a daily habit of digging deep into the word and using appropriate resources to draw out the truths I should be applying to my life.

Learning to study the bible for myself freed me from the limitations of fill-in-the-blank, video-based bible studies.

After going through Colossians I wanted to find more instruction along that vein, studies that equipped readers to rely on the Holy Spirit to open up the Word more than another human’s interpretation.

Once I started making inductive study marks in my bible and jotting my notes in the margins I quickly needed more room!

I started keeping a bible journal after coming across Kari’s (Stone Soup for Five) legacy bible journals on Pinterest. I was part of the Bold Year Challenge with other women desiring to grow as women of God, where Kari led the bible study portion. See more about my bible journaling on Stone Soup for Five. ((Save 20% on the new John study by using the code CREATIVE20))

Amidst our discussions of what we were learning through our individual studies and the note-making habits we were creating, we came across the Journaling Bible from Crossway Books. Wide margins and the smooth, cream pages many of us loved in Moleskine journals! As soon as I had saved up enough gift cards from Swagbucks, I ordered mine.

Deciding on my purpose for using a journaling bible.

I am an artist. I’ve been formally trained in studio arts and calligraphy. I’ve illuminated verses before and I have a deep appreciation for that art. However, art was not my goal for my journaling bible. The #journalingbible feed on Instagram is full of inspirational pieces, but I find myself distracted by the art and missing the seamless Word of God.

For me, the focus needs to be the unpacking of scriptural truth, not my artistic ability.

I do allow myself to get creative in my journaling bible. After all, our God is a masterful Creator and all of creation displays wondrous color and detail. I use markers to jot down points that I pull from scripture as I study. I create titles that help me focus on revealed truth. My hope is that some day my children will want my bibles and will enjoy looking through to read how God spoke to me through His word, and seeing how I applied the difficult verses.

I do not cover up passages with art because I need to see the verses in context. When we pull verses out of context we can too easily miss the greater picture God is giving us with His complete word, or assume promises that are not ours.

You do not have to be an artist to create a legacy bible.

Instead of working hard on the artwork, I look for ways to commit to memory and understand what I am reading by paraphrasing when appropriate and finding timeless truths in ancient words.

When reading the Old Testament I find it incredibly helpful to write out family trees. It helps me make sense of the genealogy passages!

In my next post I’ll share more about my journaling bible study supplies.

What holds you back for bible journaling?

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**Disclosure: A download of The Picture Smart Bible (TPSB) K-3 version was provided for my use in exchange for an honest review. I am an affiliate for TPSB and this post contains affiliate links. I am committed to promoting only products and services that our family uses in good faith. Please read my disclosure statement here for more details.**

I’ve had many years of art instruction and experience, and that often doesn’t translate easily into instruction for my children.

When I came across The Picture Smart Bible I thought it was a brilliant solution. The planning was already done for me and this will be added into our circle time 1-2 times per week. Instead of handing my children an overwhelmingly blank piece of paper, I can print off student sheets that provide them with the outline of their drawings.

These will be placed into sheet protectors as they complete them and added to our annual binders.

At first I thought all the children would use the original version (written for approximately grade 4 and up), but I was really excited to see the creators of TPSB released a K-3 Old Testament version this year and are currently writing the New Testament version.

We’ve started working on Daniel together (you can download Daniel as a free sample here, to try it with your family) and as you can see the K-3 version is perfect for that age group, I am certain I would have lost their focus had I tried to lead them through with the same student sheets the older children are using. (The K-3 version is on the right, the student sheet on the left is from the original version for grades 4 and up.)

I colored in the master sheet to give the children ideas of how the finished page can look. They’ll trace the dotted words in marker and then use colored pencils for all of the details. I like that there are suggestions for incorporating more craft ideas if you wish, but they aren’t necessary for completing the books.

Each of the children really enjoyed this approach. Nate, my new kindergartener, recalled what he remembered from past readings of Daniel and participated in our discussion as he carefully traced and colored.

My older children are patient while we concentrate first on explaining the K-3 sections and then add in the finer details of their level. I am hopeful that as we continue to use The Picture Smart Bible during our circle time the littler ones will continue to work with diligence on their drawings and listen to the details that I’m reading to the older three.

As I continue to lay out our new year I will be reading ahead for each book to make sure that I am smoothly presenting the information from both versions. Since there is concise scripting in both versions, this should take me only a minimal amount of preparation.

Another feature of The Picture Smart Bible that I am pleased with is how it can easily be used to help teach my children to do their own inductive study of the bible. I want to disciple them to use the bible as a primary source. I want them to know how to understand what God is saying to them through His word. The Power Symbol key will be very helpful in this instruction.

Have you looked into using The Picture Smart Bible with your family? We enjoyed sampling through it together at the dinner table while I plan it into our daily circle time for the school year.

During the months of October and November you can receive 35% off Picture Smart Bible resources! Use the code All35 at checkout!

This post is part of my series on planning the upcoming school year. Be sure to check back throughout July and August for posts on more of the great resources our family will be using.

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Putting together the CTB requires just a few supplies, the CTB kit, a 6×9 inch Bible (translation is your choice), post-it flags in 7 different colors (to correspont with the CTB key) and 7 matching highlighters (I used colored pencils to avoid bleeding through the pages).

Verses that are applicable to the character traits are clearly listed out for you on the front of the reference cards.

You go through subject by subject and highlight them in your Bible with the coordinating color and then place the post-it flag in the position indicated by the key.

It took me about 5 hours to fully complete it.

Going through all the verses was really rewarding for me too. I added a few extras as I came across them too and tabbed them accordingly. Having this all set to go is encouraging in itself. Implementing it should be straight-forward since the detective work is now done and we can quickly turn to the verses we need. I like being able to show the children right in God’s word the “whys” of why we do or do not do certain things.

I used double-sided tape to add the key to the cardstock page in front of the Bible.

We will keep this out and within reach instead of on a shelf. My hope is that we won’t need to use this as much for correction as it will be teaching the children that scripture is timeless and God has already spoken of the things we struggle with today.

Now I totally want to do the same to my personal Bible for the keywords most applicable for me. I’d love to have a help-meet’s reference Bible!

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