What I Wish I Knew In High School 3: It's All Mine

  I'm not typically a selfish person. I would consider myself a fairly generous person, but there's always room for improvement. Sometimes it's okay to be selfish! Yes, you did hear that correctly! I'm going to talk about one specific thing that I believe is meant to be personally possessed.

  Your Bible. 

  When I was in high school, I didn't really take advantage of my Bible. I think that I might have been afraid to make it my own. I was scared to be selfish with it. It was later in high school when I got my own "adult" study Bible . I had old Bibles that were marked up with notes about the Jonas Brothers and my best friends when I was 13. I decided that once I was serious about my faith, I needed a serious Bible. I really like the one that I chose because it's simple, and it's a study Bible, which means while I'm reading, I can read cool facts and meanings to different passages. Trust me when I say that I am NO Bible scholar, so having a study Bible helps me understand things that otherwise I wouldn't know. Like I've mentioned previously in my posts, I'm huge on the idea of not only focusing on loving God through your life, but also feeling, accepting, and embracing the love from God. I truly believe that having a Bible and digging into it helps nourish and strengthen that love. If you work at your relationship with The Lord, your Bible will be your lifeline; it will be one of the most important things to you. Merriam-Webster says that the definition of "Bible" is:

Bible-noun/ the book of sacred writings used in the Christian religion

Sacred-adjective/ worthy of religious worship : very holy

  Your Bible is your own VERY HOLY and SACRED writings and words from The Lord! Why not take advantage of it? For me, my Bible is my selfish place, because I'm the one that is reading and marking it up. I learned by watching my mom in church that it's okay to take notes and highlight in your Bible-it's whatever works for YOU! Here are some tips that I wish I had in high school when studying my Bible: 

•  Colors are your friend: Embrace your inner pre-schooler! Who doesn't love to color? For me, highlighting different words and verses lightens it up, and also allows me to pay attention a little better. Here is a tool that I use:  

                Green = commands (any command or rule that is stated, such as the 10 Commandments)

                Blue = promises (any promises or covenant from The Lord or Christ, such as in John 3:16         where we are promised eternal life through Him if we believe God gave His only Son to die for our sins)

                Yellow = growth/encouragement (this is my most used color in my Bible. This is anything that is said that will help you to grow spiritually or encourage you in your walk)

                Purple = history (this is pretty explanatory. This is a very common color used in the Old Testament, because it explains a lot of the foundations of early Judaism and the precursor to Christianity)

•  Always have a pen! I aways write notes and things that pop into my head while I'm reading. I will also copy some of the notes directly right next to the verse. *Side note-my church has a bulletin every week that has notes you can fill out during the service. It always makes me think I'm in school when I fill things in the blanks ( i.e. "Jesus loves _____" --> "Jesus loves      me   ") so I will just write things that my pastor says that stick out to me directly in my Bible.
•  Pictures: This helps me to personalize my Bible-like I said-I'm selfish with it! It's mine so I like to include pictures of memories of things that correspond to a passage or a verse in The Word. (i.e. there is a picture of the girls that I work with at church in a passage we worked through during one summer)
• Page Markers: this is helpful tip that is extremely simple-find some cute page markers and stick them on pages whenever a passage or verse sticks out to you! I have a bunch on the side of my Bible and the top. It helps when I need to jump to some instant encouragement without looking through all over the New Testament for it! 
• Index Cards: Something that helped me concentrate on studying God's Word was having a deck of index cards next to me. Whenever a verse stuck out to me, I would write it on a card and I have a pile of them clipped to the front of my Bible. It's also cool to see the verses I really like during the time I was studying it. 

 I hope that these tips have helped you! There are so many other things that go into studying The Bible, but these are just some easy tips I've found during my time here on Earth. What are your tips for studying it? 

^ This is my page from 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. I also like to star things in different colors! The books of Corinthians are definitely some of my favorite books in the Bible.

^ This is the front of my Bible. You can see all of my pens and highlighters. I also usually carry some crayons with me so I can use other colors. On the right, you can see my index cards. The one on top is Romans 6:14! 

^ This is my page form Isaiah 25. This picture is of me and my friend Kyria when we were 13. Kyria passed away in 2011. What really stuck out to me was "…He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.." When she passed away, it was as if all I could do was cry, so I put her picture next to the verses that helped me during that time. 

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." 

-2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV 

In Him forever & always,