Bible Journaling

My Illustrated Faith journey began when I saw a friend post a few Bible journaling entries on Facebook. I immediately started doing some research and that led me to illustratedfaith.com. 🙂 Shanna Noel has an Instagram that I started to follow (check out the hashtag #illustratedfaith – you are sure to be encouraged and inspired) and I took her initial Illustrated Faith course on big picture classes. All free and all very inspiring.  My next step was to create a birthday wish list. 🙂

My friend Janet saw my passion and excitement for this newfound avenue of worship (well actually it was more like she heard/read about it in the countless text messages telling her about this new thing I wanted to try) and she sent me an early birthday gift – my very own ESV journaling Bible! I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Sidenote… I waited for my journaling Bible to arrive but in all reality I now know I could’ve done Bible journaling and any Bible I had on hand. 🙂
Then between a Reading my old craft/scrapbooking supplies that have been on the shelf for years, a few Michael’s coupons, and my 31st birthday I acquired quite a stash of supplies that I found both inspiring and a bit daunting. My mom got me several books and a bunch of supplies, as did my husband and I found myself wanting to dive in…
I did my first few entries in April 2015.
Then with our move, finding out we are pregnant with our third babe, and living at my parents house with our two small boys (while we await a new home)…. I found myself putting illustrating on hold.
I had felt such a connection to my Bible when I had been illustrating and longed for some time and space to work on my journaling. 
Plus, I have found that when I am connecting things God is teaching me in devotional books, messages, and in my Bible through illustrating and journaling I remember the lessons and I’m growing more steadily on a daily basis. 
So… When I went to camp staff training I am immediately sat down with my Journaling Bible and thought, “I could teach a class to campers about this!” I also know that when I teach I learn. So initially this was admittedly a selfish choice, but in the end I was definitely inspired to share what I have been learning and also to learn from campers at camp.

This was my promotional poster for the activity. I shared a little bit about Illustrated Faith before activity sign-ups and gave a preview of my Bible.  We had seven girls signed up and two adults who asked to be drop ins. 😉

In the end it has given me a whole week of teaching the class for an hour (I gained so much inspiration and encouragement from watching the girls illustrating & getting excited about connecting to God’s Word) and then had the following hour to journal myself. I found myself catching up on ideas I’ve had for months and yet again I am totally inspired to connect with God’s Word in this way.

The other exciting thing was that one of the adults has been illustrating all week (A Wycliffe missionary on sabbatical) decided to teach the same activity at camp next week! Something has begun and these girls are getting excited about getting into God’s word. That’s inspiring!

I’m happy to share my favorite tips, tools, and inspirations, but for now I hope you find the images of my first journal entries inspiring.

UPDATE: I now have a document available that covers “where to start” with places to find inspiration and also some basic supply tips. And if you are having trouble finding inspiration I used these resources at camp and we loved them. (Of course these are for personal use only.)

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