Last week I cracked the spine of a fresh new journaling bible, and can I just tell y’all something? It felt oh so good! Hundreds of blank pages waiting for prayers & paint to fill their margins, that still fresh scent of a new book, the smoothness of leather not yet worn.
Even in all my excitement to start my fourth journaling bible journey [my shelf of saved bibles is looking so fab, friends!], I still remember the first time I needed to shelf a bible, but just couldn’t put it away. It’s hard to say goodbye to something so treasured & dear.
I spent three years in my first journaling bible. I’m pretty sure if I measured it, the pages would span more than six inches!! I’m a huge fan of big, chunky, tabbed out bibles…. but even more than that, y’all…. I’m a huge fan of having space to connect with Jesus.
Those last seven or eight months that I spent with my first journaling bible weren’t actually spent IN my bible…. I spent a lot of time feeling defeated by the lack of available margin space on which to color, create & journal on. So I would just close the bible up, tuck it away and let my passion dwindle a little further.
I’ll never forget the day that I had the heart realization that I had inadvertently turned my journaling bible into an idol. In my mind, those three years spent pouring out, digging in & turning back to Jesus in my ugliest/hardest season through the pages of my bible were my salvation, when in fact the growth & love I had rekindled with Christ were what I needed to be treasuring instead.
I shelved my first bible & immediately laid down a hot mess of paint on the first page in my second journaling bible…. the fire was back. Jesus was still there, waiting for me on the fresh, new pages of a new bible!!
I am now no longer afraid of cracking open the spine of a brand new bible — in fact, I get down right giddy with excitement for the possibilities & the God whispers that will come with the time spent in those blank margins! When I altered my mindset to understand that the bible is a tool + a resource that God gave us to come in to communion with Him, I was able to let go of a “thing” and come more fully & easily into the presence of the King.
If you’re feeling lost in the colored & tabbed pages of your own bible today, friend, let me encourage you that it is okay to set it aside, start afresh, begin anew. You aren’t hurting God’s feelings by shelving your bible of six months, one year, or three years of history…. The relationship, the foundation is still there. And so is God — He’s waiting for you on those crisp, clean pages of a new bible, too!
