My mother introduced me to scripture journaling. She's been teaching seminary in Wisconsin for the last 6 years. She's a very good teacher. She said that this past year each seminary student now gets a journal to use in seminary. So, my mother was researching ways to use the journal last year and discovered scripture journaling. On the internet the preeminent scripture journalizer is the Red Headed Hostess. You can check out her blog
here. She is a seminary teacher also. She gave a talk at one time to some mothers and daughters about scripture journaling. You can watch that
here on youtube. That video got me started. She doesn't give very many specifics on scripture journaling, but gave some very good advice.
- Get a good book that won't fall apart. The Red Headed Hostess suggested buying a $30 book. I couldn't get myself to spend that much. I use a composition book for my journals, and they hold together very well, so that's what I did for my scripture journal too. Sure, it's not as fancy, but it's sturdy. It also doesn't lay open like I like, well, not right away at least.
- Make a table of contents. Number all of your pages and then make a table of contents at the beginning of your book.
- Not all scripture journals are created alike. I have one that's for New Testament, one that's a topic journal, and one that's just for gospel questions. I work in whichever one I feel like working in that day.
- Just do it!!! You will learn as you go along. You really do!
- Try different things on different pages. It's not a one size fits all thing. Experimenting lets the spirit teach you.
- Make a bin of supplies. I have a bin that has colored pencils (my colored pencils, that the kids can't touch), scissors, glue sticks, and pens that I set right next to me when I scripture journal so that I don't have to get up and go looking for things.
- Use the computer. I am not an artist. So I often find coloring pictures to add to my journaling, glue them in and color them. I also like to use LDS.org to search the scriptures at times, because I can jump so quickly from one reference to another. For example I was studying the 12 apostles. I
I have really learned as I have experimented with scripture journaling. Here's some pages I have made that might be inspirations for you if you are interested in scripture journaling:
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| Table of Contents |
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| Comparison of the genealogies of Jesus Christ |
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| Map on the left showing prophecies about where Christ came from. On the right a page about John the Baptist. |
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| Comparison of the three temptations of Christ. I found a great talk by Howard W. Hunter about this topic. |
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| 12 apostle chart. I have learned a lot by making this chart! |
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| Close up of the 12 apostle chart. |
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| Close up of the 12 apostle chart. |
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| Half the page about Joseph. I added art that I loved. |
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| Page about the three wise men. |
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| Page about the massacre of the innocents. I included a quote that said that their mothers would raise them in the millennium. I also included the text to the coventry carol. Did you know that carol is about the massacre of the innocents. This page made me cry a few times. |
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| Page about the baptism of Jesus Christ. The center is a coloring page that I printed and glued in. |
Enjoy!!!!
