#journalingbible

Y'all I am so excited and Amazon is such a tease.

Have you ever heard of a journaling Bible?  I had, but the only journaling Bibles I had seen involved simply writing in the margins and that's something I already do.  It wasn't all that exciting.

Then I realized folks were actually creating art in the margins of their Bibles with how hymns or verses moved them.

It's amazing.

Wha-bam! There you have it.

A journaling Bible has major room in the margins aka a notetaker's dream but not only is there room for notes but you can create masterpieces in those margins.  

I first discovered this through Valerie Wiener's Instagram:

Photo Credit Valerie Wieners Art

 Isn't that beautiful?

She led me to see other folks' Instagrams and Facebook feeds.

Photo Credit Shanna Noel

She is currently giving away a copy of :

Check out Shanna's blog to enter the giveaway, otherwise you can find Writing in the Margins at Amazon.

If you haven't seen my Instagram feed lately, I've been cramming it with giveaways. I apologize in advance and I promise to beautify it in the very near future :) I just really want to start the Erskine baby stock right this minute...I can't help it :P

Back to the Journaling Bible!

I also joined a Facebook Journaling Bible group which is filled to the brim with beautiful inspiration.

I joined and it felt like God was blessing me as soon as I hit that "join" button.

This picture was posted by the group moderator (and awesome artist) Shanna Noel shortly after I became a member of the group.  

The #travelingbible will basically be a gorgeous, inspiring Bible that will be carried across the globe.  

My favorite book in the Bible is Hebrews and I cannot wait to add some art in those margins :)

Speaking of which, as soon as I saw Valerie's gorgeous newsfeed filling with colorful margins, I did a total impulse buy and bought one.  It got lost in the mail (THE HORROR) but Amazon, being amazing as always, quickly resent a new one.  I'll hopefully have it this Tuesday and it will be perfect timing for my upgrade sequence to a crew commander.  Please pray over me and send me well wishes!

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A Young Life Experience- Megan's Reflections

You might have seen some Young Life related Instagram shots this past week.  I may or may not have flooded your Instagram feeds a few times with blurry shots of feet, human pyramids, soda challenges, and other ridiculous things.  But don't worry, it was just an Instagram-themed Young Life.

Young Life is amazing and I want to pour my heart and soul into so many posts describing why it is so, but I first put up a picture of it on Instagram.

 

I first decided to become a leader with Young Life because of my friend Michael but I was really moved to see that Young Life was a part of many of my friends' lives as they were growing up.  Admittedly I was a little jealous because little Catholic Kim would have loved to have gone to Young Life as a high school student.  Now I didn't go girls gone wild in college, but I definitely wanted a stronger foundation with the Lord and Young Life gives high students that opportunity if they want it.

After I saw the comments, I asked a few of my friends if they would be interested in being a guest blogger and talking about their experiences.  Megan responded right away!  She and I grew up together and one of my favorite memories was her love of Nsync and performing in talent shows together.  Today is an incredibly confident, fashionable, smart, trendy, and lovely woman who is a very witty blogger.  Big thanks to Megan for sharing her Young Life story.

I May Be a Friend of the World

Not that I've committed adultery or anything but I've been thinking of that concept of being a friend of the world for awhile now.  In one of my small group Bible studies, a lady brought up how she thinks that the movement of tolerance is causing us to be less-Godly people.  That definitely struck a nerve with me.  The topic of being a friend of the world versus being invested in God has been circulating through this specific small group and it's caused me to think on that so much in terms of my relationship with God.

"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God," James 4:4

Well shit, am I an enemy of God because I care about tolerance? I certainly don't think so.  I don't think that being gay is a lifestyle because I know that's just another human being, many of whom are close friends of mine.  It's just another person who has feelings, emotions, cares, struggles, and sacrifices.  Do I think that a culture that surrounds hyper sexuality and the degradation of women is terrible and unGodly?  Definitely.  However, I do think that there needs to be more open discussion and conversation about sex because people have no idea what they're talking about or understanding what birth control does.  I think we need to be encouraging our young men (and young women) to be better people.  Do all of these things make me more of a friend of the world.  It just might.  I certainly don't want to be an enemy to the Lord but after so much praying, I truly know that God doesn't care that I support certain things because I see the good in people.  Now you may disagree with me on that on so many levels, but at this point, I'm not going to struggle with that.  I try to be a good person, follow scripture, and spread love.  That's it.  I talk about my relationship with God on my blog and other social media accounts but I certainly don't mean to shove religion down others' throats.  If people are interested, I love to save a seat in church so that they always feel welcome.

I recently discovered that many Christians don't celebrate Halloween because they relate it to devil worship.  I grew up very Catholic and had never heard of that.  I also come from a culture that celebrates Day of the Dead in the Philippines.  Aspects of Halloween, dressing up, celebrating our ancestors, candy, whatever- I just simply don't equate that to devil worship.  I love Halloween. I think it's so much fun and is completely innocent.  If you don't celebrate it, I have no qualms with that but I will be frank in saying that its origins come from various sources and often times relate to poverty and entertainment. 

I've seen folks choose not to celebrate Christmas with the idea of Santa or even silly things like Elf on the Shelf because they believe it doesn't truly celebrate the meaning of the holiday.  Maybe they're right, however, some of my happiest memories are of Christmases filled with Christmas decorations, presents, and goodwill.  My family was able to dually celebrate with gifts and instill in me the understanding of what it means to share that with others and to understand why we give gifts.  The fact that my parents went out of their way to make sure we got a letter back from Santa on Christmas morning was something that I cherish.  I know that my children will have the character of Santa and Elf on the Shelf and the Christmas mouse or whomever in their lives.

Maybe these things make me more a friend of the world, but I can guarantee you that I will continue to do my best to be a good person and to share that with others.   


If you liked this post, share it with others! If you feel particularly moved by it, leave a comment because I love feedback and discussion. Social media links are provided below and thanks for reading!