Bible journaling is writing down your response to what you read, either in a separate notebook or directly in the margins of a special wide-margin Bible. Some people mean plain writing: a line about what a verse said and what it meant to them. Others mean the illustrated version you see online, with lettering and small drawings worked into the page. Both are real, and neither one is the “correct” version of the practice.
The two things people mean by it
If you’ve seen photos of Bibles with painted flowers around a verse, colored pencil borders, and hand-lettered words, that’s the creative or margin style. It uses a journaling Bible, which is printed with wide blank margins made for exactly this. People fill them with art, quotes, prayers, whatever helps a verse stick.
The other kind never touches the Bible itself. You keep a separate notebook and write short entries as you read: what the passage said, a thought it raised, a question you’re sitting with. No drawing required, no special edition needed. If the margin version looked intimidating or just not you, this is the one that’s actually easier to start and easier to keep going. Reading about the best way to take Bible study notes is a good next stop if this is the direction that fits.
Neither approach is more spiritual or more serious than the other. One person’s page full of lettering and one person’s plain sentence in a spiral notebook are doing the same job: making you slow down and actually think about what you read.
A lot of the confusion comes from social media, where the creative style photographs well and the plain style doesn’t. A page of watercolor and lettering makes a good post. A line in a notebook that says “I don’t get this part yet” doesn’t, even though it might do more for the person who wrote it. Don’t let what looks good online set your idea of what counts.
Is it wrong to write in your Bible
This question stops a lot of people before they start, so it’s worth answering straight. There’s no verse that settles it, and Christians land in different places. Some treat their Bible as something you don’t mark up: it’s a specific physical object they want to keep clean, sometimes because it was a gift, sometimes because that’s simply how they were raised to treat it. Others see writing in the margins as a form of engaging with the text, no different from underlining a sentence that mattered in any other book they own.
Neither side is right or wrong. It’s a personal conviction, not a rule anyone can hand you. If the idea of writing in your Bible bothers you at all, don’t do it. Keep a separate notebook instead, or buy a second Bible specifically to mark up and leave your main one alone. If it doesn’t bother you, a wide-margin Bible built for this removes the worry entirely, since the blank space is there on purpose. Either way you can still ask should I highlight my Bible if marking up the text in any form still feels uncertain.
A low-pressure way to start
Skip the art supplies for now. The fastest way to find out if journaling helps you is a plain notebook and three lines a day.
- What the verse or passage said, in your own words.
- One thing that stood out, good or confusing.
- One question you still have.
That’s it. Three lines, most days, for two weeks. You are not writing a devotional for anyone else to read, and you are not required to have a fresh insight every day. Some days the honest entry is “I don’t understand this part.” That counts. The goal is a habit of noticing what you read, not a finished product.
If you want a bit more structure once three lines feels easy, the SOAP Bible study method gives you a repeatable four-step version of the same idea: scripture, observation, application, prayer.
When to add the creative side
If plain writing sticks and you find yourself wanting to slow down even more on certain passages, that’s when a journaling Bible or an illustrated notebook might be worth trying. Think of it as a different tool for sitting longer with a verse, not a step up from writing. A basic wide-margin Bible and a set of fine-tip pens from our resources page (paid link) are enough to try it without buying anything elaborate. If you’re worried about ink showing through the thin pages, see which highlighters won’t bleed through Bible pages.
Some people never touch the art side and journal in plain notebooks for years. Some start with drawing and drop it for writing once the novelty wears off. Both are fine outcomes. There’s also a middle version worth knowing about: a wide-margin Bible used only for short notes, no drawing at all, just a word or two written next to a verse that mattered. That’s still journaling. It just skips the part that makes it look like a craft project.
The only version of Bible journaling that fails is the one you don’t keep doing, so pick whichever form feels like something you’d actually open tomorrow.