Peek Inside My Book of Mormon Journal

I really wasn't planning to join the Book of Mormon journaling crowd. Honestly, I didn't even know it was a crowd. I just thought it would be a good way for my daughter to spend ten hours on a project for faith as she finishes up her Personal Progress this year. I bought her the hardcover pink floral book.

A few days later, I went back and bought myself a blue "leather" one. At about the same time, my mom bought a journaling edition of the New Testament. She went to town on it, spending hours a day to catch up to where we are reading in Sunday school.
By comparison, my four pages a day seems sluggish. But, since I started in July, it will be enough to finish me up by the New Year (this is part of my Personal Progress--as a parent I'm allowed to work my way through the program, too).

Unlike my mom, I haven't written and illustrated every single page, but I've done a good share of them all the way through Second Nephi and beyond. On many pages, I have highlighted a verse and then written a corresponding quote from General Conference in the margins.

Sometimes I love a verse so much that I just write it in the margins (you'd be surprised how much that happens in the Isaiah chapters). Quotes from Psalms and Proverbs have also found their way in.

And the occasional illustration. Illustrations slow me down, so I have to really want to illustrate something if I'm going to take the time to do it.

And the pages I haven't filled-in yet? I'm looking forward to sprinkling some great quotes from the upcoming conference as well as having a second chance to work on my scriptures when the new year (and new Come, Follow Me curriculum) come around.

A useful tip (from my mom, of course) is to keep a stack of little Post-it notes with you as you read. If a verse, topic, or other idea stands out to you, jot it on the Post-it and place it at the bottom of the page (if you place it in the margins, then you will have layers of Post-it notes to disturb your writing on other pages). This helps me focus on reading when I'm supposed to be reading. There have been times when I stop to work on an idea right away, then decide to look up an inspiration on Pinterest and an hour later not only have I not journaled anything, but I haven't finished my daily reading, either. Also, if I don't have time to journal that day, I may be able to come back later in the week to catch up. Those little notes make that much easier to do.
Speaking of Pinterest--you all know you can create separate groups within a board to better organize your pins. Yes? This is super-useful if you are going to use Pinterest much to gather ideas for your Book of Mormon journaling. Click here to see my Book of Mormon journaling board.
Coming Soon 
I'm looking forward to doing more in-depth blog posts with pictures with most pages I've done (or maybe all--perhaps it's therapeutic to see someone else mess-up in ink?). I've been waiting for the 2020 manuals to go live--and I just now see that they have. I am planning to break-up my future journaling posts to correspond to the reading for each week.

You might also like: Book of Mormon Journaling: Introductory Pages