Comments on: Scripture Marking

By: Jennifer Alkire

Jennifer Alkire — Sat, 13 Aug 2005 16:48:35 +0000

I love my PDA, even more so I enjoy the benefits it offers! My daughter has many doctor apointments, and I love to pull it out and read her stories, and share things from the scriptures as well as a primary manual. I have all of the Manuals for Primary, Relief Society, Sunday School Teacher’s Manual and of course The Scriptures on my Palm. I love the “Mark My Scriptures” program. It allows me to mark passages in all of the Manuals and Scriptues that touch my heart or I want to emphasize in a class that I have to teach. It also allows me to write little post-it notes and attach them to specific passages. Best of all if later on I decide that I don’t want it highlighted or the text a certain color I can always return it back to white with black text with no underlining or highlighting. The benefits of being able to tap the footnote icon, and go directly back and forth between text saves tons of time. I feel spiritally renewed when I study my scriptures, and lessons while waiting to see my child’s doctors. Has it replaced my traditional book style scriptures. Only on the go, and in church – I leave my PDA in my purse.
I still use my book style scriptures at home with my family, and in personal study, they remain clean except for highlighting specific passages that have special meaning to me. These passages are easy comfort on trying days.
Hope this helps, and Take Care!

By: Sheri Lynn

Sheri Lynn — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:47:55 +0000

The children in my Sunday School class do not bring scriptures to class and I suspect none of them can afford to own them anyway. Their families may have Spanish language scriptures, but few of them read any Spanish at all. They need English language scriptures for my class, and I can’t afford to buy one for everybody. As part of preparation for each class I am therefore printing out the scriptures we’re to read during the lesson for each child. I use the manual as a starting point for what to include and work from there. It seems to work fairly well as this way everyone is on the same playing field and there is no distraction from trying to pass around and share one Bible or whatever.

Yet they are missing out on part of the process, the “Turn to Alma chapter 26 verse 16″ part, and they are missing out on learning their best scripture-studying style, whether that’s marking or not marking. I do not want to ask the branch president to shell out branch funds for English language scriptures for my class. (The boys don’t have white shirts, either–I asked them. I know that this also is because they can’t afford them.)

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 10 Mar 2005 06:03:46 +0000

I don’t mark scriptures. I also don’t highlight my textbooks. I copy out scriptures that are meaningful to me — by hand — in a notebook. I found out one day during a low-level class I’d put off for six years that this method helps me retain even material from subjects I despise (like biology,) and it’s also great fun for subjects I actually enjoy. This habit made me insanely overprepared for Gospel Doctrine last year, but doesn’t appear to impress the kids in my CTR-7 class. I have about twenty scriptures marked, due to moments in Seminary when my teacher handed out pencils and had us mark things (e.g. the Beatitudes,) as well as a half dozen random stickers and the entire Seminary set of Old/New Testament stickers, in my current set. But mostly, I use bookmarks with the Russian translations of my favorite scriptures (about 35 right now — the rest are in an envelope, because my Bible is falling apart and they all fell out one day) and hymns, sprinkled throughout the books. The amount of effort I have to put into translating them keeps my mind focused on things that aren’t worldly (work, what I’m having for lunch, how annoying my sister is being) during the Sacrament. I also have all the bookmarks I got during my years in YW — one of the sisters absolutely LOVED making quotation bookmarks, by hand, for each of her lessons. She has very pretty handwriting, and a huge collection of cute stickers, so I have extra incentives to keep them.

In any case, I don’t mark up books. Just the idea drives me nuts. I wince when I break the spine of a cheap paperback, for crying out loud… my next set of scriptures (I got the current set as a gift for starting Seminary, 10 years ago) will probably never be marked at all. Part of why I’m reluctant to get rid of my current set is all the history involved in them — I have, for instance, a set of Star Wars stickers in the front covers — since I know I’ll never do anything like that with any future sets.

(and all three of my local Christian bookstores – sorry, no LDS bookstores in Columbus Ohio – sell a wide variety of scripture marking systems, geared for children, teens, and adults; we’re not alone in this practice by a long shot)

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 17:43:12 +0000

My high school Seminary scriptures were heavily marked. My scripture marking habit continued into college and my mission. After returning to college, I bought a new set of scriptures. It was the first time I had shelled out 50 bucks for a book of any kind. I was reluctant to mark them because I loved the way they looked in their pristine condition, and I wasn’t convinced that marking my scriptures for the previous several years had been particularly helpful. From that point forward, I stopped marking my scriptures. I found that I could locate a reference just as fast as anyone else in a Sunday School class, and I didn’t have any trouble remembering all the same passages that I had been able to remember when using more customized texts.

Then again, I’m now an apostate, so just in case correlation does equal causality, you may want to hang onto those red pencils.

By: Shelby Ferrin

Shelby Ferrin — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 07:46:17 +0000

For me, simply marking is more a way of amusing myself during Sunday School than putting a reference system in place. At one time, just before my mission, I marked stories with clever, pretty designs that mixed colors, though that turned out to have any real value in the long run.

What I do like to do is make extensive notes in the margins when I have (what seem to me, at least) keen insights into passages. My notes on D&C 76 from a BYU class have come in handy in giving talks and such, and I cherish the insightful connections I made while on my mission and took time to jot down in the Pearl of Great Price.

By: annegb

annegb — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 01:38:48 +0000

I underline and highlight my scriptures all over the place and my books, too. Then I dog ear the good ones because I forget where they are. My husband hardly ever writes in his scriptures and he looks down his nose disapprovingly at me when I am writing all over them. I ignore him.

Like #11, this is my way of learning. I seem to absorb it better somehow.

I didn’t know this was a uniquely Mormon thing, though.

By: Sheri Lynn

Sheri Lynn — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 01:28:08 +0000

I would love to have scriptures with wide margins. I don’t mark mine any longer because there is no way to mark them that doesn’t make them harder to read. (I have long thought that for some people marking is a way of showing off that they’ve used their scriptures….especially people who used many colors. Now I know better! Thanks.)

By: RoAnn

RoAnn — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 00:51:53 +0000

So many wonderful ideas! This is a great post.

I had also heard of Elder Packer’s advice, and thought it useful to get a new set of scriptures when I got a new calling that required a different perspective. For many years after my mission, I read the scriptures looking for advice as a parent, as well as for guidance in teaching and serving in auxiliary presidencies.

When my husband and I went to serve a mission together, I found that my focus needed to change, and having an unmarked set of scriptures helped me read with a fresh eye. I then marked passages that would help me locate on the page verses that I felt I might want to use in our new calling. Like Geoff Johnston mentioned (#3), the markings helped when I needed to teach a lesson or give a talk with little time for preparation.

Since our mission my areas of focus have changed again, and another set of scriptures is getting marked in a different way. My husband, on the other hand, rarely marks his scriptures. His memory is still phenomenal, and I think he prefers to approach them without the distractions that extensive marking might present. For me, marking is now definitely an aid to failing memory! :)

By: William Morris

William Morris — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 00:45:52 +0000

I didn’t underline my scriptures on my mission. I too am puzzled by those who have huge chunks of text marked out in red or yellow.

What I did do was take my slim Romanian translation of selections from the Book of Mormon and annotate certain sections with scriptural references (to the Bible and other passages in the BofM selections — no D&C and Pearl of Great Price to work with) and one or two-word reminders for stories, concepts, etc. that were part of my repetoire. It was great. Once I was done (and I tried to be rather selective so that I could always find my starting points), I had 4-5 places where I could turn and then start in to a talk or lesson.I called it my magic Book of Mormon.

Unfortunately, one day I lost it.

By: A. Greenwood

A. Greenwood — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 21:59:45 +0000

Tanya S., No. 11:

Just so.