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An Ode to Miss G - the Highlighting Queen
I learned to highlight books when I was a senior in high school. My English teacher, Drew Gibbons (who was one of the most amazing people I will ever know!) taught our AP English Lit class how to mark our books up like there was no tomorrow.
Before taking AP English with “Miss G” (as we called her in high school) books were sacred. You did not write in books. My Bible was no exception.
I mean, sure, I had family members who highlighted their Bibles, but I had never really done that before my senior year. And I’ll be honest – even after my senior year I didn’t really “do” highlighting in my Bible like I did in other books.
When I started studying the Bible a little more formally, I realized I needed to “take my game up a notch.” When I started teaching students how to interpret the Bible as they read, I needed to formalize my approach so it was easy to explain.
And that, my friends, was how the Bible Study Highlighting Guide was born.
Why Should You Highlight Your Bible?
But Lindsey, you might be asking, why should I highlight my Bible?
or maybe you’re thinking
I already highlight my Bible, why do I need a specific method to follow? Can’t I just pick up whatever highlighter is closest and mark the verses that I like?
Sure. And that’s the way lots of people choose to highlight their Bibles. Sometimes I will still mark a verse that way as well if it stands out to me in a particular way or for a particular reason.
But, if you want to dig deeper in your Bible study, you’ve got to have a plan.
And part of that plan includes how to make consistent and detailed observations about what you are reading so you can make connections between study sessions.
So, while you could just highlight or underline in a helter-skelter kind of way, making notes in your margins, don’t you think it would be easier to follow your train of thought weeks, months, or even years later if you had a systematic approach to how you marked your observations?
I mean, don’t get me wrong, but I’m thinking that’s probably an easier way to go. 😉
Coming Up with a Highlighting System
All right. Let’s say I’ve got you on board (hopefully, since you’re still reading, right?), and you are with me on the highlighting wagon. (It’s a fun ride, I promise – even if it is a little bumpy at the start!)
What now? Do you need to come up with a highlighting system on your own? Do you need to scour the internet for other people’s systems?
Nah. I got you covered.
I’m going to walk you through the basics of how my Bible Study Highlighting Guide works and give you a little “mini-preview” of the whole system. The full system is available for purchase through my Ko-Fi platform as a digital download.
Colors and Icons and Themes... Oh My!
At first glance, the Bible Study Highlighting Guide can look a little overwhelming. There’s a lot of information in that little package, but digging into it will help you discover details and make connections as you study the Bible. It’s not a magic wand, but it is a handy tool!
There are 4 main areas to consider when starting to highlight your Bible: how to discover the details you’re looking for, what items/themes you’re going to highlight, what colors to use, and if you want to use any kind of symbols or icons
The first step is identifying details – what is it you’re looking for when you read? We’ve talked before about making observations as you read: noticing things like verbs, pronouns, cause/effect, what comes before & after a passage.
Here are 3 “big” details you should look for in general as you’re reading/studying your Bible and some simple icons you can use to mark them when you find them in the text:
- Conjunctions: use the “linking” symbol for these – 🔗
- We use the acronym FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) to remember what the conjunction words are in our house – thanks classical education! 😂
- You can remember that conjunctions are “linking” words if you remember the old Schoolhouse Rock song “Conjunction Junction, What’s Your Function?” (which automatically dates me, I know, but I can’t pass up a reference to that song!)
- Repeated Words/Phrases: use the ‘cycle’ circle – 🔄️
- This can include synonyms, too!
- Transition words: use a little clock symbol: 🕒
- These can be time words, or cause/effect words (“therefore” is a key one!)
The next thing to look for is themes. These are general ideas that carry through a passage, book, or even throughout the whole biblical narrative. The more specific the theme, the smaller section of text it’s likely to apply to.
It’s best to start small when looking for themes and get used to looking for just one or two at first. One of the first ways I started doing this was when reading the letter to the Hebrews, and I noted all the actions/characteristics of God. I put a little “A” in the margin any time there was an “action” of God mentioned, and a “C” any time one of the characteristics of God was mentioned. It ended up being a really cool way to look back on the letter and see how God was described all throughout!
Some common themes that tend to appear throughout all of scripture are:
- Salvation/redemption
- spiritual growth/obedience to God’s commands or word/faithfulness
- God’s promises or covenants
You want to then choose colors that correspond to those themes and use those colors consistently. It helps if the colors can “connect” somehow to the themes, because then they are easier for you to remember when you use them. Depending on the highlighter set you’re using (these are my favorite, and match the color coding for the Highlighting Guide but the smaller sets are good, too, if you want to start small. There are also these, which won’t bleed through, but the tips aren’t as fine.)
I like to use the following colors for the themes mentioned above:
- Salvation/redemption: Red (these fall under the “Jesus” theme on the Highlighting Guide)
- Spiritual Growth/obedience to God’s commands or word/faithfulness: green
- God’s promises or covenants: light green or teal
These colors match up with the Highlighting Guide, but if you aren’t going to use that, you could select different colors. (I still recommend pink/red for Jesus-related themes and green for spiritual growth, though!)
What Next?
Now, you just pick a passage and read through it, then start making observations! I like to read through it once from start to finish, then go back to read through again more slowly and make my notes/observations. The second (or third!) read through is where I would mark icons or highlight items.
Want to use my Highlighting Guide to help you in your Bible studies? You can purchase a copy here!
Have you tried highlighting in your Bible before? Did you use a system? How do you think highlighting could be helpful in Bible study?
