My Bible & Me

I am not a very sentimental person. I have a few cards that my husband gave me especially when we were dating and first married, but aside from that I am not a card keeper. I like to read them and I may hang on to them for a few days, but eventually they make their way into the trash can. I also don't keep all of my children's artwork. *gasp.* I have a few things from each of them that is special, but normally I will take a picture of it and in the trash it goes. With the exception of pictures, I am sort of obsessed with pictures, I am just not very sentimental... and that's okay!

However, I have to tell you one thing I am very sentimental about. My bible. It has been well used and well loved. We got my bible the same month we were married. So it is 12 years old. I got it in commemoration of my new name as a married woman. I was so excited to have my new married name engraved on the front! It has been underlined, highlighted, noted throughout, and cried on. It has been used well for the last 13 years. I have even put it in my will to my daughter, because that's how much I cherish it. Here shows you just how well it's been used.

I literally have notes from nearly every sermon I've heard over the last 13 years. Most pages are marked up like the ones you see here. The back of my bible is literally falling apart. Pages are slipping out, the binding is broken, and you can see threads where pages were once sewn. So yes, not even duct tape could fix this! 

I planned to get it rebound and resewn. However, the thought of being without it for 6-8 weeks was quite a long time for me. I kept telling my husband I didn't know how I would go without it for that long. I have another bible I like to read from for leisure read and I have a bible app on my phone, but it just wasn't the same. 

When I searched online and priced how much it was going to be to have this done, then I had some definite sticker shock! The cheapest I found was $130. Yikes! With tears in my eyes I told my sweet man that I couldn't spend that much when I knew I could get a new bible for so much less than that. He was kind to me and told me I have the option of always keeping this bible to refer back to my notes and highlights. Which, as silly as it sounds... I hadn't even thought of that as being an option. 

So, I decided I would get a new bible. When I was previously going to have my other bible rebound, then I had decided I would get it rebound in purple leather, because purple is my favorite color. So, on the way to the bookstore I had my mind made up for a purple leather women's study bible in NIV translation. My previous bible was a women's bible and I really liked that! 

We got to the bookstore. I went straight to the bibles and looked for every purple bible I could find. Color is of utmost importance, don't you think? I pulled out 7 bibles and was nearly on the verge of dropping them when I found a table. I called for the Hubs to come over (he is somewhat of a bible scholar) and I said, "I found all these bibles in purple or teal. I'll settle for teal. Now, I did decide to check some other translations though. Which one is best for me?" He laughed at my decision making according to color, immediately picked out 2 (incase you're wondering... one was purple and one was teal) and said, "Go with one of these."  I asked him, " Don't you atleast need to thumb through all of these? Check out all of my options and help me weigh the pros and cons of each?" He said, "Nope. I can tell you right now these two are what you want and what you need. So it's your choice." Okay... hmm... Well, I am not so great at deciding things like this. So I put up the other 5 bibles and gathered up the two he recommended and I sat down and began comparing passages, notes, study references, and the pros and cons of what I liked or didn't like about each bible.

The choices he gave me weren't women's bibles and neither of them were NIV. They were both HCBS study bibles. I am teaching two groups of women now. One in our community and another group of women in our church. The more I dig into God's word, then the more I long for it and the more I read, then the more I savor it. He really suggested a study bible for me. I have been getting more and more into reading commentaries and comparing scriptures and passages, so I knew he was right that I would enjoy a study bible. I decided on the biggest one, but not too big. It needed to fit into my purse! Don't worry, I have a big purse!  I got the purple one too! 

I do have my name engraved, but blurred it out for the picture

I am excited for the new studies this will help me with. I love the colorful maps, the timelines for each book of the bible, the references, the commentary, and the ease of reading that HCBS translation offers me. As I've begun a new chapter of teaching and studying God's word even more diligently over the last year, then I think this is a perfect time to get a new bible. A new season for me. This one is leather too, so it will hopefully hold up better than the bonded leather I had in my previous bible!

My new HCBS Study Bible

Yes, this bible wasn't cheap either, but it wasn't as much as the binding, sewing, and s&h would've been for my previous bible. The best blessing for me was I shared with the lady at the bookstore that I hadn't bought a new bible in 13 years. I told her how my other one was torn and falling apart so I had to buy a new one, but I was sad about that. I told her that even new bibles are more expensive than I expected. She was so kind and gave me 20% off of my new bible. (I love a good deal, and this thrilled me to death!)

Anyways, I just want to share with you my new bible buying experience. My other bible walked with me through lots of hardships and heartaches. Family matters, ended friendships, marital conflicts, and difficult parenting days. I think this bible is my new redemption bible. I look forward to what it will walk with me through. I am hopeful that it will be my bible that walks with me through the new journey of teaching the Lord has me on. Only God knows and wherever He leads, then I am ready to follow... new bible in tow!