Annotating Our Bibles Part 1 – A Little Encouragement
How You Talk to a Girl!
ROMEO, [taking Juliet’s hand]
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
(Shakespeare 1.4.104-107)
“Guys, listen up because this is how you talk to a girl,” I would begin telling my English I kids in a progressively excited tone. “First of all, Romeo is using a hyperbole to say that Juliet is so beautiful, she is holy and not even worthy of being touched. Then, he uses a metaphor and personification in calling his lips pilgrims just so he can lay one on this pretty girl’s hand! Finally, Shakespeare is going to have the first time these two speak to each other form a perfect Shakespearean sonnet!! That is how you write!!!” Boys’ heads would tilt in curiosity; girls’ eyes would flutter in intrigue, and maybe, just maybe, the boy in the back would look up from his game of Fortnite. Man, did I get excited teaching Romeo and Juliet as a 9th grade English teacher!
As much fun as Shakespeare was to teach, it was also challenging because the language used is of such eloquence and so foreign to our modern-day English vernacular. A skill that definitely served me and my students well in teaching Shakespeare, or in studying any kind of written work, is that of annotating. Annotating is a skill used where you mark a text in certain, predetermined ways (i.e. boxing, underlining, etc. words and phrases), while looking for certain, predetermined things (figurative language, inferences about characters, etc.), and then writing notes off to the side detailing your thoughts and observations. You see, annotating helps a reader interact well with a text, comprehend better what it is they are reading, and sharpen metacognitive skills in seeing their thoughts on paper. Here is an example of an annotation chart I had hanging up in my English I classroom this year with examples from the movie, The Blind Side,
… and had we been annotating this passage from Romeo & Juliet together on the dry erase board, this is what it might have ended up looking like:
This upcoming year, the Lord is allowing me the pleasure of teaching a new subject, AVID, where I will focus on building relationships with students while teaching them critical-thinking, collaboration, reading, writing, organizational and multiple other skills which prepare them for college and the real world (sweet, right?!). Annotating and thinking analytically about texts is a skill that transcends multiple disciplines, one I’m sure will serve my new AVID students well, and has serendipitously served me well in my own personal quiet times with God and scripture intake.
God not only desires an intimate relationship with us (John 17:3) but commands us to meditate, or think deeply, on his law and to know and keep his commandments (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1, John 14:15). In our last post, we were encouraged to spend quiet, intimate times with God and learned some basics as to how. Now, we will narrow our focus onto the specific practice of Bible annotating. Given the depth of this practical topic, we can split it into two parts. In part one, this post, we will receive encouragement as to why annotating and marking your Bible is an important practice, and not simply one reserved for English classrooms. Next post, part two, we will receive a starter kit if you will, of how to mark our Bibles and what we can look for while spending time with him in his word.
Navigating the Stormy Seas of Marking Scripture
While I came to embrace the important practice of marking a text as an English teacher and even teaching it to my kiddos, hesitancy stood in the way of implementing this practice during my daily quiet times. I mean, it’s the Bible, the Holy Spirit inspired, divinely written word of God. How in the world can we write in it ourselves? Would we not be profaning this actual holy book with our unworthiest hand? So if this is you, be encouraged to know you’re not alone in this feeling.
One endeavor which encouraged me in the process of writing in my own Bible was when Jessica and I took a discipleship class at our church in Dallas, TX which advocated journaling and interacting with and marking one’s own Bible in their spiritual walk. The book we utilized, “Growing Strong in God’s Family” by the Navigators, tells us this when it comes to reading and annotating the Bible:
“One of the most valuable spiritual disciplines in the life of a healthy Christian is the regular reading of scripture…People get much more out of Bible reading when they mark ideas that catch their eye or touch their heart…You are not looking for the main theological teaching when you read – that would be something that’s done through Bible study. Mark things you like: words of encouragements, insights, challenges, observations, or something interesting. Read for enjoyment. When you finish a chapter, go back to review what you have marked. You may see a pattern indicating something God may be bringing to your attention.” 1
When I first came across those words, they were as lit matches to the kerosene-soaked pile that was my confidence in implementing the strategies God taught me as an English teacher into our times together. So often God will reinforce the importance of one truth in one area of our life, and then confirm it in another. This was one of those times.
Just Dive In
I hope these words, and all words in this post, have done the same for you. Next post, we will focus on how to annotate and mark up your Bible. If you’re itching to begin now, with your freshly purchased Bible highlighters ready in one hand and interleaved Bible in the other, here is a quick breakdown of the way I annotate and mark my Bible, which we will dive thoroughly into next week:
God does not desire for you to be intimidated about marking and writing in your Bible. He desires to be intimate with us, and promises to draw himself near to us when we draw ourselves near to him (James 4:8). While there is no book scholars have devoted more of themselves to than the Bible, you don’t have to be a scholar with years of seminary training to get a thumbs up from God on beginning the practice of annotating in your Bible what the Holy Spirit brings to mind (John 14:26). Just dive in.
If you are new to these whole Christianity and reading the Bible thing, don’t think of it as some lofty, unreachable pinnacle of knowledge only the few can understand, think of it simply as God’s love letter to you. God loves teaching valuable lessons to those one wouldn’t expect (Matthew 11:25). Every lesson of the Bible will ultimately point to one thing: God’s love for you through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Again, I hope this post encouraged you and has given you the confidence to begin not only reading your Bible, but marking in it as well as God leads you to grow in his love. Thank you, love you, God bless you, and as always, here is a short prayer for you!
Gracious heavenly Father, thank you for leading the one reading this post to not only grow in your love, but for the thirst you are putting in their heart to ponder your word more deeply and to think analytically about it. There are lots of uncertainties in this world and those who don’t know you. But with you, all things are certain. And as we know you, we have peace. In studying your word, lead us to grow close to you, give us peace, equip us for conversations with others, and bless us with the confidence to write freely whatever it is you would lead us to note in response to your love letter for us. In Jesus’ name we pray, by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.
