The Bible Notebook:
So, lately I have been trying to get organized (again). I really want to get serious this time about studying my Bible. I want to be a committed prayer. I pray a lot through the day but with nothing written to show for it. I also don't pray consistently in certain areas. I ask God to help me with circumstances. I ask Him to cover another person or to heal them. Yet, I don't have a dedicated prayer time. I'm trying to go deeper. This just won't do. So, I have done some searching and have come up with what, when done, will work for me. Everyone is different but I was glad that others had shared, even the modifications they had made from someone else. I am doing the same. I have taken from multiple sources and kind of made it my own in some areas.
Here's what I am doing. Yours may end up differently. This started as a Bible study binder. I felt, for me personally, it was best divided into 2 binders. One as a Bible Study and one as a Prayer Journal. I broke the categories down by what would help me best on either side. For some reason, I like to have everything in its own place, separately. You might be able to leave out certain tabs or combine categories but I didn't. The Prayer Journal is actually a second system from someone else, thrown into this system under the prayer tab. :p lol Do you see what I mean already? I couldn't just have a "prayer" tab. Anywho, I will explain that system further along. I suggest reading the entire post before starting anything because you will probably see right away what you like and don't like. That way, you can customize it to suit you.
Here are the breakdowns of categories I decided for each.
Bible Study: (Everything relates to Bible study in some way.)
- Sermon Notes - I listen to different pastors. I'm dividing this section by person.
- God's Promises - to remember when I need encouragement or a push
- Hebrew/ Greek - vocabulary and definitions
- Memory Verses
- Devotionals
- Study Helps - maps, guides, charts, historical facts and such
[*Update as of November 2017: I am going to split the Book and Bible studies into a separate binder. Bible studies will be split into 10 categories to encompass all topics. That was the easiest way I could think of to index every single topic...Headings and subheadings. It makes perfect sense in a couple of different ways, one of them being how meticulous I can be. :P ]
- Book Studies - notes from reading or facts learned about that book
- Bible Studies - topical, study series, etc
- God/Trinity - Attributes, Roles (Father, Physician, Savior, Holy Spirit, etc)
- People - Authors, Disciples, bystanders, anyone of importance
- Things - Angels, demons, spirits, money, material things
- Places - Geographical location, facts about the cities
- Events
- Culture - the laws of the land, the beliefs of that time/ place
- Emotions
- Principles - Doctrines, Tithing, Loving one another
- Actions - How to love one another, murder, theft, rebellion, etc
- Character Traits - Discipline, jealousy, joy
Prayer Journal: (These categories were more personal and less Bible based.)
- Prayer
- Testimonies
- My Blessings
- Letters To God
- Writing Ideas
- Quotes - Biblical or faith based
- Blog Posts
- Song Lyrics - songs that speak to me in some way or are motivational
What I used:
- My binders are 3 ring about 3" and are what I had on hand. It allows for growth, too. I don't plan to carry it with me, so the large size isn't a problem.
- I got the printable tab inserts from DoNotDepart.com (If you don't have access to a printer, you can make your own.)
- Notebook dividers - I have (2) 8 packs (bought during Back To School)
- White card stock (sold near the printing paper)
- Looseleaf notebook paper
- 2 Pocket Folders (optional)
- Highlighters ( I used 4- blue, yellow, orange, and pink)
- Ink pen
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Ruler
- 3 Hole punch
- Sheet protectors (optional)
- Binder Ring reinforcement stickers - to protect punched holes from wear (optional)
First, I prepared the tab inserts and placed them into the dividers in the above order. Again, that was just the order I chose. The 2 pocket folders come in handy for two reasons. If you don't make your own pocketed dividers (with the card stock) then you might want a couple of pockets handy for loose papers and bookmarks, etc. The other reason they are good is as a divider in themselves. My dividers and my looseleaf were the same size. The folder is wider than both, so it provides a smooth transition between the last category and the blank paper. I am working on a Home Notebook, too, but I don't have the binder yet. So, I am using my prayer journal- then folder- then home categories. lol That's only temporary but it works.
The categories are fairly self-explanatory. So, for the most part, you are done with the Bible Notebook except for adding your own content. I created my own stationery for the sermon notes because I hadn't found any I liked. I later found some printable that I will try to list at the bottom. I put the blank ones in front of the Sermon Notes tab (which is just inside the binder) and the actual notes behind the tab. This made it easy for me to grab a couple of sheets to take with me to church without digging or mixing with the used ones. I had saved the worksheets from the video series' we watched at church and hole punched them. I placed them after the 2 pocket folder and before the looseleaf. This seemed to work well.
On to the Prayer Journal:
There are a ton of ways to do a prayer journal. Some I really liked and some I didn't. One of them, I really loved but I felt was not enough space for me. That one uses a composition notebook and you create tabs and dividers within it. I will do a post on it soon. Again, the bulk of this notebook is going to be done the same as the first one. Mostly no fuss, no muss. However....This is where the Prayer tab gets interesting. lol It develops many layers. I used a system by
Gina Garland. This is also where the rest of the supply list comes in. ;) Maybe i could have bought the things I needed but I'm thrifty and resourceful, so I made my own. : D
Gina divides hers into 6 sections for targeted prayers and needs for the first half of the binder (or in my case, tab).
- God Almighty - things that remind you of His power and majesty or bring reverence; who He is and your relationship with Him
- Myself - special needs or prayers to help you in the many roles you serve (sibling, parent, etc)
- Spouse
- Marriage
- Children
- Parents - things to be thankful about your parents and prayers for them
- Ongoing (general) - military, those hospitalized or in nursing homes, the lost, etc
- Ongoing (specific) - family, friends, or situations that are persistent and specific
- Written - prayers collected from various sources
- Biblical - topical scriptures to pray or passages of prayer
- Calendar - monthly with note space, weekly, whatever works best
The second section she's done differently than I have. I will link to hers but explain mine. ;) For me, I saw a need for a few more categories...of course. lol I wanted to instantly be able to flip to 7 through 11. This is something that I feel led to do. The Written prayers are either to help when I don't know what to pray or prayers that I find especially meaningful to me. One site I really like is
Hope For The Broken Hearted. They are on Facebook as well as
Wordpress. It just seems like every time I read them, they could have been spoken from what I or those I know are going through. They inspire me and uplift me. It also makes me feel good to agree with the prayer that was already spoken by another.
Lastly, for the Calendar tab. I like the idea of the notes section. If the notes start to be too many, I will flip the calendar over and make them there. That way it is all listed for the same month it came from. The days on the calendar are for specific events and appointments or dates prayer was requested. I got this idea from
Stacey Williams. This template was printed from
templatetrove.com.
Tracking Prayer Requests
I feel led to start keeping a log of who the request was from and for/ when requested/ how and what date it was answered. This not only will keep me remembering if I need to keep praying for something but will also be a record of God's glory. Whether it took 2 days or 3 months or 2 years, it will be written there. I will have this in the Calendar section. I currently have the monthly list and then the weekly ones. I'm not sure how I want to do the tracking yet. I want it to be detailed and seamless but also in a way that makes sense tome so I will stick to it. I've been searching with Bing and Google to try to figure out how I want to do it.
You can put a lot of things in these sections. I really like the "10 Things to Pray...." and the "31 Days of Praying for..." types of lists or the the scriptures by topic. There is a list of virtues to pray for your children and so on. Here are a couple of ideas. I will link to some additional resources I found interesting or helpful. Feel free to link to some in the comments if there are any you would like to share.
This last site also has other lists of scripture.)
The only other section of the Prayer tab that I feel needs explanation is the Myself tab. (I promise, I haven't forgotten to tell you what the heck the ruler and all the other stuff is for. : p ) Gina leaves it up to you how many roles to use. Of course, I have them all but for a reason. The roles I don't have now, I'm believe I may have in the future. Therefore, they are implemented now. I somewhat created separates so that if I found something that spoke to each role, I could add it and flip instantly. So, if I am seeking out ways to be a better friend or traits of a good friend, I could put it in the Friend tab. Having said that, this is the only place where I combined anything. I have them grouped this way on 3 dividers: Wife, Mom / Daughter, Sister, Friend / Student, Employee, Servant. Not only was I running out of dividers but I wasn't sure how much I would need to place in there and didn't want too much extra room. I can always redo those 3 into more later if I need to. They have pockets so between those and the binder rings, I should be able to find them easily enough. You may have more roles, like Chairman or Volunteer, or whatever.
- Wife
- Mom
- Daughter/ in-law
- Sister
- Friend
- Student
- Employee
- Servant
Now, let me show you how I divided the different sections of the Prayer tab. I already had the dividers that I had purchased that have the sections from the Bible Notebook from
DoNotDepart.com. To make the prayer tabs stand out, I created my own. I made them stick out shorter so that they were easy to see apart from the purchased set. The Myself tabs are on top by themselves. I got this idea also from
Stacey Williams. Mine looks like this:
Above: The overall look for normal view. Below: The side tabs up close.
What I did to get the pocketed dividers is super easy. I took one sheet of card stock and folded it in half. I put a full sheet in the fold. Then, I used the glue stick to seal the left and right edges. I used the 3 hold punch to make it binder friendly.
As for the tabs, I used more card stock and lined out my tabs. You can make them whatever size you want. The size I went with was about 1 1/16th" wide (the first tiny line after the 1 inch mark) and about 3/4 " high. This allowed me 8 tabs across the top of the card stock and 11 down the side without overlapping. You may want to cut them like the below right pic so that you can fold them in half. I let the folded edge stick up at the height I wanted and fixed the open glue edge to the divider. That way, it was sturdy enough to flip without tearing it off. Also worth noting: I didn't use all of the tabs to the left. I simply decided to do a full sheet because I'm sure there are other binders to come. I have at least the Home Binder mentioned in this post. :)
(Update as of Sept. 2018: I have since gone back over the pocket edges with washi tape for reinforcement. I was not aware of washi way back at this posting. The glue had started to let go. Now, it is decorative and will hopefully hold a lot longer.)
As far as the main side tabs, I did the same thing but going down the right edge alongside the purchased divider tabs. In both instances, I put them relatively close together so that I could see them all and make them fit. Don't pay attention to what is written on the tabs in this pic. Those are for the Home Binder but they are done the same as these are. lol I don't have these categories in my prayer journal. ;p I can go over the Home Binder in a later post. Lastly, after writing the desired category on the tab, I used a highlighter to mark the edges in different colors. I used the 4 colors I had. Plus, I used blue over pink to make purple and blue over yellow to make green. There are 6 colors in all. I repeated when necessary. The finished picture looks like this. (Click the picture to enlarge.)
(Update as of Sept. 2018: I also have since used clear packing tape on the printable binder tabs I have placed on my Bibles and other binder dividers. This is a cheap and effective, but slightly tedious, hack. It keeps from smudging, aging (I think), tearing and getting wet. I need to go over these tabs with some. I have explained in great detail in the
Book Study binder on how to do this. Mostly, the tedious has to do with fussy cutting the excess tape. I think it is worth it though. After you have done it a few times it is a snap.)
More suggested resources and printables:
Prayer Journal Pages (free sets):
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