Writing in Your Bible

Does anyone else feel weird about writing in your Bible?

I do.

I’m taking an in-depth class on Galatians with one of the Pastors at my church, and the first thing he gave us was a handout on, “How to Study The Bible.” Like almost everything else I’ve seen before on this topic, it recommends circling and underlining and highlighting things in the Bible as you read.

I don’t do this, and it kind of gives me the creeps. (I think I may need to get over that…)

To me it feels like defiling a sacred text. How can I add anything to the Word of God with the marks I might make?

It also goes against what my mommy taught me as a toddler which is to never write in books.

I didn’t do it when I was in college either. Everyone else in college wrote all over their textbooks and I never did. It made me feel like I was ruining the book.

Maybe somewhere in there is an almost subconscious feeling that books belong to everybody so no one person should write in it because surely there will be other people who read it and don’t want to see your markings in it.

It just gives me the creeps to think of the Bible as being in the same category as a coloring book, where you look at what’s there and then add your own markings.

Am I the only one bothered by this?