I got my first set of scriptures when I got baptized at age 8. I didn’t really start underlining and marking up my scriptures until I started seminary in 9th grade. From there, I marked them the same as most anybody, underlining in red anything that was inspiring or impactful in any way.
When I got to college and started taking institute classes, one of my institute teachers showed me a new way of marking scriptures that was so powerful to me. Shortly after that, I bought a new pair of scriptures and started this new marking system. Over the years I have tweaked it a bit, but the foundation of this marking system was laid by this dear institute teacher several years ago.
I don’t know anybody else who marks their scriptures this way, but let me tell you why I like it so much. First of all, I can look at any page and know immediately what that page is about. I can flip to any page in the Book of Mormon and give a lesson on the spot. Also, I continually discover incredible things in my personal scripture study that I would have otherwise skipped over. It is thrilling, like a treasure hunt. It makes me excited to dive into my scriptures every time.
I would like to share my marking system with you, with the invitation to adapt it to you and make it yours. Be open to making changes to your marking system along the way, as you get into it and see what works and what doesn’t work for you. I encourage you to make a key of what everything means (the link below is to the key I created, if you would like to start there) and keep it in your scriptures so you remember what everything means. If a certain page does not follow the master key, then I make a small key on that page, like following all the different groups of people in Omni or highlighting the chiasm in Alma chapter 36.
Also included below is a scripture marking system my incredible niece used on her mission. Her system specifically follows Preach My Gospel and creates a powerful tool specialized for missionary work. If neither of these work well for you, there are also a few marking systems I found when I did a google search. Find something that makes you excited to really get into the scriptures! Remember that you can always modify any system to make it your own.
Studying the scriptures is a fantastic adventure! I hope you find joy as you take these suggestion of a study system, and adapt them to make the scriptures come alive for you!
PREFERED SCRIPTURE MARKING PRODUCTS:
Here are some products my niece and I found to maximize our scripture study:
PRISMACOLOR PENCILS
I like to use Prismacolor pencils. They write very smoothly, and show up well without having to push hard. I would suggest avoiding the darker blues and purples if you like to highlight the words, rather than underlining – they can make it hard to see the words. You can buy them one at a time at most speciatly art stores, including Michael's, or you can buy a 24 pack for Amazon HERE.
If you prefer markers to colored pencils, here are some that will not bleed through the page HERE.
COLOR TABS
My niece likes sticky tabs like this HERE. However, she does cut them in half to fit within the lines of her topics.
If that is not ideal for you, there is this option HERE, however, they are a little bit long.
If you prefer color dots, you can find something like THESE and fold them in half over the page. Just keep in mind that, because they are so small, they may have a tendency to fall off if you are flipping through your scriptures everyday.
STICKY NOTES
For writing questions on sticky notes to put in your scriptures, we like the skinny ones, like the ones HERE.
TWO MARKING SYSTEMS
Here are the two marking systems for you to try. Click on the images to download:
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