How do you mark your scriptures?

[Snigmorder]

This is the system of marking I've been using. 

Light blue: mercies of God

Red: character of righteousness

Blue: temptations of the devil

Yellow: gospel of Christ

Orange: words of deity

 

Problem is I'm sick of it and would like to use a different system. It was very profitable in the beginning, now it's robotic.

What other ways to mark the Scriptures do you know about and what system do you use?

Edited July 28, 2017 by Snigmorder

[Fether]

Yellow: note worthy events

Red: Powerful statements of basic doctrines and proncioles

Green: Interesting phrases that I find deep meaning in

Orange: phrases by god head

Blue: Important Cross References (i.e. JST, BD, HEB, OR, IE)

The more specific the reason for the color, the more colors you will need. I use to use purple when Infoundnhidden symbolism or a hidden parable, but that requires me to be continuously looking for them as I read and I wasn't getting much else out of it. I marked places like the story of Lahonti, Moses's arms being born up by his counselors during a battle, and Ammon cutting off the arms... but again, took too much effort out of my studies so I stopped. 

I feel like the more simple thevmarking is the better, and if you come across something that doesn't fit your marking, mark or green and leave a little note 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Fether

[my two cents]

You might want to check google and/or there are some books available (I got the one below years ago). Aside from that, I had an institute teacher suggest that every time you see the word 'remember', mark it in red so it stands out and gets your attention like a red flag. 

https://www.amazon.com/Marking-scriptures-Suggestions-understanding-using/dp/0877478155

[Vort]

That depends. What is your purpose in marking scripture?

[The Folk Prophet]

Never have marked my scriptures. Probably never will. Never quite understood the point. That's just me though.

[Snigmorder]

5 minutes ago, Vort said:

That depends. What is your purpose in marking scripture?

I began using the system with my first readthrough of the book of Mormon and I'm still on that readthrough. However my initial desire to read the book of Mormon has extended to the other standard works as well and pace has been terribly slow using this system. Plus, notwithstanding it's effectiveness in 1 Nephi, It has become robotic and non-edifying. 

I'm not sure what my intentions are for marking are at this point. I just want the markings to be edifying (but what's edifying can change apparently.)

[Snigmorder]

15 minutes ago, The Folk Prophet said:

Never have marked my scriptures. Probably never will. Never quite understood the point. That's just me though.

What do you do instead of marking? Do you have some kind of journal, or do you keep it all in your head? 

 What my current system of marking used to do for me was not necessarily highlight relevant pieces, but highlight the contents of the page. I could glance at the page and see that the passages were full of information (I always thought 1 Nephi was a dry travel log until I realized there's lots to be learned therein, all because of this system.)

[Sunday21]

I read the footnotes. This keeps me interested.

[person0]

Above is a response to a similar question with a technique that has worked excellent and has stood the test of time.   I combined it with the marking scheme below.  The image is the actual post-it note color scheme guide I created and used throughout my mission.  So far it is my favorite marking guide, multiple options, yet not too complex.

It reads:

Brown:  Man (Natural), Human Kind, Attributes (incl. of Satan, etc), Frailties, Negative Consequences, etc.
Dark Blue:  Christlike Attributes, Commandments, What we can do through Christ, What we need to do to return
Light Blue:  Holy Spirit, Feelings/effects of the spirit, gifts, blessings, manifestations, callings-ordinations
Green:  Growth, Works, Creation, Increase in knowledge, Wisdom, Definitions, Fruit, What if?
Yellow:  Heavenly Father + Christ Names, Attributes, Powers, Qualities, Effects of the Atonement, Direct Blessings/promises from God, Attributes of Celestiality
Orange:  Organization, Plan, WHo/What/How, Earrings, Church callings-offices (defined)
Red:  Sin + Effects, Atonement for sin/death
Pink:  Important Miscellaneous. 

This list started generic with only the items in bold, but to clarify and remind myself I added other 'like' things. Personally I would recommend using generic inclusive categories.  As you try to get really specific with lots of categories you end up with the scripture marking scheme I used after returning from my mission, which I developed, used and then gave up on after about 6 months because it was too hard to remember the original generic categories.  However, I would like it if I could do it easily and remember everything.  It was specific enough to differentiate between a single color being straight line or dashed meant different things.  Here is what that one is, but I won't type it out:

I also now always use erasable colored pencils.

[Fether]

I think the purpose of marking your scriptures is lost once you start throwing in  marks for 'the word remember', 'sin', 'attributes of god', 'growth', etc. it becomes a game of eye spy rather than a study.

however, if you are wanting to read through the BOM/BIBLE specifically to find all attributes of God or everywhere someone repented, then just focus on that one thing. It gets crazy overwhelming if I'm trying to look for it all.

For just typical study, I would recommend a simple 'what the poop is happening here!?', 'what the poop can I learn from this', 'holy poop this is awesome', and 'what the poop does this mean?'

Edited July 29, 2017 by Fether

[Fether]

2 hours ago, Vort said:

What is your purpose in marking scripture?

On the off occasion that someone opens my scriptures so they can see how spiritual I am.

[my two cents]

6 minutes ago, Fether said:

I think the purpose of marking your scriptures is lost once you start throwing in  marks for 'the word remember', 'sin', 'attributes of god', 'growth', etc. it becomes a game of eye spy rather than a study.

however, if you are wanting to read through the BOM/BIBLE specifically to find all attributes of God or everywhere someone repented, then just focus on that one thing. It gets crazy overwhelming if I'm trying to look for it all.

I get what you're saying but an option would be to go to the scriptures online and type in the keyword and then turn to them and mark them. Marking and studying don't have to be done at the same time.

[person0]

1 hour ago, Snigmorder said:

. . . my first readthrough of the book of Mormon and I'm still on that readthrough. . .

Personally, I would recommend simply reading on the first read through and at most marking only those things which really stand out in whatever way you want.  I personally usually only have used specific marking techniques when studying a topic or focusing on a specific chapter.

[Fether]

@Snigmorder

I said this either in my post above or on a previous thread, but getting a grasp of what is happening and memorizing where in the Book of Mormon it is was my first step toward scripture mastery (or as they now call it, 'doctrinal mastery').

I have become very good at a game called "Book of Mormon Basball", a popular scripture game on my mission. Without explaining the mechanics of the game, it is where two people go back and forth reading one random scripture and the other has the guess what chapter it is in within 3 guesses.

At first I thought it was a rediculous feat to accomplish. However, simply knowing the basic events of each book and roughly what chapters they occur in, what each sermon given covers, and the characters involved, one can become quite a scriptorian.

so first thing is first. Figure out what is going on in each book, what chapters cover which war, where does Alma and Amulek begin and end their work in Ammonihah, where does Alma gather together his force of mighty missionaries and speak to the people of Antionum (the Zoramites), etc.

Something I have done twice was make a BOM timeline going through every book and chapter. I wrote a 1-2 sentence summary of what was going on, scripture masteries and scriptures that were special to me, and what event it coincided with. This helped me a TON! It does take time, but all good things do.

[SilentOne]

3 hours ago, Fether said:

I have become very good at a game called "Book of Mormon Basball", a popular scripture game on my mission. Without explaining the mechanics of the game, it is where two people go back and forth reading one random scripture and the other has the guess what chapter it is in within 3 guesses.

When I was in high school, occasionally we'd have a seminary assembly, where all the seminary classes in a given period would gather together for some reason or another. (Definitely a high-density Mormonville thing.) Before every seminary assembly the teachers would play the students in a similar game, with each teacher allowed one chapter guess. Anyone who stumped them all got a stale Tootsie Roll. Well, they might not have been stale at the beginning of the year.

I eventually managed to earn several Tootsie Rolls by finding mid-length, not frequently quoted verses on something very basic, like faith or repentance.

[zil]

Am I the only one who thinks the GL app is the place for all this? Colors, styles, tags, notes, notebooks. Add and remove at will. What more could you want for marking, searching, sharing? 

[Fether]

2 minutes ago, zil said:

Am I the only one who thinks the GL app is the place for all this? Colors, styles, tags, notes, notebooks. Add and remove at will. What more could you want for marking, searching, sharing? 

Use both!

[Guest]

For me, less is more when marking scripture.

I tend towards just the occasional margin note when a scripture is truly so profound I want to be able to find a specific verse in the future, and leaving it at that.

Edited July 29, 2017 by DoctorLemon

[Fether]

I've been using the same marking system for like 4 years. Some pages are rainbows and some are blank. Because I'm so familiar with my pattern, it isn't too overwhelming.

my first quad however, I only used the color red and many pages in the D+C just look like I spilt melted red crayon on it.

[Guest]

I actually did go through a time when I marked up my Bible.  A decade or so ago, when I was tempted to go become a Southern Baptist, I went to the Bible and read it very critically to see what it said about the Trinity, Faith vs. Works, eternal security, etc.  I didn't use colored pencils, but I made lots of margin notes.

I must have done something right, because I wound up deciding the Church is way more correct and consistent with Biblical teachings.

[The Folk Prophet]

On 7/28/2017 at 7:33 PM, Snigmorder said:

What do you do instead of marking?

I read.

On 7/28/2017 at 7:33 PM, Snigmorder said:

Do you have some kind of journal, or do you keep it all in your head? 

Head I suppose. Though I guess that depends on what one means by "all", and definitely depends on what one means by "keep".

[Fether]

53 minutes ago, The Folk Prophet said:

I read.

Head I suppose. Though I guess that depends on what one means by "all", and definitely depends on what one means by "keep".

What I'm getting from your post is that you don't record anything you read or take notes... you should start

[Guest]

On 7/28/2017 at 8:59 PM, Fether said:

For just typical study, I would recommend a simple 'what the poop is happening here!?', 'what the poop can I learn from this', 'holy poop this is awesome', and 'what the poop does this mean?'

I don't know which version of the scriptures you have. But I don't often find poop in the scriptures.

[Guest]

On 7/29/2017 at 6:07 AM, zil said:

Am I the only one who thinks the GL app is the place for all this? Colors, styles, tags, notes, notebooks. Add and remove at will. What more could you want for marking, searching, sharing? 

Yes, I like the Green Lantern app as well.  I found that the six colors of lanterns are helpful in emphasizing my feelings at the time.?

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Fether said:

What I'm getting from your post is that you don't record anything you read or take notes... you should start

Why?  I tried marking on my mission.  Then I realized that I wasn't gaining anything through the process.  So, what do you get out of it?