By Beth Murphy
With graduation season quickly approaching, there’s no more meaningful or lasting gift to give to someone who’s setting out into the world on their own for the first time than the ultimate compass for our lives.
But what if you could give your grad a Bible filled with encouragement and prayers from their family, friends, teachers, coaches, and pastors?
Journal the Word® Bibles are designed with lightly-ruled, extra wide margins for recording your reflections on God’s Word right alongside the Scripture text. Beautiful WordTM Bibles have blank space in the margins for you to add your artistic expression of how God is speaking to you through his Word.
With all the extra writing space and extra-thick pages, these Bibles are a wonderful alternative to a guest book for your high school or college graduate’s open house.
The idea is simple:
- Instead of a guest book, place a Journal the Word or Beautiful Word Bible on a table along with pens, colored pencils, and highlighters.
- Ask each guest to highlight a passage that has been especially meaningful to them, and sign their name, leave a note of encouragement, or write a prayer for the graduate next to the verse.
- After guests have all had a chance to highlight a verse and leave a note, there will still be plenty of space for your graduate to record their own reflections and prayers over the years that follow.
A few years ago, my church did this for Pastor Appreciation Month. We bought our pastor a Journal the Word Bible and passed it around during fellowship time after the services throughout the month of October, for everyone to highlight a verse and leave an encouraging note or prayer.
You can also steal this idea for a wedding reception, baby shower, or even an end-of-year teacher gift from the whole class or a gift for a coach from the whole team.