My bible is falling apart, right in the middle of 2 Corinthians the pages are coming out of the binding. In it's defense it is over 13 years old and I do open it at least once every day. Often it gets opened more than once a day because it is the bible we usually use for family reading and studying. I am not surprised that it broke in the New Testament as that is where I enjoy reading the most.
I had a hard time giving up using this bible, even though it is now hard to read in bed with the pages sagging below the cover. For one thing, it was the bible I got new when Dancer was a baby. I like to write thoughts in the margins, underline passages and stuff it with little clippings, book marks, etc. that inspire me or people have given to me. I had hoped that it would make it through the 22 years I will be doing hands-on parenting so I could look back through it after the kids were grown and see what encouraged or spoke to me during this season in life. I also loved that it was purple. The cover was purple and the book names and chapters were in purple. In fact, one of the reason I chose the bible was because it was purple. It also had a few extra details I liked. It had devotions for moms and list of things to pray for for your children. I also loved that it was broken in just for me. It opened right up to Proverbs, my favorite Psalms, and other spots I read most.
The last few weeks I have been bible shopping. At first I would look at all the bibles and then decide mine would make it a little longer. Then when I decided, no, I need a new one unless I want to resort to putting a rubber band around mine and having it be loose leafed. What I didn't expect was how hard it would be to pick a one out. First off, I couldn't find a purple one. The bible I have is still printed but it has a new cover and a new color scheme.
From here my search got more complicated as I realized how many bibles there are available. There are bibles for every kind of devotion you might want intermingled in it's pages. There are bibles that have a schedule in them to get them read in 90 days, or a year, or what ever time frame you want to read it in. Famous t.v. religious personalities have put out bibles with their names on them. There are Catholic bibles, student bibles, teen bibles, kids bibles, recovery bibles, and so on. I even found a bible for sportsmen that was waterproof. That was a heavy bible, I would never had been able to hold it up to read it in bed. I guess if I were a sportsman I would be stronger? Maybe sportsmen only read sitting up?
A new consideration I have this time looking for a bible, that I didn't have last time, is that I have over 40 year old eyes. Any bible with little print goes right back on the shelf. Thin pages you can see through, right back on the shelf. A font that has thin letters, right back on the shelf. I need big bold letters with pages you can't see through or else I need bifocal glasses, I am trying to put off getting the bifocal glasses. I know there are large print bibles but I also want to put that off until bifocal glasses are no longer the answer.
I ended up choosing a plain brown bible with all black print in the same font and non see through pages as my beloved purple bible. It even has the same footnotes. I have noticed though, after using it for one night, that the passages are not in the same spots. I didn't realize I even knew what sides of the pages verses were on or how many words were each of the lines, but I guess I do.
I am sure in time this one will start to feel familiar in my hands. If not, I can always go get those bifocals.
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