The ESV Journaling Bible

A confession. When this ESV Journaling Bible first came across my desk, I shook my head and wondered why we would need to have a journaling Bible. I do not remember exactly why I felt such animosity towards it, but I disregarded it.
I must say that I do thoroughly enjoy the ESV translation however. I first came across it in reading Christian Beliefs, Wayne Grudem's condensed Bible Doctrine. He interweaves the ESV with his writing & I was off put by it. His language, to me did not flow well with the ESV. But I did give the translation itself a try & used it last year to read through the Bible.

I also came across this article on the Mars Hill Church website on why they use the ESV primarily in their preaching ministry. I found it to be quite helpful & a good resource.

As for what has changed my mindset towards the Journaling Bible, I was talking to a pastor who was going to use this Bible to read through in the next year and give to his daughter on her 16th birthday. As a soon-to-be father, I loved this idea. We are expecting in July & I look forward to not only reading through the Scriptures, but also offering thoughts of God's faithfulness & prayers for my child as I hear from Jesus. I found this to be a great idea & am in no way ashamed to have stolen it! The most important thing you can do as a father is help your child to come into a growing, dependent relationship with their Father God. I feel so blessed that God has entrusted me with his child to raise him/her up in the way that s/he should go (Pr. 22.6).