Okay, guys.  I feel like hot garbage today because I am still fighting off a really nasty gut infection.  I briefly considered trying to sanitize it by typing “gastrointestinal,” instead, but I despise obfuscation of any kind.  So, I called it what it is.  My guts are on fire, y’all, and that’s what I’m dealing with.

Anyway, I’ve been stuck in bed with nothing to do except read.  I’m bored, okay?  I’m bored out of my skull, and in the depths of that boredom, it occurred to me that I have not shared with you this new thing I’m actually really excited about.

I have discovered the most amazing highlighter for bibles that the hand of man has yet created:  The Frixion Light highlighter from Pilot.

Highlighting and margin notes are a huge part of my learning process.  Always have been.  As a consequence, I’ve tried every kind of highlighter there is.

• Gel highlighters are sticky and wrinkle my pages.  The pigment also tends to soak through pages over time.  They’re also wide and imprecise, which is unacceptable in my world.
• Dry highlighters are glorified Crayons (which I have also used), and I don’t like wax for the same reason I don’t like the gel.  Over time, the pigment tends to soak through the page.  Sharpening them tends to waste more than half of the material and you still get imprecise lines.
• Wet highlighters are my favorite because of the precise chisel tip that allows me complete control over my lines.  But…they almost always bleed through pages if you use any color other than yellow or anything like a natural amount of pressure on the tip.
• Colored Pencils are a popular option, but again we run into the lack of precision in the lines, and that bugs me. I use colored pencils, and I’ve been privileged to receive a set of very high quality ones that I use for actual coloring.  They’re great for coloring.  They don’t work well at all for highlighting lines of text.
• Colored Pens seem to be a really beloved go-to for a LOT of people in Bible study, but I don’t like underlining as well as I like highlights.  I love colored pens.  They’re fun to use, and I take a lot of margin notes with felt-tips or ball points, but they don’t get the highlighting done for me.  I need highlights.

This highlighter thing has been a constant struggle through my life as a student–and especially as a student of the Bible, which always has really thin paper stock.

What I’m telling you is that these highlighters are a freakin’ revelation (little “r”).  You really need to try them out.

Every highlight on this page is from the Frixion Light set. The rippling you see is from impressions left by my handwriting on previous pages.

1.) They never bleed through the page.
I have a She Reads Truth Bible.  I did a full review of it shortly after I bought it, and it is still my daily study Bible.  It has many excellent qualities, but one of its shortcomings is the incredibly, ridiculously thin paper stock.  You can see everything through these pages.  These highlighters–all five colors–don’t bleed.  At all.  I even forgot myself a few times and ran the highlighter over a line twice.  It still didn’t bleed.

2.) The colors are pale, so they don’t overpower the text.
The pastel colors are very light and the text shows through them very well.  Even though this ink sits on top of the text rather than soaking into the page, you can read through it very clearly.  I say this as a woman who now requires 1.75 reading glasses, so I’m pretty confident you’ll be able to read through the ink, too.

3.) The tips are “drier” than a typical wet highlighter. 
These are shaped and function exactly like a standard pen-shaped wet highlighter, but the tips are not as wet as we’re used to.  They don’t dump nearly as much ink down as you swipe.  This is why the ink doesn’t bleed through the page, but it makes a much nicer, cleaner line as you drag it over the paper.  It’s smooth and feels nice.

4.) You can erase with them…for real.
Yes.  I said you can erase them.  The erasing really works, too.  The ink will be totally gone from the page.  I use this function to square up my multi-line highlight blocks because it soothes my poor, irritated little perfectionist brain.  It’s also nice if I come back later and want to make it a different color or if I made a line too wobbly for my liking.  Just let it dry for a few moments…and then use the rubber-like end to erase.  It comes off clean like a dry-erase marker.  Totally gone.

5.) You can buy them by the bucket.
Can I get a “hallelujah” from my fellow nerds in the back, please?  Anything you can buy “by the bucket” is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.  You can also buy them in a 5-pack…but why on earth would you do that when you could have a bucket?

If you have any Bible Nerds on your Christmas list this year, get ’em a bucket of highlighters they can use in the Bible without fear and/or trembling.

Happy Advent Season.  Happy Bible Study.  Happy Highlighting.