Free Digital Bible Journaling in Goodnotes  ## Metadata - Author: [[Sandy Cruz]] - Full Title: Free Digital Bible Journaling in Goodnotes - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #DigitalFaithTools - #BibleJournaling - #Goodnotes Author: Sandy Cruz Source: Free Digital Bible Journaling In Goodnotes (YouTube) Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk date created: 2025-08-23 21:20 --- # Title: Free Digital Bible Journaling in Goodnotes — Faith Journal Walkthrough ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis-prompt) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ## 📝 Summary: Sandy Cruz introduces a **free digital Faith Journal for Goodnotes** that merges Bible study with digital journaling tools. It features 8 realistic covers, navigation tabs, a Bible books table linked to Bible Gateway, customizable blank dashboards, and multiple templates (gratitude journal, prayer requests, sermon notes, SOAP method, trackers, and verse mapping). The journal is undated, reusable year after year, and comes with stickers for easy monthly setup. Sandy demonstrates customization tips, duplication workflows, and organization strategies to keep study materials accessible and inspiring. --- ## 📖 Main Content: The Faith Journal blends functionality and personalization. With its **hyperlinked Bible tables**, users can instantly cross-reference scripture versions via Bible Gateway. Customizable dashboards let individuals tailor sections for prayers, sermon notes, or gratitude logs. Templates add structure without restricting creativity. Undated calendars with hidden links enable flexible long-term use, while stickers simplify setup. Sandy emphasizes the journal as both a devotional tool and a digital productivity system. Its lightweight file size and intuitive Goodnotes integration make it practical for ongoing study and reflection. --- ### 🗒️ Notes - [00:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk&t=3): Free Faith Journal introduction. - Sandy’s goal: simplify Bible journaling on iPad. - Audience: anyone seeking paperless, creative devotional practice. - [02:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk&t=143): Covers & customization. - 8 realistic covers, drag-and-drop selection. - Shelf view reflects chosen cover. - [04:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk&t=293): Bible tables page. - Book icons include author, abbreviation, date written. - Color-coded sections (history, poetry, prophets, gospels, epistles). - Linked directly to Bible Gateway for translation flexibility. - [07:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk&t=456): Blank dashboards & tabs. - 7 blank tabs for custom sections (sermon notes, prayers, studies). - Example use: dividing prayer lists by day/topic. - [10:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk&t=614): Templates library. - Blank, dot grid, graph grid, lined pages. - Specialized templates: gratitude, prayer, sermon notes, SOAP, tracker, verse mapping. - [15:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk&t=916): Undated monthly spreads. - Hidden links in each square. - Comes with sticker sheets for easy dating. - [19:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk&t=1180): Duplicating pages workflow. - Copy/paste keeps templates intact. - Organize sermon notes with most recent behind tab. - [21:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk&t=1307): Best practices. - Keep templates clean; duplicate for reuse. - Organize by recency for quick reference. - Free download link provided in video description. --- ## 📖 References: - Cruz, Sandy. *Free Digital Bible Journaling In Goodnotes.* YouTube, 2025. [Link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk) - Bible Gateway (Referenced for scripture integration). --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. *Original*: “Every book of the Bible has an icon with date written, abbreviation, title, and author.” *Paraphrased*: Each Bible book is represented by a clickable icon displaying its metadata, making navigation intuitive. 2. *Original*: “The undated calendar ensures you can use this journal for years by simply adding date stickers.” *Paraphrased*: Because the journal isn’t pre-dated, users can repurpose it annually by applying reusable sticker sets. --- ## 📰 Newsletter: 📖 **Free Faith Journal for Goodnotes!** Looking to digitize your Bible journaling? Sandy Cruz just dropped a **free Faith Journal** that works seamlessly in Goodnotes. It features **8 gorgeous covers**, built-in Bible Gateway links, customizable dashboards, and templates for gratitude, prayer, sermon notes, and SOAP study. Plus, the undated monthly spreads can be reused year after year with handy sticker sheets. Think of it as your spiritual planner meets digital notebook. 👉 [Get your free copy here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk) and start journaling with both structure and creativity. --- ## ✅ Action Items: - Highlight this as an example of **user-centered design** in WordPress contributor onboarding workshops. - Relate the **blank dashboards** concept to modular contributor documentation spaces. - Encourage **low-barrier entry tools** (like free templates) for onboarding contributors. - Position parallels for OSPO work: **long-term reusable frameworks** (like undated planners) and **metadata-driven navigation** (like Bible tables). - Reinforce commitment to inclusivity: free tools that democratize access resonate with open-source values. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - Free digital journals reduce entry barriers for faith-based digital practices. - Linking core texts (Bible Gateway) inside journaling tools increases daily scripture engagement. - Customizable dashboards improve long-term adoption by matching personal workflows. ### 📊 Methodology: - Surveys of Faith Journal users on adoption and retention. - Usage analytics of link-outs to Bible Gateway. - Comparative studies: structured vs. unstructured digital journals. ### ❓ Questions: - How do free journaling tools impact Bible study engagement? - Can similar models be applied to secular education or contributor training? - What design choices improve inclusivity in digital devotional tools? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Explore the psychological effects of digital vs. paper Bible journaling. - Investigate digital journaling’s role in community-based Bible study groups. - Develop cross-platform versions beyond Goodnotes. ### 💡 Implications: - Accessible digital tools may expand spiritual engagement. - Models from digital faith journaling could inform educational UX design. - Insights applicable to **WordPress contributor dashboards** (structure, personalization, templates). --- ## 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - **Visual**: Strong—covers, icons, templates, color-coding. - **Aural**: Weak—no auditory supplements. Suggest adding narrated tours. - **Verbal**: Present—step-by-step guidance provided verbally. - **Kinesthetic**: Strong—interactive customization, drag-and-drop. - **Logical**: Present—systematic templates and structure. - **Social**: Weak—solitary focus. Add group journaling prompts. - **Solitary**: Strong—personal reflection sections. - **Naturalistic**: Absent—could connect scripture to creation themes. --- ## 📊 Accessibility Assessment: - **Screen Reader**: Likely not optimized; needs alt-text for icons and templates. - **Keyboard Navigation**: Goodnotes is touch-first, limited accessibility. - **Contrast/Readability**: Covers are strong visually; template text should be checked for contrast. - **Text Resizing**: Supported in Goodnotes, but templates could break. --- ## 🌍 DEIB Assessment: - **Cultural Rele - Summary: The content is a video tour of a free Faith journal. The creator shows the different covers and features of the journal, including a two-year at a glance page, tables page with linked Bible references, customizable sections for prayers and sermon notes, and various templates for tracking, gratitude, and Bible study. The video also mentions that the journal is available for free and provides instructions on how to obtain it. - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQL-FAqBmxk&t=23s hello hello and welcome back to my channel this video is going to be a tour through the new free yes I said free Faith journal and it is beautiful if I do say so myself I've been using it for a few weeks now and I'm really enjoying it and I hope you guys will be blessed with it too and like I said it's free and I'm going to tell you how to get it stay till the end after the tour because I'm going to show you some of the features that are included in this journal and um if you stay till the end I'm going to share with you how you can get your own free copy okay so for those of you that are new here my name is Sandy Cruz and I create videos and products all things I that's anything that you can do on your iPad that you used to do on paper if that sounds fascinating to you be sure and subscribe hit the Bell so that you'll be notified whenever I have some new eye stuff to share with you so right now I'm sitting in my office and recording this behind me are my ibible students that is my my creative digital Bible journaling course and so these are all my students behind me and I keep them on my students wall so that when I come in here in the morning I can pray for them and they they're always on my mind because they're always in my view so yeah and then on the side here I've got some of my favorite scriptures hanging on the wall so I can just kind of look over and glance at those and be reminded of all the different things that just really inspire me throughout the day um so yeah we're gonna get right jump right into this I've been talking a lot today sorry I had to take a a sip Wet My Whistle alright so what you're looking at oh I need to transition I almost forgot to do that that would waste this whole video with you just looking at me all right so what you're looking at on my screen is my iPad and this is the new Faith journal and to start with it comes with eight covers and don't they look realistic all right let me go ahead and show you these covers so these are all eight covers I'll go ahead and swipe through them so you can get a closer look but real quick I want to show you in the index so that was these four dots that I pressed that gives me this thumbnail view if I want to change which cover is going to be on the Shelf what I'm going to see when I'm backed out of this notebook will be the very first one so as you can see this is the cover that I have currently active but let's just say I want this to be my faith Journal cover I'll just simply press hold and drag it up and now that is my new cover that's what I'm going to see when I'm looking you know at a bird's eye view of all my notebooks side by side I will see this and I will recognize it as my faith Journal because that is the cover that I chose for my faith Journal okay so like I said it comes with eight covers so let me go ahead and scroll through them to give you a close-up View and you'll only see these that one time that you're just kind of setting it up once you set up which uh cover you want to use that you're only going to see that when you're looking at your shelf view a bird's eye view of all of your notebooks you won't see that really as you're going through the journal and why would you need to so anyway um so yeah the first page is a two-year at a glance so at a glance you can go ahead and jot down and plan out your year in any future plans for the upcoming year so let's just say you have a Sunday School curriculum that you're going to be teaching or going through with your um your small group or a Bible study that you're either leading or registered for or any course that you registered in I also like to use this for birthdays and anniversaries um and then you know different milestones in my church or is anything that that I am involved in so yeah this page can be used many different ways it can also be duplicated so if you want to separate those things out you can duplicate this over and over and over again okay so all of the pages in this Faith Journal have these three tabs in it so if you want to jump to this page this um two years at a glance that would be this icon now the next page is the tables page and that would be this icon and like I said these three icons on are on every page and so this icon right here will take you to this page these are the tables and there's a lot of information included on this page so every book of the Bible has an icon and on that icon you can see the date written the abbreviation of the book the title of the book and the author of the book I also have them color coded according to history poetry major and minor Prophets and then over here in the New Testament they are color coded by the gospels X Paul's letters in general letters and then prophecy so I've given them each their own colors so that it's easier to identify okay the cool thing about this page or the other cool thing um on this page is that every single one of these icons these books is linked to a web Bible so let me show you how that works let's just say I want to go to Revelation so what I'll do is I'll press and hold and now I have an option to open the link and of course I'm going to agree that I do want to go to that external link and it brings me to Bible Gateway and here I am that was Revelation that I press so here's the first chapter in Revelation it will take you to the King James version but it's very easy to get to a different version simply by touching this Arrow and pulling down so let's say that I am cross-referencing different versions of a scripture so I'll just scroll down to the version that I want to cross reference with and let's say NLT let me just jump to that so now I'm looking at Revelation the first chapter in the NLT version so if you wanted to copy any of this scripture you can copy the actually the whole chapter if you want but if there's just a scripture that you want to copy you'll just press and hold and then you can highlight and I'm doing this with my finger I could just highlight that scripture copy it go over to your journal and then paste it in there on any specific page that you want to so that's what's really neat about having these tables handy here in this journal okay so now lastly this icon will take you to a reading plan these icons aren't linked to anything this is mostly here so that let's just say you're reading the Bible in a year or you're journaling your way through the Bible in a year or two years however many you can go ahead and just tick these chapters off under the books and these are also color coded according to the color codes that I specified here in the tables all right so those are the first three pages of this journal and like I said they're linked here on these using these dots and that's on every page all right next section that I want to talk about in here are these blank tabs there are seven of them and this will take you to just a blank dashboard that you can decorate the way you want and I've I've included this in the faith Journal so that you can go ahead and customize these sections so the way I like to customize mine is I'll use a section for sermon notes a section for prayers and I actually break my prayers down by tabs so I have one tab is anything I'm praying for for myself and then my family my friends and my church and my country and so that way it's broken down into sections because I don't pray for all of those things every day when I pray I you take a section per day so there's specific day days of the week that I'm praying for specific things okay that was my motion so you might hear that a couple more times if somebody Drives By really close by my house okay so let's see so yeah that's the sections and like I said they are blank so let me just tap on them so that's the first section and then this would be the second section and like I said they're they're blank dashboards but you can decorate them however you want so you can also label these tabs with either text or icons I like to use icons and then this very last tab is linked to all the templates and like I said you can decorate your dashboards I've decorated this one you know with just a a icon and and I've labeled it template Library so you can do that with all of these tabs so that when you're going through you know you know it tells you what's behind in this section of your faith Journal okay so let's just go through some of the templates here real quick the first template is of course blank you can duplicate any of these templates over and over and over again as many times as you need to and you can also relocate them somewhere in your Bible and or in your journal and I'll show you how to do that all right so you've got the blank and then here is a DOT grid and then here is a graph grid and then a lined page I use the line Pages a lot because if I need extra space to take more notes I'll go ahead and copy this and put it behind the page that I started taking the notes on these are for go-to verses and like I said they can be duplicated over and over and over again and I like to separate my go-to verses into categories so I might have a whole page of go to verses for all the promises that specifically speak to me and so when I want to be reminded of promises I can just jump to that page any kind of special provisions that has really blessed me um that where God has spoken to me and made me promises and blessed me I'll put those also in my go-to verses and then I can go to that page and be reminded of those blessings and how that verse has blessed me so yeah this could be again you customize this you make it your own I also teach in the I Bible course how to make scripture creative really pretty scripture cards and sometimes I like to take those scripture cards journaling cards and put them on this page and they really are pretty on this page okay this would be for your gratitude journal and I have a place for you to date the days and what you're grateful for and so you could make one of your sections a gratitude section and then just keep duplicating this as many times as you need and keep a list of those things that you're grateful for and of course you can date them this is for prayer requests and I use this for all my prayer requests and I date them and I also check them off when they're answered this is one of my favorite pages I love to use this template for all my sermon notes I have a section in my blank tab custom section and I call it sermon notes and I keep all of my sermon notes for every week inside that section and then if you like to study your Bible or scripture using the soap method I have a template for that and then I've got a Tracker in here if you're tracking a reading plan or tracking you know how many books you've studied you can go ahead and track that in here you can track personal stuff you can track your steps your weight um your meals anything you can use this tracker for and then this template I like to use for verse mapping you can put Traverse in here and then break it apart word by word and put the words in the outer circles and then you can study just the word and look up the word and write the definitions down in this circle I need to readjust and then I have left this section right here blank so that you can make it your own customize it however you'd like you can cross reference different versions of this scripture over here on the side you can put your prayers you can also write your keywords out here any applications or Reflections all that you've got space for that and you can label them like I said as you like just to make it your own okay so now that brings us to the end of the templates I'm going to go ahead and jump over here to the monthly spreads so here we are looking at January and one of the things that I started doing was adding the dates to each Square here and the reason that I was I did that is to show you how quickly since this is undated so you can quickly go ahead and throw these date stickers comes with this Faith Journal let me just go ahead and open up that window all right so these These are the stickers that comes with the faith Journal so you have two choices of date Dots here and I started using these because I like the way these Corners just fit perfectly here in the corners and you can set up your months so quickly just by making sure that your lasso tool is selected lasso one of the days let's say I need the Third and then once it's lassoed with your finger you can press and hold and drag it over and that's why I like the split screen view because it's so easy to just drag and drop it over and there you have it so this is undated so that you can use it for many years to come so you can use this five years in a row every year just set it up to that specific year so the way I've set it up so that you can use it year after year let me go ahead and close out the stickers every one of these squares has a hidden Link in it and it takes you to a page so there is a page for every single one of these squares however if January doesn't start till Wednesday then you've got these blank squares and they also jump to blank pages but because you're not using those pages because there are no dates on these Pages you'll never see them you know unless you scroll to them so you don't have to worry they're not going to interfere with anything they're not going to get in the way I had to do it and set it up this way so that it wouldn't matter 10 years from now you can use this planner and set it up using your date dots okay so the hidden links are in the corner of every one of these squares so like I said if January starts on Wednesday you'll put your first date there now you don't have to use the stickers you can write it in if you want to or type it so I just provided these you know just just for easy setting up and easy use but you can use your your own handwriting or type it in if you want to or if you have some of your own stickers okay so like I said there is a hidden Link in the corner of every one of these squares so if January starts on the first you'll go ahead and put your first date up there and when you want to jump to that page you'll make sure that your read only is turned off and that activates navigation inside good notes and so what you're going to do then is just tap on the first and it jumps to that page so when I was setting this up when I was setting up my faith Journal I would jump to the first of the month whatever month I was setting up and I would go ahead and fill in the date and the day of the week that it is and then to continue setting it up I would just swipe to the next and the next day and date and I would swipe until I got to the end of the month that way that's all set up for you every one of these Pages within each of the months is identical you've got your daily devotions on the left and you've got somewhere to record your scripture your insights your message and your prayers and then you can journal or take notes on the right and then like I said you can duplicate one of the templates if you need extra room for recording your notes or for journaling I can feel I'm getting scratchy okay so that is how the months are set up one other thing I want to point out on the monthly spreads are these white dots these white dots are also linked and it will just jump you to that week so if you wanted to jump to the last week of the month you can just go ahead and hit that dot and swipe through okay so real quick I want to show you how to duplicate a page and then we can go ahead and wrap this up um I'm going to duplicate my sermon notes page because I use this quite regularly every week when I go to church all right so to do this this is there's more than one way to skin a cat inside good notes you can duplicate more than one way but this is my favorite way and I feel like it's the fastest way so what I'm going to do is tap on these three dots and then I'm going to choose copy and so that page is now copied to my iPad's clipboard and so like I told you before I like to have a section that's designated for my sermon notes so let's just say this section is my sermon notes section I'll go ahead and go to that section then I'm going to tap in order to paste it I'm going to tap on these four dots up here the index make sure that thumbnails is selected and here you can see the active page is that dashboard of the first tab that I am calling my sermon notes section all right so below that you'll see this Arrow I'll pull that arrow down and I'll go ahead and select add page after so that means it's going to put that page behind this tab and now I get an option to paste this page and that's the page that's copied to the clipboard you can also duplicate the page that is active or put some other things in there if you want to but that's not what I'm going to do I want to paste the page that I copied to my iPad's clipboard and it not only pasted it there but it also jumped to it so there it is and so the way I use my sermon notes page I keep the original in the template section which is here and when I need to use it I will make a copy and I will put it somewhere in the faith planner in its new location that way I'm not disturbing any of my templates I don't write on them I don't reorganize them nothing I just copy them and paste them where I need them and so another thing that I do kind of a tip I don't know if this would suit you or not but I always paste the most current sermon notes page that I'm going to currently use behind the tab that way the the most current day that I took notes is immediately behind the tab and then the week after that will be behind that one and then so on and so that way the most current is closest to the tab if that makes sense and that's how they're ordered in in my faith Journal so that I can easily scroll through the weeks and get to the notes that I need to but usually when I want to refer back it's usually like within a few days of that most current page that I took notes okay and that wraps up the tour for the new free Faith journal and like I promised to tell you how to get your free copy there is a link in the description below that will take you to get your own free copy I would absolutely love to see one of your journaling Pages using the faith Journal that would inspire me and motivate me it would really be a blessing so yeah I hope that you enjoyed this video and I hope you're going to enjoy your new Faith journal and I hope it blesses you to use it as much as it blessed me to make it and give it to you until the next video guys bye thank you [Music], Free Digital Bible Journaling in Goodnotes, Sandy Cruz, 01hjpej2e5wezpzsxxypd2reaq.