Beginning your journal
Cross Burst by Billy Alexander (FreeImages.com)
Part 4 in the Journaling toward God series
In Part 3, you learned how to make any journal a spiritual journal by including God in what you write. If you have never kept a journal, do not fear! No one is looking over your shoulder critiquing what you write or how you write it.
Your spiritual journal is between you and God. It holds the treasures of your heart. He knows your intentions and doesn’t reject bad grammar or incomplete sentences.
Find the right materials for this life-changing venture. The computer may be more efficient and more readable than writing by hand, but a hand-written journal gives you more of the benefits, ten of which are listed in Part 2. Consider that journaling improves our cognitive recall, enhances our memory and comprehension as our brain and hand cooperate in writing and editing our ideas. Typing on the computer does not bring the same advantages.
Spiral notebooks
Some people prefer elaborately bound books of blank pages waiting to receive a story. They carefully select an expensive pen, or a set of color pens to make writing in their spiritual journal as elaborate and personal they can.
I value the content of my journals with little thought to the covers and make use of whatever is at hand. My journal collection is a mish-mash of every size and shape, from pocket diaries to spiral notebooks with scraps of paper and sticky notes inserted haphazardly.
As a writer, I prefer a spiral notebook that I can prop up on my knees whether I’m sitting in bed, the window seat, recliner, or a beach chair. Later, I need the flexibility of the open spiral to lay flat while I select and enter some of my experiences on the computer as examples in my books and blogs.
As a young mother of four, I returned to college to earn a journalism degree. The beginnings of my spiritual journal were scribbles in the back of my journalism notebooks, noting my struggles and victories. Admittedly, this was an unlikely start to a life-long habit. The point is, don’t let the lack of an “ideal” journal prevent you from getting into the rhythm of journaling.
Shuffling the notebooks
Later, when I started my writing and editing business, I used spiral notebooks with three, four, or five sections for business projects, freelance magazine articles, Bible Study notes, family events, and my spiritual journal.
Looking back on my writing, it seems like I was shuffling together the pages of the different sections of my notebook. My writing of that period combined ideas, quotations, scriptures, story examples, and personal experiences from all these sectors. Always, the source of my inspiration was the same: the Holy Spirit.
God does not partition our worldly life from our spiritual life as I did in my spiral notebooks with sections. He integrates our spiritual life with our life’s vocation and the many roles we play in our lifetime. We journal about it all to help us clarify our priorities and discern which direction to go next.
Just write!
Why spiral notebooks? Flexibility and discretion. I’ve been known to rip out pages describing significant days births, baptisms, or weddings to send to a child or grandchild for a memory book. Or I may decide it is better to destroy pages that are what is too private to share or too shameful or hurtful for others to see.
Whatever type of writing supplies you use, the point is – just write! Find a book or notebook or computer program that’s natural and comfortable for you. Give yourself the option of removing or deleting any entries you later decide should remain private between you and God, or you can select an inspiring entry from the past to send to someone with a note, “From my spiritual journal.”
Ask Yourself: What else do I need to start writing a journal today?
Read the series: Journaling toward God
Next in the Journaling toward God series: Part 5: Weekly Summary, Morning Pages, and Letters to God
