Journaling Has Been Good for Me
A journal can be a place for remembering, reminding, praying, thinking, creating
I’ve journaled with varying levels of consistency for decades.
When I had a faith and life coach a few years ago, I began to embrace journaling with greater care. I try to journal every day, although my current journal, begun on July 18 of last year, shows that I can sometimes go for a week without making an entry. But I always come back to the journal.
For years, I thought I needed to do my journaling first thing in the morning, along with Scripture-reading, praying, and looking over plans and goals for the day. Discipline in such matters is a good thing. But discipline can tip into regimentation. When grim regimentation is brought to journaling, I find I become resentful and discouraged. I’ve adopted a more loosey-goosey approach, a sort of relaxed discipline, when it comes to journaling over the past few years and the result is that I journal more often and with greater enjoyment.
These days, I might as readily pull my journal out late in the evening as early in the morning, another example of living with less regimentation. (Of course, my schedule has more flexibility these days, having retired at the end of December.)
The fundamental building block of my journaling is a Bible reading program, one that takes the reader through the Bible in a year. That usually entails reading three to four chapters a day. I jot down thoughts I have about the readings some days; others, I just note the chapters I’ve read.
The journal also contains a self-generated, running list, noted throughout, of prayer concerns, along with any updates I jot down. When God answers the prayer, whatever the answer, I note it with a slash through the circled number I always put next to each request. I pretty much pray about every item on the list every day, even on the days when I don’t journal. (I can do that because as I pray about these items every day, they’re lodged in my memory anyway.)
My journal is also part-diary. I note things that are going on and what I’m thinking and feeling about them.
Occasionally, I draw. But because I’m not much of an artist, I only draw when it flows naturally from what I’m thinking or reflecting on.
I also jot down ideas for various projects, especially writing projects. (Most of those have remained undone this year because of all the health issues I’ve had since the beginning of the year which have often left me exhausted. More on all that another time, maybe.)
A journal, even the one I’ve been filling since last July, can be a treasure trove of remembrances, reminders, prompts for prayer and reflection, and gratitude. (“God got me through that, “ I think, “He can get me through this too.”)
The faith and life coach I mentioned earlier isn’t the only person who helped me see the utility and joys of journaling. Several authors I’ve mentioned previously have also inspired me to adopt and keep at journaling, especially Austin Kleon and Michael Jecks.
Since I want the journals to be more durable than spiral ring notebooks, last year I ordered a hardback, lined Paperage notebook from Amazon. It runs to 160-pages and features 100 GSM thick paper. The pages measure 5.7-inches by 8-inches. I like the thickness of the paper because even when I use oil-based brush pens, there’s little bleed-through to the next page. Two other features I like about the notebook are a ribbon bookmark and an elastic closure band. (By the way, I still use spiral ring notebooks for meeting, teaching, and preaching notes.)
I’m a little fussy about the pens I use, but I’m also a cheapskate. I love the inexpensive Uniball Signo 207 with black ink. It’s a gel pen that leaves a strong image and seems to glide across the page as I write. I was getting these at Sam’s Club. But when I went to the local store yesterday to r
eplenish my supply, the pens weren’t in stock. I ordered them from Amazon. The pen comes in other colors, but I almost always write in black.
I write in a cursive that has often been described as “effeminate,” at least it was back in the day when people made such politically incorrect characterizations. We ran across a diary my mother kept of a trip she took to Europe with my dad shortly after he retired thirty years ago and my daughter commented, “Your handwriting is like hers.” It is, but, although his looked much better, it’s also a lot like my dad’s. He had beautifully legible, seemingly effortless handwriting, even when he was older.
It was hard for me to find a page from the journal that didn’t reveal something personal about myself or others for whom I was praying. But, to help you see how I use each page, below is an entry from earlier this year.
As I said, occasionally, infrequently, I’ll draw in the journal. This drawing reflected how I was feeling one day not long ago.
I already have my next journal notebooks waiting in the wings—actually, setting on a nearby shelf. They too were manufactured by Paperage. But their lines are dotted, more readily accommodating both my writing and my “drawing.”
Journaling is a good thing for me. Maybe it can be for you too.