The Joy of Journaling

Happy Friday to everyone. I hope you have had a good week! I haven't been blogging as often as I would like. This has been an unusual week for me. Monday I enjoyed the Labor Day holiday with my husband. We spent half the day at a local park, where we rented a small boat and explored the lake for several hours until we got too hot, and then we came home and put our smoker to good use, smoking a whole chicken for a delicious supper. That relaxing day was followed by my endoscopy on Tuesday, which meant I was out of commission for the day. Thus Wednesday and Thursdays were "catch up" days - one day busy with tasks at home and the other out doing necessary shopping and errands. My husband usually takes Fridays as his day off, because he can't relax until he knows everything is finished and ready for Sunday, but since he took Monday and half of Tuesday off, he is working today. So I am taking advantage of the quiet free time to do some writing and studying.

I promised last post that I would tell you more about something that is very important to me - keeping a journal as part of my time with the Lord. I first was introduced to the joy of journaling by Mrs. Bobbie Yearick, who was my pastor's wife while my husband was in school studying for the ministry. Mrs. Yearick left an imprint on my life in so many ways, and teaching me to journal was just one of them. She spoke of her journal as her "Ebenezer book." An "Ebenezer book" is a journal which includes blessings, lessons, and remembrances of God's goodness and His answers to prayer. In direct answer to the effectual and fervent prayer of a righteous man, Samuel, God wrought a great victory for Israel against the Philistines in 1 Samuel 7:9-12. Unwilling that this victory be forgotten by either himself or his people, Samuel set up a stone - the "Ebenezer stone" - in commemoration. From that time on, when the children of Israel passed by they would see the stone and be reminded of the Lord's grace and mercy to them.

A passage that has much meaning for me when it comes to journaling is Exodus 17:14-16. Again this account takes place after a time of blessing from God. The Lord gives Moses a special and personal message - he tells Moses to "write about this in a book as a memorial, and recite it to Joshua" so that they might have a permanent record of what God had done.

There are at least 4 motivations for keeping a spiritual journal:
1. Our own forgetfulness. We are so quick to forget what God has taught us and done for us! How many times do we get discouraged over the present circumstances, and forget all the things God has done for us and the prayers He has answered in the past? I now have nearly 20 years' worth of written blessings, lessons, and answers to prayer. Most of the time when I read back over them I find things I had completely forgotten about!

2. The certainties of difficulties in the future. We are blessed not only from recalling, but we gain encouragement for the future. We do not know what lies ahead, but when we have something in writing that we can go back to in times of trial, it encourages us and gives us strength. We are reminded that God has been with us and helped us before, and He will do it again!

3. It memorializes the meeting between us and God. Journaling is simply putting your heart on paper. It is a way of not just getting into God's Word, but getting God's Word into us. Writing crystalizes your thinking, and records your personal insight into what God says and does.

4. It is a legacy for future generations. Don't miss the part of the passage in Exodus where God tells Moses to rehearse what is written in the book to Joshua. "Rehearse" means to practice, over and over again. The Psalmists remind us frequently of the importance of passing along the things of God to future generations. Psalm 78:4 -"Showing to the generations to come the goodness of the Lord."  Psalm 45:17 - "I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations..." As mothers and grandmothers, God wants us to use what God has taught us to teach our children and grandchildren.

Another benefit that I might add is that I have a wealth of material! If I am looking for an application from a special verse, a favorite verse, quote,  answer to prayer, or an event, I can almost always find it in one of my journals.

So by now maybe you have read this and are saying, "OK, I would like to try this. But what do I do? How do I get started?" Since this post is getting rather long, I will address the "how-to" in another post in the near future.

From my heart to yours,
Kathi