Journaling…

I started writing this post several months ago and then forgot about it! I decided it would be a good time to finish and post it!

The act of keeping a journal is an old one. Many men and women, throughout history have kept journals or diaries. Like many other things, the keeping of a journal can be bad if done wrongly but if used correctly can be a blessing.

When I was about nine and a half years old, I started recording in a small ring bound journal my parents had given me. It was not at all regular and could not really be called “journaling”. It was more storytelling then. I told about part of a vacation that we went on (Sometime after we returned.), about our failed attempt to adopt and keep a dog and about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This lasted from February 28, 2000 to November 15, 2001. I filled eight and a half pages then… silence.

On February 4, 2002, when I was about eleven and a half, I started “journaling”. I wrote about things that were happening, while they were happening, from a first hand perspective. I wrote about anything from oil painting to shopping. Then on March 11 of that same year, I decided to make an effort to journal every day for a year. I nearly succeeded. I wrote every day for more then two years, only missing two days in the whole! (I still journal, on average, nearly every day.) Little did I realize how important journaling would become to me. I now have at least ten journals holding a record of my life over the past seven years.

The point of this post is not to boast about my journaling. No, the point is not to boast at all. The point is to show how important and what a blessing a journal can be and to show some guidelines about how the writing within should appear.

A journal can be important. How you ask? Consider the following: In “Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen Mr. Tilney has the following conversation with Catherine Morland:

[Catherine] “But, perhaps I keep no journal.”

[Mr. Tilney] “…Not keep a journal! How are your absent cousins to understand the tenour of your life in Bath without one? How are the civilities and compliments of every day to be related as they ought to be, unless noted down every evening in a journal? How are your various dresses to be remembered, and the particular state of your complexion, and curl of your hair to be described in all their diversities, without having constant recourse to a journal…”

Now I would say it more like this: “How are your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to understand the lessons the LORD taught you in full detail without a journal? How are the blessings the LORD sends you every day to be related as they ought unless noted down in a journal? How are the miracles the LORD has done in your life, to be described in all their diversities without having constant recourse to a journal?”

There is a note of sarcasm in Mr. Tilney’s voice and their is in mine as well. Of course I do not believe that you will be in sin or committing some grave offence if you do not keep a journal but think of how many things are forgotten that ought to be remembered! The Bible makes mention several times of keeping “remembrance”, suggesting that doing so may be important. A journal is one way you can preserve those memories. My journal records such important events as my baptism and the birth of my brother. It also records my spiritual journey in mid 2006 when the LORD turned this wandering Christian back to HIM. (See My Testimony)

There is one thing we need to remember however, when we keep a journal: Too often journals or diaries are used somewhat as a confessional. The writers write anything they think or feel  – then they keep their writings secret. No one is allowed to read them – not even their parents. We need to remember when writing a journal that we should never write anything that would not glorify our LORD or that we would hide from those HE has placed over us on earth. I try to never “gossip” about anyone in my journal, never have a pity party and never slander anyone in my journal. A way to help keep myself accountable is to allow my journal to be read by others than myself. My mother has read a lot of it at times and my father, sister and aunt have all read portions at times. It is true that I am human and have not always kept to these standards to perfection. I have occasionally “lost it” while writing in the wrong mood but I do my best with the help of the LORD to only write that which is pleasing to HIM at all times.

To the KING be all the glory!