The Gift of Journalling by Sandi Somers

 

It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by.

Vita Sackville-West

Write the vision.

Habakkuk 2:2

Hello readers and writers!! It seems strange to write near mid-month. Since I began posting in 2014, I’ve been either the lead writer off the top or near the top.

It’s been a delight to read your posts so far. You’ve included so many touching moments of intimate encounters with God through journalling and how He has spoken to you and brought you wisdom, insight, and healing.

Years ago I wrote an IWO post about journals, giving readers an overview of different types of journals and writers’ notebooks. But this time I’ll describe my current journals and what they mean to me now.

Bible Study journal. My day begins early, spending valuable time with the Lord in in-depth Bible studies. As He illuminates my understanding, I journal issues and thoughts from daily questions or issues. Very often I find a spark that jumpstarts a personal story and a devotional slant that I later write to help my future readers recognize the great treasure they can discover in their Christian faith.

A chronological journal, which I’ve kept for years, is a mixture of daily events, sometimes the Lord’s words to me, and working out issues in my life. Right now, like Bob Jones, I often write commentary on what's going on in the world, and including my prayers gives me an opportunity to hear the Lord’s heart for world and national events.

However, I’ve noticed that when I’m sorting out sometimes-crucial personal experiences, I write my tangled thoughts on separate pieces of paper. Somehow, I need extra privacy for this process. Eventually, when the issue has been resolved, I toss out my notes as I place the situation in God’s hands.

Everyday touches. A number of years ago while reading a farming newspaper magazine that my brothers receive, I enjoyed a weekly column by a State Senator and rancher from North Dakota who for a time wrote “Cowboy Logic”. He didn’t focus on his government duties. Instead, he wrote incidents from everyday life around the ranch that involved his family, neighbours, friends—and animals.

His column inspired me to write about my own everyday occurrences. Sometimes my content is factual as I practice writing scenes with a meaningful twist at the end. Other times I become lyrical and poetic as I capture a magical or significant moment, like the time I glanced out my window to see houses in my cul-de-sac reflecting the glow of late afternoon winter sun. Writing these incidents prompts me to pay attention to treasured moments. It also develops a memory bank where I sometimes lift important points for a devotional reading or inclusion in an article.

This year I’ve added another important notebook—a process journal of plans for my writing. Often thoughts and ideas for projects come unexpectedly. It is helping me to gather those ideas into an organized system. So far I’ve included a section on my quarterly/yearly plans, weekly Business Meetings with God, discoveries, and plans for the next week. I also have a section on ideas for both upcoming FellowScript articles and each IWO monthly blog.

Other journals and notebooks. I keep a small notebook in my purse for ideas and takeaways from important conversations or talks at meetings. Another in my car for when I hear a radio comment or sentence relevant to one of my works in progress; I try to retain the memory until the next red light when I can make that notation. Travel journals are significant for new sights, experiences, and relationships.

Each journal entry is a gift to myself and an offering to the Lord: nuggets of resonance and truth. I’m reminded of what Marion Roach Smith, a memoir coach, said: “Write…key moments. They could be reframed and become the content for new works. Capture brief moments before their magic and significance flutter away in the winds of time.”


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Journaling Through Pain to Peace ~ Valerie Ronald

 

Years ago, I stood to speak to my church family, feeling nervous and vulnerable yet certain I was doing what God wanted me to do.

“Pastor David has asked me to tell you how God’s faithfulness has brought me to where I can look back at recent challenging times in my life and see Him carrying me through. The best way I can tell you is by sharing excerpts from my journal.” I paused, looking out at familiar faces listening expectantly.

“My heart is in here.” I held up a worn, black spiral notebook.

"It contains pages smeared with tears˗˗sentences written black with anger˗˗many questions asked of God. And words of surrender when I came to the end of myself and God met me. There He gave me words from His journal, the Bible, to strengthen and encourage me. Words I read repeatedly, clinging to His promises when all else was crumbling around me.”

***

Throughout my life, journaling was a way for me to process difficulties and inner struggles. From an early age, writing was what I loved to do best. I filled notebooks with stories and descriptions, so it was natural to try to figure out my life by writing about it. When things were particularly difficult was when I relied most on journaling. It was the place where I could pour out my heart˗˗where I could honestly express my deepest struggles and emotions without being judged.

I never thought I would be brave enough to share publicly what I had written in private, however, when asked to tell some of my journey to my church family, God led me to my journal. As I prepared to speak, I asked God to show me which excerpts He wanted me to use. I felt like I was laying my heart bare for all to see, yet I had peace about it. I loved my church family. Many of them had loved and supported me through the intense trauma of the last few years. I knew I could trust them with aspects of my story I would not share with just anyone.

In the span of a few months, my children and I had been traumatized by my husband’s adulterous betrayal and desertion, and the diagnosis that I had non-Hodgkins lymphoma cancer. Our family struggled through emotional suffering, financial stress, and legal pressure. I had to try and be strong for my three children. I had to find ways to keep food on the table and the bills paid, as well as dealing with our brokenness. Often it was a matter of just putting one foot in front of the other, praying one prayer for help after the other, moment by moment.

During this time, my journal recorded my utter dependence on God. I needed Him so desperately. Even when I felt angry with what He was allowing to happen to me, He was my Rock. My meandering journal entries always came back to trusting in Him.

“How I need Jesus’ touch! Every day I search the Bible, hungry for reassurance that He knows what He is doing with the mess of my life˗˗needing to know, though all else is falling around me, He is still in control and has a purpose for these trials." 

I asked Him to teach me what He wanted me to learn. He gave me this. “The Lord may give you bread of adversity and water of affliction, but He who teaches you will no longer keep Himself out of sight, but with your own eyes you will see Him.” (Isa.30:20 NIV)  It is not things He wants me to know, it is a Person, Jesus Christ˗˗to see Him with my own spiritual eyes. He wants me to lean completely on Him and His faithful character; to trust when I am alone and empty, His love will fill me up.”

Regular journaling became a lifeline by helping me distill my thoughts and feelings so they made sense, expressing the essence of what was going on inside me. Writing caused me to slow down enough to attend to my inner being, helping me to reflect, contemplate, and more fully digest what I was experiencing. I also noticed a beneficial pattern in my journal entries. They often began with a rant of pain or anger over difficult circumstances, then as I sought God, the ranting became a prayer, informed by His Word and ending in gratitude. My journal functioned like a compass whose needle at first gyrated madly, then as the power of God steadied the needle, it pointed unerringly to ‘true north,’ the power of His Holy Spirit guiding and directing me.

By the time I shared my story with my church family, God was already at work releasing the log jam of problems damming my life river. Much of the dirt and debris had washed away in the cleansing flow of His Spirit and I looked forward to happier times.

Further entries in my journal recorded meeting and marrying my husband, a man of God and His Word, and going into remission from cancer, still holding 24 years later. My life is not perfect, but it is lived in perfect peace because of my beloved Savior. When I read back over my journal from those painful years, it is His love and grace which stands out. I have it in writing.

                                                                   

      

Valerie Ronald writes from an old roll top desk in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, with her tortoiseshell cat for a muse. A graduate of Langara College School of Journalism, she writes devotionals, fiction, and inspirational prose. Her purpose in writing is to encourage others to grow in their spiritual walk.                                                 

My Inconsistent Journal by Lorilee Guenter

 

It started with a simple notebook and a pen. The earliest I remember consistently writing in a journal was summer of 1986. I had the opportunity to travel with my grandparents, youngest aunt, and sister to Expo 86 in Vancouver. That journal holds observations and reflections of the trip. Over the years I have been an inconsistent journaller. I am most consistent at recording my observations and reflections while travelling.

Over the years, my journals have evolved, and some might say devolved. Lately when I pick up my journal it is a time of reflection. It is a time of asking questions and listening. I have said, "God meets me on the page." This is especially true when I don't follow a rigid journal structure. I write without agenda or time frame. I pause knowing God will show me what I need, when I need it. I pour out my heart, my questions, my concerns, my fears and my excitement in a raw unfiltered manner. Those journals are for my eyes only.

I have at times kept a gratitude journal. When I open those pages, I am remembering and counting my blessings. It is a time of slowing and noticing. It is a time of reflecting and watching my perspective change from grumbling to thanksgiving.

I have had seasons where I journal my prayers. I tried morning pages. I have a book of random quotes. No one style of journaling has been a consistent routine in my day. Even with gaps, I find I always return to my journal, whether it is fancy or plain, to record, reflect and ponder. I expect I always will. The style I use is what I need at the time.

Lorilee Guenter is an inconsistent journal keeper who enjoys learning. She can be found in the garden, with a book, or hiking and exploring nature with her husband. She is facing her fears by taking her stories beyond the journal page and releasing them from captivity.

Ministering to Our Future Selves by Michelle Joy Teigrob

After stumbling through a year-long gauntlet of heartache and trouble, including the deaths of two loved ones, my spirit finally succumbed to my burden one grey November afternoon. For almost two days, I could not bring myself to rise. While I mostly felt overcome and unable to process much of anything, deep down a sense of humiliation and anxiety stirred. How could I have allowed myself to reach such a state? I trusted in Jesus to help me through anything and everything, so why was I lying on my couch feeling as though I could not go on?

Even as I shamed myself, my family reacted with kindness, patience, and understanding. My son spent hours sitting near me as he worked on his college studies. My husband and daughter picked up the chores I had left undone. I felt both undeserving and worried. My family always depended on my caretaking; maybe they didn’t need me as much as I liked to believe they did.

When I could finally do more than just sleep, I turned to reading. Normally a voracious reader and able to plough through a whole novel in a day, I found myself unable to get through more than a few lines at a time. One verse from Scripture kept drawing me back. I read it many times over: "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory" (Matthew 12:20, NIV). "I have become a bruised reed and a smoldering wick. I have become of no use to anyone.".

Eventually, I had enough strength to pull out my journal and write down some thoughts in response to the verse.

The fervent prayers of some loved ones, the kind mentoring of a friend, and a booklet on recovering from burnout helped me get back on my feet over the next several weeks. I found myself once again working at my job, ministering to others, and caring for my family with most of my old joy and strength.

Then one day I hit a low spot again, not as bad as the time before, but sadness and doubt troubled my spirit. Not expecting to find anything in particular to help me, I paged aimlessly through my journal while also reflecting on what I might write in it next. Then I came to the note I had jotted weeks before in response to Matthew 12:20.

The words I had written did not hold flashes of genius. They had not been carefully crafted into eloquence and elegance. They were just simple declarations of belief in the promise of the verse I had read and reread.

"You don’t have to worry about being a smoldering wick," I had written to myself.
"You don’t have to apologize for it, or be embarrassed about it, ashamed, guilty, afraid, or anxious.
Jesus is not going to snuff you out.
Instead, he is going to enact justice.
He is going to make things right.
Everything and everyone that have hurt and broken and chipped away at you over this past year, he is going to make right. I don’t know how. I don’t know when. But he will."

As I reread this message to myself weeks after I had written it, the plain, simple words of declared belief nudged my spirit once again towards renewed hope and motivation.

We may not plan for it to be so, but sometimes our journals can be tools of hope and healing for our future selves. We may be writing simply to encourage ourselves in the moment, yet we never know when our declarations of faith in one instance of pain and suffering may be just the ministration we need in another time.

Michelle Joy Teigrob lives with her family in Peterborough, Ontario. Her book on grief, Joyfully Star-mapping through Life's Dung-piles, was shortlisted for the 2025 Word Awards.