Keeping a personal and or spiritual journal is one of the many tools that God offers to help us feel connected to God's abiding love and presence, to sort out and deal with conflicting or overwhelming feelings, to clarify important decisions and to gain insight into both our lives and God's desire for healing and wholeness for us. Discipline often fails us in times of stress or change, just when it would be of most benefit! Keeping a journal is a wonderful way to give some structure to our spiritual lives and the help us with a consistent discipline that will sustain us throughout our lives.

If you have never kept a spiritual journal, or if you, like many of us, have kept a journal only sporadically, keep the following tips in mind.

Your journal is a gift and a tool not a burden and a law. It is like a special date with God and your own self. The more that you do it, the more that you will want to do it.

You may want to use a special notebook with a colorful cover created just for the purpose. Or you may want to use a simple notebook that you can pick up in the grocery store, or loose leaf pages that you can keep with you all around the house. Or you might want to use a sketch pad and draw as much as you write. The perfect choice is what ever is comfortable, easy, accessible and affordable for you.

You can write in your journal anywhere or anytime you choose. Many people find it helpful to have a special place, like a favorite easy chair or a desk where you can spread out books or Bibles to support your efforts. I find it really helpful to write where I can have privacy and a little soft music. Sometimes I light a small candle or turn on the Christmas lights I have strung around my study window all year long.

Journal writing is a wonderful way to begin the day I like to have a time of quiet first thing in the morning (although this has become a bit of a challenge with my new Keeshond puppy, Abigail). If it is a chilly morning I spread a lap blanket in my lap and write on one of those little lap desks that you can get for a song at K-Mart or such. I have my tea or coffee close by and a whole variety of colored pens. Often I have a devotional book or some other kind of spiritual reading. And I always have my Bible. Your own heart and your Bible are the best resources. Once I am settled, I take some deep breaths and pray for God's guidance in my praying and writing. Then I read a little from scripture or just start writing.

At the end of the day, I like to 'empty' my mind before sleep. I find that sometimes I lay awake worrying about tomorrow or the things left undone today. It helps me to take my journal and simply make a list of everything that will need to be done tomorrow, who I need to call, what deadlines are coming. Then I even make a worry list. It can contain things from “I am worried that I am catching a cold” to “ I am afraid that my friend is really ill” or “I don't see where the money is coming from this month to pay my bills” to any fear large or small. As I write my worry list I offer each fear to God asking God to remove the fear from my mind so that I can have a good restorative sleep. This is also a good exercise if you have to get up in the night and have trouble falling back to sleep.

Be sure to tell any who live with you that you expect them to honor the privacy of your journal (and to please destroy it when you pass on). Otherwise you will censor what you write and there will be others in the relationship besides just you and God.

Maybe you struggle with your weight or with low appetite. Some people find it helpful to jot down what they eat, when they eat and how they were feeling while they eat. You might also get into the habit of making a note of when you take your medicine so that you don't get confused and wonder "did I take it or not?"

There are many ways of getting started. Here are a few you might try.

This method is adapted from an old and wonderful book on keeping a spiritual journal called Keeping Your Personal Journal by George F. Simons. Take a full page of your journal and draw, with colored pens or pencils, a map of your soul country. Perhaps you can conceive of yourself as a continent, a peninsula or an island. Shape your coastline or boundaries and then, as you draw them, name the mountains and valleys, the lakes, rivers, jungles, deserts, cities, etc. Try to be specific about yourself and your personal history when creating and naming sites, e.g. the volcano of my anger with my father, my oasis of the birth of my child, the jungle of confusion about my faith, the island of my loneliness, the theme park of my marriage.

Once you complete the map, take a good look at it. You may find it helpful to use some of the following ideas.

• Look it over and jot down the single word, phrase or image which describes how you feel about the present state of your soul country.
• Take this word or image and expand it into a paragraph. Let your writing flow as far as it wants to.
• Write about what you particularly like, dislike or find missing in your personal landscape.
• Create a tour guide to your country. This can be a lengthy project, so do it one feature at a time.
• The tour guide would contain such information as: place, name; when it was discovered; its history; an accurate description of what it is like; current events and coming attractions; climate (i.e. mood, or feelings evoked).

For a little less fanciful method, begin by writing the date at the top of a new page. Take a few moments of quiet. Read a brief passage from Scripture. I have included a sample to choose from at the link Verses of Encouragement on the Home Page. Make brief notes on any or all of the following.

• How are you feeling at the present moment? What is going on? What are your most pressing concerns? What is bringing you the most peace or joy?
• What insights or ideas come to you from your reading of the Scripture? What do you think God might want you to hear from the Word today?
• Do I remember any of my dreams? If so, jot them down. There are lots of wonderful books for Christians on working with dreams. One that I like, again an older book,is Dreams: God's Forgotten Language by John A. Sanford.
• Jot down anything that presents itself to your mind that you would like to remember.

Sometimes as we age and find that our life situations as well as our physical abilities change, it can be a time to both review our lives and re-invent them for this stage of growth.

• Think about your life as a whole. What special gifts has God given me? How have I put those gifts to work? Are there new gifts for this time in my life? How might I use them?
• What are the things that have tended to anger me? What is concerning me now? In what circumstance do I feel helpless or powerless? Where do I get my support in these circumstances?
• What are the blessings of my life? For what am I most grateful right now? Who are my special support people? Jot down their names and thank God for them.
• Are there things that I need to let go of? Are there things I need to confess? Ask God to show you what is truly burdening you and to help you to let go of those things. Rest confident that nothing is too hard for God.

1 learned this model for reflecting when I was in Central America back in the 1980's during the Contra War. The people in the communities would gather together to reflect like this in their homes and neighborhoods several times a week.

• Note what is going on with you at the moment. Jot down your fears, frustrations, hopes, dreams, delights and praises,
• Take a time for silent prayer or use the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, have mercy on me.)
• Read a short passage from Scripture. Reflect on the passage.
• What was happening to those people? What was the need being addressed? What might they have been feeling? Might they have been feeling anything similar to what you are currently feeling? How did God address them? Could God be addressing you similarly?
• Make a covenant promise between yourself and God about one (or more) specific action you will take based on your reflection today.