What kinds of spiritual journals can I keep? What is the purpose of each type of faithbook? See five common ways to write a spiritual journal.
Now that you understand the importance of creating a spiritual journal you might want to experiment with different types to see which journal style best suites you and your needs. Or keep more than one type of spiritual journal at a time. There are many different ways to structure a spiritual journal but here are five popular options.
- Create a Scrapbook Style Spiritual Journal
Also known as Faithbooking there are many scrapbookers, led by Creative Memories co-founder Rhonda Anderson, who incorporate spiritual journaling into their regular scrapbook photo albums. The Faithbooking Yahoo Group provides some tools to help you learn to journal the spiritual events of your life right into your regular photo albums. Something as simple as using Scripture verses to title or enhance the photos of the page can be a powerful tool for emphasizing the spiritual parts of our lives. Writing openly in the album about what God is doing in your life reminds those who look at the book of the importance of being aware of the spiritual.
- Use a Prayer Book as a Spiritual Journal
Sometimes when we are struggling with a difficult situation we think to ourselves, “Doesn't God hear my prayers?”. Of course, the answer is yes God does answer prayer and work in our lives in powerful ways. But we forget. Keeping a prayer journal is a powerful way to see how God has responded in our lives before. Write down answers to prayers as they come – both good and seemingly bad. Oftentimes we are able to look back and see how God worked good in our lives from a situation we thought was bad at the time. Having that in our spiritual journal can be a powerful tool in the future.
- Create a Gratitude Journal for Your Spiritual Journal
A very popular type of spiritual journal is a gratitude journal. Documenting the blessings, miracles and unearned mercies in our lives can help any time you feel “down” spiritually. A gratitude journal serves to focus us, maintain healthy priorities and even overcome temporary feelings of depression and doubt. When we write a gratitude journal we acknowledge the things in our life that are of benefit. The Bible says “Whatever things are good, noble, true...Think on these things” (emphasis added). A gratitude journal helps us do just that since it serves as a spiritual journal specifically for the good things.
- Spiritual Journaling through an Affirmation Book
Another great way to do some spiritual journaling is to create an affirmation book. In this case the spiritual journal is not for you, but rather serves as an affirmation to someone else. We see many examples of this in Scripture as believers wrote letters to each other exhorting and encouraging one another in faith. Today this could be as simple as creating an ABC book for your child and listing all the godly characters you see in them for each letter, i.e. “A for Admiration. You always admire your earthly father and I pray that some day you'll admire your heavenly Father even more. B for Bravery. Even as a small child you were never afraid to speak with honesty and integrity”. An affirmation book like this can be a heart-warming gift for a child and serve to encourage them in their spiritual journal.
- Create a Private Spiritual Journal
Many of these options are books that are designed to be shared with and read by others. Sometimes is it important to have a private place to work through your spiritual journey. A place to cry, fuss, praise, worship, ask questions and receive blessings. Like King David of old, who poured his heart out to God on a daily basis and was called “A man after God's own heart” so we too can come boldly before the throne in written words of honesty to the Lord.
“A journal has the added merit of focusing and concentrating our thinking.” ~Richard Frost
Resources:
"God Moments: Recognizing and Remembering God's Presence in Your Life" (1999) by Alan D. Wright
"How to Keep a Spiritual Journal: A Guide to Journal Keeping for Inner Growth and Personal Discovery" (2002) by Ron Klug
"The Creative Memories Way" (2002) by Cheryl Lightle and Rhonda Anderson
Faithbooking Yahoo Group Website
