Journaling - Free Template!

Have you ever kept a diary or journal? I’ve kept one off and on since I was 13 years old. Here’s one of my entries from May 14, 1975.

“Dear Diary, well, today I blew my ten dollars ‘cause I bought a new pair of jeans for eleven. We had to stay after school for cheerleading to teach the sixth and seventh graders cheers for tryouts. I just heard that we or Cambodia bombed each other or something like that. I hope it doesn’t start World War Three. A.T. broke up with M.C. for a 7th grader. I sorta like M.C. but sometimes he makes me sick.”

Reading back through my journals is funny, but it’s also humbling. Thank goodness I grew up! 😊

Miah, the protagonist in my book, Even in This, kept a journal since she was a child. As she enters adulthood, her practice of journaling helps her process the emotions of first love as well as the gutted pain of God’s seeming judgement and then abandonment.

Through the joys and trials of the passing years, journaling has served as my sounding board too, and it has changed as I have changed. When I was a teenager, my entries were snippets of high or low points of the day. When I was a busy mom of five, my entries journaled our activities and happenings.

And when life became hard and my marriage was struggling, a dear sister-in-law gave me a

devotional, One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp that changed my life and the focus of my daily writing. Instead of scribbling out desperate laments and cries for help, my journaling became a recounting of the day's blessings.

Shortly after I began listing the good gifts I received from above, my pastor introduced our church to a way of journaling that would help keep our hearts “Alive To God.” Over time, I tweaked his journaling method to enhance and enrich my daily Bible reading.

For many years, I used Ann Voskamp or Sara Young’s devotionals to guide my Bible reading and quiet time with the Lord, but last year I decided to read through the New Testament, and this year I’m reading through the Psalms and Proverbs. This rhythm of Bible reading and journaling has supplied me with peace and perspective for the past nine or so years, and I know it could provide you the same.

Here’s how my morning devotions go: (This usually takes me about 30 minutes.)

· I say a quick prayer and ask God to speak to me through His word.

· I read one chapter of the Bible (ex. one chapter in Psalms.)

· In my journal:

• I write out one or two verses that stand out to me.

• I then skim the chapter looking for characteristics of God and complete this sentence in my journal, “God, You are …”.

• I complete this sentence, “Today my heart is…” (How I am feeling and why.)

• I complete this sentence, “Dear Lord, Today please fill me with … Help me… (What does God want for me? What does He want me to do? How is he changing me to reflect His character?)

• I write three things I’m grateful for. (this could be relational events, elements of the day, nature, food, music, etc.)

• I list people or circumstances that I’m praying for.

If you would like a free downloadable PDF of the template I use to journal my way through scripture click the button below.

Journaling Card.pdf

Download PDF • 2.78MB

I pray you will experience the peace and presence of God and will be changed as you spend time with Him.