Today a friend recommended a book to me called, "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" by Donald S. Whitney. I am thinking about reading it because she shared one of the quotes from the book and it intrigued me. Here is what Donald says:
"Used appropriately, instead of drawing us more into ourselves, a journal can actually become a means of propelling us into action for others... The journal can be a mirror in the hands of the Holy spirit in which He reveals His perspective on our attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions. Since we will be held accountable for each of these at the judgment, evaluating them by any means is wisdom."
I agree with this his statement and find it to be true in my own life. As I write down what I am thinking or feeling about a situation it helps me cement in my own mind what I truly do feel and think. When I see it in black and white, I have choices to make. I can either agree and ignore what I see or it can propel me to make changes in my thoughts and actions. Those changes usually involve how I treat others or behavior changes that effect others. We are all bouncing around in this world bumping into each other like those balls in the lottery bin. I am hoping that when I bump into others that my influence will be a positive one and not a negative one. A nice soft kind of bumping into and not a harsh hurtful one. Journals are a great way to work all that out and people that keep journals know how revolutionizing they can be. Here is another quote from the book.
"...the simple discipline of recording the events of the day and noting my reactions to them causes me to examine myself much more thoroughly than I would otherwise."
Do you suppose that people don't keep journals because they would have to slow down long enough to actually evaluate what they think about life, themselves and see the reality of those words? I wonder.
4 comments:
Dear Terri,
Thanks for sharing your blog with us. great work.
To answer your pondering question that you finshed with today, I think people don't journal because they don't know how to. one day I hope to teach a class on Journaling and the different forms it can have. Thanks Amy in Florida
Amy, so good to see you pop up here. I know you are right about people not knowing how to journal. I tried a lot of ways before figuring it out myself. Thanks for you comment.
HI Teri! I read this book many years agao and thought is was absolutely fabulous! Its one you can read many times at different seasons of your life and find some new nugget of truth to challenge and inspire you! Looking forward to gathering again next week!
XO
Lani
I agree with Amy - I too think that people don't journal because they don't know how. But also, I know from experience that one of the things that keeps me from my journal is the whole issue of time. By the time I get home from work every day and do what I need to in order to get ready for the next day, I just feel like sitting down with my journal. I got my journal out on Tuesday (I just HAD to write about the momentous results of the US election), and it's the first time in months that I've written in it.
Post a Comment