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Copyright 2012 Sharon S Hines This work is licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. Permission is granted to make copies for personal use or to share with others, provided copies are freely given and not sold. Authorship and website information must be retained on all copies. Not for commercial use. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Sharon S Hines 310 Major Rd Piedmont, SC 29673 For more information, please visit www.heargodsvoice.org Email me at shinespied@gmail.com Like my page on Facebook: facebook.com/SharonSHinesAuthor Follow me on Twitter: @SS_Hines
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to share. My name is Sharon Hines. I help Christian women regain hope, strengthen their faith, and increase their capacity to love through journaling. My hope is that I can help you find a new path on your journey toward a deep and abiding relationship with God. If youre like me, youve had some significant challenges in your life. Maybe youve been widowed or divorced or been in an abusive situation. Maybe youre worried about your finances, your job, or your health. Or maybe, like so many other women, youre worried about those around you: your family, close friends, or co-workers. If youve asked yourself recently Why is God letting this happen to me? then you are just the sort of person I want to help. Just like everyone else, Ive faced many challenges in my life marital problems, health issues, and job loss, to name a few. But as I worked through each successive challenge, my hope only increased, my faith only grew stronger, and my ability to love expanded. How did that happen? The secret is that I have used these challenges as opportunities to get closer to God and to actually hear Gods voice guiding me through the troubled waters of life. I want to share with you how to start getting closer to God. Its not a quick trip, but its worth the effort. I know that if you put in even five minutes a day on this, and make it a life-long habit, you can have every bit as much hope, faith, and love as I do, if not more. The first step in getting closer to God is to recognize Gods hand in your life. Thats what I want to teach you in this brief booklet. Specifically, Im going to teach you how to journal for the purpose of recognizing what God has already done for you. Here are some of the topics Ill discuss: Why should I bother to journal? Isnt it time-consuming? How, when, and where should I journal? What should I write about? Ok, so I wrote in my journal. Now what?
But before I jump into all of that, let me quickly share with you a little glimpse of my journaling story.
thought he might be in love with someone else. I thought the world was falling apart. All I could pray was what did I do that was so bad, that this happened to me? My marriage counselor was the one who suggested I started journaling about what I was going through. (If you want to hear the whole story, see the About tab on my website.) For now, suffice it to say that journaling turned out to be terrific advice. It not only helped me get through that situation, it continued to be a significant part of my life. In fact, journaling has been so important to me, particularly in my spiritual journey, that I came to realize that there are others who could benefit from my experience. Im looking forward to sharing all I know about journaling with you. So lets get started.
What is a Journal?
Once I realized that journaling was helping me put my life back together after my marital difficulties, it became part of my standard toolbox for life and for spiritual growth. Ive had dozens of different journals over the years, in many different formats, for many different purposes. As a woman of faith, I consider them all important to helping me fulfill Gods plan for my life. Of course, people of all faiths (and no faith) journal. In fact, journaling has become increasingly popular over the course of my lifetime. Well look at the benefits in a minute. But first, let me give you my definition of what constitutes a journal. As I see it, there are four basic elements of a journal. 1. Journals are distinguished from other forms of writing or authoring by their link to time. Each entry is identified by a day or time or year or all of those. In some journals, such as art journals, the creator might come back to a previous page and add something later. However, the date an entry was written is an integral part of the story. 2. Journals are written for the writer. Unlike writing a book, the writer doesnt have to imagine some ideal reader. Of course, sometimes the writer might be thinking his/her children may read it someday, but in the short term, the writer and the reader are the same person. (Im ignoring for the moment the special category of group journals.) 3. While the writer doesnt have to worry about an imagined reader, or about whether or not the book will sell, or even if the spelling is correct, a journal writer does generally have a purpose in mind. This might be a psychic purpose (like venting or preserving memories or clarifying thinking) or it might be an extremely practical
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purpose (like keeping track of which relative already received which gift, or having documentation to prove your charity mileage on your taxes). 4. At one time, you could have argued that a journal involved pen and paper. Nowadays, it could involve a computer and a word processor. Or it could involve a recording device, whether audio, video, or both. It could be comprised of words or images or both. The only common aspect is that a journal is information recorded in such a way that it can be re-acquired later by seeing or hearing. Its external to the human brain. So there are my four components: linked to time, created for the writer, created for a purpose, and created in some media. That leaves a whole lot of room for variety in your journaling. Im going to narrow that variety down a little bit and focus just on one purpose: to facilitate the conversation between you and God. Journaling for this specific purpose is called spiritual journaling. From here on, whenever I say journaling, Im referring to spiritual journaling. In a bit, Im going to make some suggestions on ways to get started. But before we get into that, lets look at why you would want to keep a spiritual journal in the first place.
timing. Journaling strengthened my faith as I could look back to see how God had gotten everything to work out just right. God loves me. This isnt just words from a song or a scripture to me anymore. I have proof. In fact, I have lots of proof, right there in my journal. And to paraphrase John (1 John 4:19), I have a greater ability to love others because I know God loves me. When you have enough and to spare of something, its easier to give some away. In my first marriage, and even before that, I felt a lot of jealousy. It caused me a great deal of pain. But as I reviewed the journal entries showing my progress in working through my marital difficulties, I saw how much God loved me. As Sister Theresa told me, God doesnt want you to be unhappy. That experience helped me to get over my jealous tendencies before I started dating the man who would become my second (current) husband. Journaling increased my capacity to love because I could recognize all the ways that God loved me.
Now that Ive shared about how spiritual journaling has helped me, let me ask you some questions. Take a few minutes to think about your answers as you read them. How much more could you accomplish in your life if you had more hope? Would you spend less time wallowing in self-pity? Would you be willing to work harder on something because you had more hope in a positive outcome? Could you start avoiding negative self-talk like, Oh, that will never work. Why even bother? What more would you be willing to try if you had a stronger faith? Would you be more willing to put your life and your problems in Gods hands? How much easier would it be to make decisions if you were convinced God was behind you 100%? Would you be less likely to worry about and stress over your loved ones? How much better would your life be if your ability to love expanded? What affect would more love have on your willingness to share what you have with others? How would it feel to be free of jealousy, deceitfulness, or vengeance? What affect would it have on your family if you felt no need to hold a grudge?
I hope you have seen some ways that journaling could help you regain hope, strengthen your faith, and increase your capacity to love. Im sure you have a lot of questions about exactly how to get started. Im going to answer the simple questions (like when and where to journal) in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format. Then Ill go into more detail about what to write.
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Wherever you pick for your journaling spot, it should be someplace you can go every day. Figure out now where that is. Should I share what I write? Most of the time, you wont want to share what you write. Youll be recording your personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Youll want to be able to be completely honest with yourself and with God. If you are expecting to share this with someone, it might affect what you say and how you choose to express yourself. If you live with others, make sure they understand that your journal is private, and ask that they respect your privacy. If this is going to be an issue, find a safe place to keep your journal away from prying eyes. How big of a commitment am I making? I would encourage you to just try this out for 4 weeks. See if you enjoy it and if it has value for you. If youre not sure, you may want to try some other format (like drawing instead of writing) before you give up completely. If you cant find a journaling format you like, maybe this isnt the spiritual discipline for you. There are lots of others, so keep looking. Eventually, youll find one that suits you.
Another way to say it is that Level 1 journaling is focused on understanding your past. This includes what has been happening recently as well as what has happened in prior periods of your life. As you explore your past, you will come to recognize that Gods hand has been in your life all along. You will see how he has worked with you, guided you in certain paths, and protected you from harm. You will find God speaking to you through your memories, experiences, and insights. Writing them down becomes part of your conversation with God. So now that you know the purpose of Level 1 journaling, lets look at how exactly to get started.
RoseThornSniff
When my two grown sons were in Boy Scouts, they had a tradition called Rose & Thorn. After every camping trip, they would sit around the campfire at the Scout Shack and basically debrief about the trip. Each boy and each adult would take their turn giving a rose, a thorn, and a bud. A rose was something that was good about the trip. Common roses had to do with the food (they had some great cooks) or the activity (hiking, biking, fishing, etc.). A thorn was something that wasnt so good about the trip. Probably the most common thorn in our troop was the weather. We had a running joke about how they took the rain with them wherever they went.
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A bud was something that they wanted to do better next time. Like not make the youngest scouts do all the clean-up. (Of course, that comment would be made by someone who got stuck with all the dishes!) For your very first stab at Level 1 journaling, I suggest a slight adaptation to the Rose & Thorn format. I call it RoseThornSniff. The rose and the thorn are pretty much the same sort of thing the Boy Scouts would list: a good thing that happened, and then a bad thing that happened (or something that you found difficult). The difference comes when you get to the third part. I picked the metaphor of sniffing the rose. What you should write here is a reflection, rather than a re-telling. Its more about the emotions than about the facts. For example, you might choose to write how you felt about either the rose or the thorn. Or you might write an insight you received. Or you could write about how you would react differently if you had a do-over. This is the quickest form of journaling Ive found. If you only have 5-minutes a day to get this done, then you only have to write one sentence for each of the 3 parts. One days entries might look like this.
If you really want to speed things up, you could write yourself a note when something particularly good or bad happens, or text yourself right away. Then you wont even have to spend time remembering what you wanted to write at the end of the day (as long as you dont lose the note, that is!). If you have more time, you could write out the story like you were sending someone a letter or an email. In fact, you could send yourself an email if that helps you to get it done.
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Remember, this is for your eyes only. So dont worry about spelling or grammar or using complete sentences. As long as you can read it, thats all that matters.
Whats Next?
I hope you wont waste any time getting yourself a journal, or picking some electronic format, or downloading my free Rose-Thorn-Sniff journal. Then get started writing every day. If you need a little help staying on track, or if you want to learn more, be on the lookout for my next 4-week tele-class starting soon.
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Im excited that youve decided to give journaling a try. I know it can help you to regain hope, strengthen your faith, and increase your capacity to love, just as it has done for me. I look forward to hearing your journaling story someday soon!
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