The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 6 - Journals and Diaries

 The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering. 

Week 6 - Journals and Diaries

As a child, I remember being given diaries as presents for Christmas. For a few years in a row it was a Winnie-the-Pooh diary. I would write in it with great pride for a few weeks until I got fed up and then it would be empty for the rest of the year. Even when I did write in it, it was pretty dull "got up, went to school - English, Maths and Art, came home and played out with Amy and Ben, went to bed".

An empty page

My grandmother always encouraged me to keep a diary, in fact it was probably my grandmother who bought them for me. She used to tell me she kept diaries although I wonder where they are now? My mum encouraged us to keep scrap books as children as well, recording all the places we visited and the holidays we went on. I still have all of these somewhere (probably still in a cupboard at my parents house) and still keep semi-regular scrap books of holidays and days out - weddings, museums, concerts etc. As my husband and I are rapidly running out of storage space I wonder why I still have these, as I very rarely look back through them but yet they hold memories which I do not want to discard.

In 2001, when I first became a Christian a good friend of my mum's bought me a 5-year diary to record things I was praying for so that I could look back and see the answers to prayers. I kept up with this for about 2 years but have rarely looked back at it.

In 2004, I travelled to Brazil for my gap year and we were again encouraged to keep a diary of our time there. I did stick with this and kept a diary for the whole time I was there, recording details of what we did each day and what we ate and drank but not many about my thoughts or feelings. Since, I have read this diary a number of times and been reminded of what we did and enjoyed and the food etc, which has been lovely.

Since travelling to Brazil, I have done a few other big trips to Egypt, Malawi, New Zealand and for each trip I kept a diary. My last trip was to New Zealand and instead of a diary we wrote a blog with photos each day so that our family's and friends could keep up to date with our travels, but it is also a fantastic resource to look back on (you'll find it on my other blog Ruth's Favourite Things). For the older diaries there are often no photos but I did keep a chronological photo album in which you could find the photos from these trips as well as scrap books of the travel adventures.

My current "pretty" journal

A few years ago, I started journalling with God after doing a course called How to Hear the Voice of God by Mark Virkler (Google books) with my home group from church. The course encouraged emptying your mind to focus on God and journalling your conversation with Him, which I still do (may be not quite as regularly as previously). I like to tell God about how I'm feeling and my thoughts about life and He responds, so there are some great depths of feelings and emotions in these journals. It is great to look back over these journals though for it shows how much you've progressed through life and the answers to your petitions to God as well as answers to prophecies people may have had for you. God speaks to me through my dreams so it is common I record those in my journals and attempt to interpret them. These journals are very deep and private, but record my Spiritual and emotional journey through life.

I often buy journals which are "pretty" but often write in them in a standard biro pen, whatever is lying about and often have multiple pieces of paper stuck in between the pages and a few drawings if I feel particularly artistic some days.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan