Journaling Wrap-Up
I’ve heard from several of you this month sharing your experiences with journaling, and I have loved reading your stories and seeing all of the variety around this formation practice. As we wrap up this month I have just a few final thoughts on journaling.
I have found myself in seasons where the pages in my journal become full of complaints. And while I think it is a safe space to be completely honest about how I’m feeling, I also want to remember my goals for using my journal well.
One of my goals is to record where I see God working in my story so that I can be reminded of it in months or years to come. I want to be able to pay attention to what I am thankful for and also what has been hard and where I am waiting for or have seen answers.
When I find myself complaining about the same thing on repeat I know that I need to pause and ask the Spirit to help me assess what is going on. I don’t always know right away why something makes me sad, angry, or frustrated, but on those pages, in my journal, I am able to think through, pray about, and observe what is happening. And on those same pages, I am able to ask Jesus to meet me and help me to rightly process the details, while also inviting the Spirit to help me see the areas I need to surrender, or where I need to learn and grow.
Another goal I have is to use my journal as a tool for recording scriptures that stood out to me when I was reading the Bible. I like to make notes about things that encouraged or surprised me, record the questions I had about that passage, and jot down any insight from the Holy Spirit. I can glance back at these entries and be reminded of how God’s word was living and active in a particular season or moment.
Your goals might be different than mine or you might still be trying to figure out if journaling is a tool that feels useful in your formation journey. Dr. Alison Cook offers another tool that you might find helpful.
Dr. Alison Cook is a psychologist and she shares an idea to help assess how you are doing on any given day. She calls it a MEPS check-in. You can read her article where she explains it in detail, but basically, the premise is that every day you write M E P S in your journal and assess with one word how you are doing Mentally, Emotionally, Physically, & Spiritually.
She offers a quick question for each category -
Mentally - What is going on in my thoughts today?
Emotionally - What am I feeling today?
Physically - How is my body doing today?
Spiritually - How do I feel toward God?
She offers 2 rules - 1) Be completely honest with yourself & 2) Use just 1 word for each category.
If you’ve been contemplating journaling, but aren’t sure about writing a lot of words, this 4-word assessment might be just right for you.
There are a lot of spiritual formation tools to help us grow in our walk with Jesus. We’ve talked about many of them over the past few months. It isn’t realistic to think that one person would use every tool every day. So choose the ones that make the most sense for you and then work them into your daily, monthly, and yearly rhythms. The goal of practicing anything is to get better and better. And when it comes to spiritual formation we are practicing to become more and more like Jesus.
May your light be a beacon in the darkness this week. Melissa