Holy Mole...skine notebook Batman!
Posted in introspection, Red Beard's Posts, reflection 1 comments
I was flipping through my randomly kept journal this evening a little bit. The journal itself is loosely comprised of items I have been praying over, studies, random thoughts, lamentations/celebrations over a woman(lots of these) and generally just anything I've felt worthwhile to write down. It's strange how even though these events that happened to me were important enough to write about that without this review and going back over them that they are so quickly forgotten. Many of them are almost even foreign in nature and I find myself wondering who was this person going through these struggles or relating these events.
The value and benefit of keeping and reviewing these "currently praying about" lists is easy to see because it is the easiest to quantify. There have regularly been items that after praying over that enough time has followed that the initial prayer was completely forgotten and so the answer goes unnoticed and unaccredited to God's hand. So to have perfect 20/20 when looking into the past it is encouraging to see how these answers whether they were yes, no or wait were manifested and how or when they finally did come about. That way my faith is strengthened and my countenance is turned to thanksgiving after looking back over these things.
The relating of current spiritual condition whether confessions of sin or expressions of joy and contentment are always eye opening as well. Seeing how deep into a pit one has been in the past certainly gives more appreciation for where a person is right now. On the flip side having the chance to look back onto a mountain top experience can bear great conviction to get right with the Lord whatever may now be wrong or out of place. Not in an attempt to duplicate the prior experience, but in looking deeply to see what may currently be hindering or keeping me from walking in freedom, joy or peace.
And finally as a guy the loathing/loving displayed towards whatever woman I was dealing with at the time immediately cuts to the quick. It plumbs the depths for any of those forgotten lessons or experiences and brings forward again those emotions that I had felt at one time. It gives me a chance to examine them, to see if anything currently matches or lines up with previous experiences, and even the opportunity to fix things that have gone awry. This quick way to re-examine my relationships/friendships with women and see how or why they may have moved back or forward can be tough, but it can be very helpful and healing as well.
Overall the self examination and historical documentation of one's life is a good thing and I would encourage others no matter how sporadic your journal entries may be to still continue to keep them. I've got a few gaps of 8-10 months between a couple of my entries. As for the physical format; get a nice moleskine notebook or glue bound notepad. Not so you seem like such the deep thinker, but so you have it all in one place. With the nicer notebook, unlike spiral bound or loose leaf, it stays all in one place and bound together easy to keep on your bookshelf...and it does look super cool to anyone that comes across you writing or sketching in one. Always write the date/time of the entry so you can get an idea of the frame of mind you might have been later when looking back if you wrote something down that was at say 1:00am after a wonderful evening on a date or at 4:00am after anguish about some ridiculous situation with a woman. For that matter these don't even need to be serious entries, you can make them fun too or even just notebooks that contain sketches of Ligers and Hobbits. Whatever you put into them you'll appreciate the opportunity to look back in time on your own life and history. Hopefully your faith will be stronger and your walk will be deeper because of it.
The value and benefit of keeping and reviewing these "currently praying about" lists is easy to see because it is the easiest to quantify. There have regularly been items that after praying over that enough time has followed that the initial prayer was completely forgotten and so the answer goes unnoticed and unaccredited to God's hand. So to have perfect 20/20 when looking into the past it is encouraging to see how these answers whether they were yes, no or wait were manifested and how or when they finally did come about. That way my faith is strengthened and my countenance is turned to thanksgiving after looking back over these things.
The relating of current spiritual condition whether confessions of sin or expressions of joy and contentment are always eye opening as well. Seeing how deep into a pit one has been in the past certainly gives more appreciation for where a person is right now. On the flip side having the chance to look back onto a mountain top experience can bear great conviction to get right with the Lord whatever may now be wrong or out of place. Not in an attempt to duplicate the prior experience, but in looking deeply to see what may currently be hindering or keeping me from walking in freedom, joy or peace.
And finally as a guy the loathing/loving displayed towards whatever woman I was dealing with at the time immediately cuts to the quick. It plumbs the depths for any of those forgotten lessons or experiences and brings forward again those emotions that I had felt at one time. It gives me a chance to examine them, to see if anything currently matches or lines up with previous experiences, and even the opportunity to fix things that have gone awry. This quick way to re-examine my relationships/friendships with women and see how or why they may have moved back or forward can be tough, but it can be very helpful and healing as well.
Overall the self examination and historical documentation of one's life is a good thing and I would encourage others no matter how sporadic your journal entries may be to still continue to keep them. I've got a few gaps of 8-10 months between a couple of my entries. As for the physical format; get a nice moleskine notebook or glue bound notepad. Not so you seem like such the deep thinker, but so you have it all in one place. With the nicer notebook, unlike spiral bound or loose leaf, it stays all in one place and bound together easy to keep on your bookshelf...and it does look super cool to anyone that comes across you writing or sketching in one. Always write the date/time of the entry so you can get an idea of the frame of mind you might have been later when looking back if you wrote something down that was at say 1:00am after a wonderful evening on a date or at 4:00am after anguish about some ridiculous situation with a woman. For that matter these don't even need to be serious entries, you can make them fun too or even just notebooks that contain sketches of Ligers and Hobbits. Whatever you put into them you'll appreciate the opportunity to look back in time on your own life and history. Hopefully your faith will be stronger and your walk will be deeper because of it.
1 comments:
Just yesterday, Sesha and I were talking and she mentioned that she would like it if we keep a prayer journal. She then proceeded to explain that it was really great because then you could clearly see the prayers both now and later so that you wouldn't forget them and it would be easier to remember to praise God for the result later. I immediately thought of your post and asked if she's read it yet (she generally gets caught up by reading once or twice a week). She hadn't. The timing of that is amazing. I think God is trying to suggest something for me. :)
Thanks for the post!
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