by Ferg Fontaine

Created on: July 15, 2008   Last Updated: August 16, 2010

Journaling is a more technical term for what we used to call writing in our diary. It depicts who you are, what you think and feel, and without a doubt it can become a score of conversations with God for the one who pens. When a person decides to begin journaling, he has begun a path of self balance or checks and balances, call it what you like. You will most definitely gain insight into your own well being. The individual who journals has also begun a journey to freedom in ways they could not have imagined.

Journaling doesn't have to be a rigid exercise of futility; in fact, let it be the moments that you are feeling the most, and experiencing the depths of your emotions. Putting it on paper will always come back to you as a tutor, a counselor, and a whisper into your heart of where you are spiritually and emotionally. Often the most profound thoughts and ideas come to us when no one is around to hear them. I believe that those thoughts are the voice of God speaking to you, showing you the way, telling you who you are and encouraging you to continue the journey of life.

Journaling will be the beginning of maturity and growth beyond your expectations. Remember, to journal is to express your deepest joys as well as unfathomable pain. It is putting even the most abstract thoughts on paper and watching them unfold into a thought or a purpose full of meaning. I know that God is not the author of confusion and yet often times our thoughts leave us extremely confused; putting it on paper can somehow make those same mystifying thought processes come together like a well-constructed work of art just waiting to be discovered.

I have to admit that I have always made it a point to write the funny things that my children would say and do through the years. When I go back to read those journals they remind me of the innocence of life and the once-treasured awe and excitement that I felt being a mother. It's not long before they are grown and the trials of life seem to try and steal away the blessings that you know were once yours. Journaling allows you to hold onto the truth of the matter and remember that the distractions are just that, momentary distractions. We must always remind ourselves that this too shall pass; journaling makes it happen.

Finally the most heartfelt testimony of journaling for me has not been that of my own; my mother, who passed away one month ago tomorrow wrote in a journal every day. I have spent the last few weeks reading how blessed she was to be a mother to her children; it appears nothing else in life mattered quite as much. She treasured her family and thanked God every day in her journals for the blessings of life and the children and grandchildren he allowed her to have. Through her journals I have a new-found love for the simpler things in life. She thanked God for the flowers that bloomed in her garden, for the rain and sunshine as though He allowed them just for her on that particular day. She expressed gratitude for the friends she had in her life and mentioned each one by name on any occasion that she found noteworthy, occasions which I may have never noticed as special, she noticed. Reading her journal has brought me to a place of wanting to cherish what I have always taken for granted; the love of family, friends, and God and the ability to know that I am richly blessed.

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