Hey Faithfam
I pray we are all kicking butt; from devil to demons to challenges to excuses and all.
I pray we are all WINNING!!!
So like you probably know, I am a huge journaller.
Like my mentor PDDK once told me, there are THREE things those who want to be champions are doing daily
Confessing scriptures
Scheduling their time and activities
Journaling their lives
At the end of this blog, I would share a couple blogs I have written on these three topics, which you can consume, apply immediately and start/continue to win!!!
For this blog, my focus is not just journaling, but what next level journaling looks like.
For the longest time, I have loved to pour out my thoughts on paper, or to a lesser degree, electronically. I have journals for years, and I love to chronicle my dealings and encounters with God.
Recently, I think sometime in the last quarter of 2020, I started to feel frustrated as I would spend precious time looking for something I KNEW I had taken my sweet time to journal.
I would check through many journals, just sure that I had written it around ‘middle of 2019, and in the top right of a journal’ but having to look through three A4 sized journals to find it would be very upsetting.
And I needed that info to press into prayers, remind myself something God has said, or do a refresher course on a part of scripture God was highlighting again.
Or it could just be that I wanted to see how I felt in a particular season, which looked like an encore was happening, and remind myself that the same God who saw me through then will see me through now.
Basically, that was info I needed but couldn’t find, and it was ENDLESSLY FRUSTRATING!!!!
Then I decided that while I may not be entirely able to go back and be more strategic in my journaling, I would embrace a better strategy going forward.
I would have an INDEX area in every journal, where I would have the dates, scripture verses and topics of every content of that particular journal, somewhere at the back, so when I needed any info, I would just flip to the back, scan through and locate it.
This has been such a game changer for me and has saved me time and eliminated frustrations, at least for new entries.
If you use an electronic journal, that is easier as you can just enter a keyword and search, then boom, you locate it. This happens with my JOURNEY journal app which is amazing, and I use it from time to time, especially when I want to save screenshots and audio messages.
However, 90% of my journaling is paper and pen, and having this INDEX strategy has been a game changer
Now, for the older entries, especially from 4years and closer ago, I have a habit of going back to chronologically read my journal entries, so I got one of my journals, created an INDEX area there and as I read old journals and see something of depth I may need to refer to later, I go to that new journal and index it all there, INCLUDING the journal it came from. For example, I could write
| Jan 30, 2018 | Splagnizomai study | Details on Compassion from Luke 10 | Blue journal with flower on top |
| June 19, 2019 | FOTS study | Eph 4 Gal 5 | Neon Pink journal |
| July 10, 2020 | Birthday Prophetic word from PDDK | Black Plain journal | |
| March 18, 2017 | That time I felt insulted because AB ignored my chats | Pink glittery journal |
Do you see?
So it is way easier for me to track what I am looking for
I am LOVING this so much I had to share with you, especially as many of you have been inspired to start journaling, so you can start being STRATEGIC from the beginning, and not deal with frustrations like me.
I love how I can go back and find and read that day I was feeling super offended by XYZ, and how I handled it and the scriptures that helped me, then I can deal with today’s offence.
Sooooo good.
It really reminds me very practically how God has been real faithful to me. Like Joyce Meyer said once as she read from her many many years of journaling, which I blogged about here, if you would keep an ACCOUNT/JOURNAL of your dealings with God, you too will be AMAZED.
There are a few other things I also try to do that allow me easily locate what I need.
For example, I highlight some certain things a certain way, e.g. diagonal lines, using Orange only for titles, lumping similar things together in a separate journal, and more. My dreams for example, have a separate journal so it makes it easy for me to locate.
Now, if I want to put together my memoirs, or just write a theme specific book, I can easily get all I need from my journals because I have been STRATEGIC. I hope you know this was how the Bible was canonized into this book we have now?
From people who were careful to document the deeds of God.
See these two scriptures…
“I am writing for you, mighty lover of God, an orderly account of what Jesus accomplished and fulfilled among us. Several eyewitness biographies have already been written, using as their source material the good news preached among us by his early disciples, who were from the beginning loving servants of the Living Expression. Now I am passing on to you this accurate compilation of my own meticulous investigation based on numerous eyewitness interviews. It is appropriate for me to write this, for he also appeared to me so that I would reassure you beyond any shadow of a doubt the reliability of all you have been taught of him.”
Luke 1:1-4 TPT
“This is the route the Israelites followed as they marched out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. At the Lord ’s direction, Moses kept a written record of their progress. These are the stages of their march, identified by the different places where they stopped along the way.”
Numbers 33:1-2 NLT
Ok so below are the blogs I promised you at the start of this blog.
Enjoy, while I sign out while sending so much love and prayers to carry and carry your every season well Amen!!!
Eziaha
CONFESSION
SCHEDULING
JOURNALLING