Welcome to Random Journal Day – September! Today, I have a super-duper special guest for you. OK, all the Featured Journal Keepers are special and inspiring, but this here Journal Keeper is one of my favorite Planner Pals! As many of you now know, I have quiet the affection for all things plannerly, including my many amazing planner pals from all over the world! As I ventured out in You Tube land I stumbled upon Nicky’s channel, and we also connected in our Facebook planner group. One of my very favorite videos Nicky shared, had her rigging her camera in an unusual way and…well, I just loved her goofy humor and fun personality. I knew right then her and I were cut from the same cloth and destined to be friends, even if only online at the moment!
I am thrilled to have another Planner Pal here to share her journaling journey with us. Get ready to be blessed! Here is Nicky, in her own words…
I am not a writer…years ago, as a child, I wanted to be one yet I wasn’t gifted with an ability to paint a picture with words. I’m more of a “just the facts, ma’am” personality. In fact, writing this was a challenge in and of itself—how does a non-writer write something for a writer-friend’s blog?
*insert cricket noises here*
But, one thing that I do love is to write in my journal. In my journal I can be as descriptive or as vague as I choose to be because there are only two people who read it—me and God. Why do I believe God reads my journal? Because it’s a love letter to Him!
Early on in my faith, I struggled with prayer. I felt it was boring and often one-sided. There were times I would get in a rut of repeating the same thing every night before bed all the while wondering if those words ever made it past the ceiling. But then one day someone told me about the concept of a prayer journal. I wish I could remember who it was because that person changed my entire prayer life. I have kept a prayer journal now for the last 11 years and it has dramatically improved my faith. Why? Because unlike prayers said aloud or silently in my mind—that disappear like a vapor never to be seen (or heard) again—prayers on paper stay around for as long as I like to keep them.
About a month or so ago, I pulled out my old prayer journal and read through it cover-to-cover. The pages were filled with prayers of struggle, prayers of thanksgiving, prayers for others…and it was amazing to see a written record of my personal growth and how God had answered some of those prayers over the years. Things I had prayed for so long ago that I had forgotten that I had even prayed them…I was able to think back and realize God had answered them. Areas of my life where I felt like I had made no progress…I was able to trace my path and see that, while I hadn’t yet arrived and it may have seemed a bit like “two steps forward, one step back” at times, I was in fact moving in the right direction!
One of my favorite people in the Bible is Joshua. Joshua was put in charge of the ancient Israelites after Moses died. He led them over the threshold and into the Promised Land after they had wandered and roamed the desert for 40 years. Talk about a big moment in their lives! And one of the things that Joshua did was to encourage the people to leave behind mementoes called “remembrance stones” to commemorate some of those big moments (Joshua 4:7). He understood the importance of passing things along to the next generation (but sometimes the current generation needed the reminders as well). I am one of those people who need those reminders…and I hope to leave my prayer journals behind someday for the next generation (my kids…their kids…and on and on) to help them remember or learn all that God has done in our family’s lives!
So what I have learned from keeping a prayer journal is that prayer is not one-sided, and my prayers go way beyond just the ceiling! In fact, it’s often said that prayer is a two-way street. We pray and then we listen. Set aside some blank space next to your prayers—because when He speaks, you will want to write it down to remember it, too.
You can catch Nicky on her You Tube Channel and less frequently on her Blog She Organizes (maybe she will write some new stuff for us!)
Meanwhile LET’s ROCK RANDOM JOURNAL DAY— ALL WEEKEND! Link is Open through Monday at 11:59 PM, so Cinderella – you have until the clock strikes 12!
Join in and share your Journal! If you are new here, we appreciate all sorts of journal keeping styles. I invite you to visit, make new friends, and participate by giving us a peek into YOUR journal.
Enthusiastically, Dawn 
Hi Nicky, so nice to meet you here! I pray through my journals a lot too and I love the way my written words often reveal myself true self to me. And I agree, it is cool to be able to see progress over the years too!
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Thanks for your insight about prayer, Nicky. I’m not a very organized journal keeper; by that I mean, I simply write, that’s it. But I’ve always been awed by how many answered prayers have shown up a few pages after I’ve written about praying for something. One way or another, God reveals Himself. It’s a great idea to keep the columns. I’ve known people who do that and LOVE it!
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Nicky,
I really like that idea of a personal journal being a love letter to God. Augustine wrote that way, didn’t he? Anyhow, I realize I’ve done that with certain journal entries, while others I kind of write to my future self, and still others, I just… write. I often mention prayers I’ve prayed, too (just did earlier this morning, in fact), but you inspire me to get more organized and consistent in journaling my prayers, and how they were answered. One year for the couple weeks my husband was on a short term missions trip to Africa, I kept a daily prayer journal while he kept a journal of things that happened (as well as he could keep up with it while so busy there). When we compared prayers and happenings, the results we saw were awe-evoking. What a great way this would be to live daily! Thanks for your post. You might not think so, but you *are* a writer!
(PS You’ve also encouraged this “Cinderella” to board the RJD coach before its door closes this month!)
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SYlvia! I am so glad you are here. I tried to comment on your last post BUT could not! I love your blog, and would love to connect with you- are you on other social media with another name- so many use different names for different things I cannot keep all straight! First let me also say YOU must- read the Random Journal Day post by Lynn Morrissey who wrote a book called Love Letters to God which is about the most beautiful and inspiring book I have read on journaling prayer. 2. I SO concur- NiCKY IS A WRITER! And a darned good one at that! I am so glad to see you here! ANyway…please be in touch, I would love to feature you and you here if you feel comfortable with that at some point! OK, YAY for journal keeping- link open through Monday! Hope to see you here again- 😉
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Hm, Dawn, don’t know what happened there. Maybe it was a post where the comments were closed? My administrator shortened the time for comments to be allowed a while back because I was getting so much spam. I’ll have to check that out. Also Lynn’s post, which I missed while “away.” Very interested in reading it. As for a future feature, I would be honored—and after my last Friday’s (FMF) post, how could I not say, “Yes”? I will be thinking about some of the ways to journal, or things I’ve incorporated in my journals, that have been the most personally helpful to me, and start jotting them down. October would be too soon because things have been kind of nuts around here, but after that, I will be glad to.
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Emailing you!
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You all are too kind! 😋 Thank you, Dawn, for the encouragement and the blessing to be a part of your blog! 😍
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Nicky, thank you so much for saying yes to joining us here. Would love to see you here regularly…BUT only as you feel led time wise. HUgs. ANd thanks again.
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