Welcome to a better late than NEVER Journaling Bundle Giveaway – Please watch this video below (I know I am a cheating writerly girl for lack of time, I beg your forgiveness!).
Grab your coffee, tea, lemon-water or whatever floats your boat and enjoy a peek into each book included in this wonderful giveaway and celebration!
I am off to work and mom care- and will check in later! BUT, be sure and enter for a chance to win this inspiring journaling bundle AFTER watching the video where I share a peek into each book!
The WAY to ENTER is below through Rafflecopter!
I’ll be sharing a RJD POST later… ALSO better late than never ! ( I am re-opening the link for the weekend if anyone wants to join in- late, like me!
Check out the party HERE!
Thank you to all of the RJD participants! You are a blessing!
Happy Journaling!
Enthusiastically, Dawn
Enthusiastically, Dawn 
18 responses to “Journaling Book Bundle Giveaway”
Oh my goodness Dawn! Thank you for this wonderful video and your glowing words about WALKING BUTTERFLY! My heart is so happy, thank you!
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Thank you so much for the shout-out, Dawn – and of course, I would be delighted to provide a copy of Journaling Toward Wholeness for the giveaway.
I can hardly wait to hear more information about your newest book!! Don’t keep us in suspense too long 🙂
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Dawn: I want to add my thanks to you for this video and for your wonderful thoughts about my writing and my book. Blessings on you and yours,
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All of the books look fabulous and even if I don’t win, I will be looking for them to purchase. I have to admit that Love Letters to God probably interests me the most as I often write out my prayers in my journals. Journaling Toward Wholeness is a very close second. Of course, I already have yours…ordered the day you announced it. This has been a wonderful thing Dawn, this gathering of the RJD writers. I’ve found it so encouraging and inspiring to get on with and over any remains of past hurts and the fearfulness they caused.
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THis is a blessing to hear , Stacy! SO grateful for you. THank you!
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Hello Stacy,
I happened to notice your post and mention of my book, Love Letters to God: Deeper Intimacy through Written Prayer. Surely God has used journaling in my life to transform me and to help me overcome many fears, suicidal depression, alcoholism, and the guilt and pain over an abortion. (I write about this in my book; and while it is a gorgeous and lyrical book, I write substantively about real issues an pain in my life, as well as overwhelming joy). You don’t really mention if you have gone through the particiular angst I’ve experienced in your brief comments to Dawn (and I’m surely not asking you to!!), but I mention mine as a way to let you know how God heals through the power of prayer-journaling. He has used His Word and journaling more than any two things to bring me healing, hope, and joy. You might wish to read my comments to Dawn here to understand how my book differs from my recent RJD post. I’m so glad that you are already journaling your prayers, and I encourage you to continue to do so and to save your journals. It is amazing to read through mine and to see God’s grace, healing, power, and faithfulness throughout many years . . . and how I’m aware of His divine presence permeating my days. All my best as you continue to journal your journey!
Love
Lynn
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Dawn, checking in here today (and I’ve been following up on my own recent RJD post to commenters too), saying a big hurrah for all the beautiful books you’ve mentioned that I hope will soon line my own bookshelves (many of my books are in bookcases in the basement; don’t tell my husband because of your enthusiastic endorsements I shall soon be adding more, because he swears our basement is sinking!! I digress!) But I do thank you for these thoughtful reviews, which give us further insights into each author’s soul and area of expertise. I’m so humbled by your kind sharing about Love Letters to God: Deeper Intimacy through Written Prayer. You are extremely generous in your compliments, and I’m so grateful. I’m especially touched that the words the Lord prompted me to pen encouraged you long before we were formally introduced through our beautiful, delightful Kel Rohlf. I write in a cave, and I never know where my words might land. To think they reached a (then) stranger who shared a similar journaling passion so many miles away in Rhode Island from my Missouri cave is both heartwarming and amazing! If the Lord can continue to use any insights He gave me to further inspire your readers to take the journey of their lives–pouring out their hearts to Him on paper–then I know I will have accomplished my purpose in life, which is to “encourage transparency.” So many women have difficulty in becoming transparent (intimate) with the Lord in their prayers and in their interactions with each other. I believe that journaling will free them. As an aside (in case any of your readers glimpse my message to you here), I would add that my recent RJD post is far different from my writing in Love Letters to God (LTTG)–just so they know. On the RJD post, I gave them an example of journal dialoguing. This was extremely helpful to me, as they will read, about a particular issue in my life. More often, though, my journaling is a free-flowing outpouring of all my heart is experiencing. The writing in LLTG is mostly lyrical and poetic. I pray that it will appeal to women as a way to draw them into the Presence of the Lover of their souls. I can’t tell you how pleased I will be to sign a copy of this book for your “winner.” I daresay I will be a winner too as I explore these books which you have recommended. Oh, and as a final note, I will add that I totally concur with you about the quality of my book . . . in that it is printed on gorgeous paper, and the artwork by Russian-born Christian watercolorist Katia Andreeva (Kah-tee-a Ahn-dray-yuh-vuh) is breathtaking. I was extremely fortunate that Multnomah Publishers chose to pair me with an accomplished artist who has illustrated the works of noted authors like Bruce Wilkinson and Joyce Meyer. What are the odds she would have agreed to illustrated my book, *and* originally?! Usually an author of her caliber will provide “stock” art for a lesser-known artist. But she said she appreciated my writing and decided to paint originally for each of my essays, so what the readers encountered in my words would be paired with art work that sensically (and beautifully!) illustrated it. It was an honor! Thanks for letting me ramble here, and thank you again for your gracious words and incredible example of a woman who is passionate about the God-given gift of journal writing. You are one special lady! I really appreciate you and all you do!
Love
Lynn
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Wonderful video and very nice books. I actually have been very interested in journaling for myself and also for my blog. Each of these sound extremely helpful for the guidance I could use and super helpful for starting out on journaling. ☺
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Oh Dawn, all of the books sound so wonderful. I already have three of them and love them all…(Susie’s, Your’s and Cecilia’s. I would love to check out the others as well…I was trying to answer the question on the rafflecopter thing and it seemed a bit difficult for this old girl to figure out…so if you see two entries, with no question answered it’s because I couldn’t figure it out. Sorry to be so slow. But I loved the sounds of all of the books, and am so thrilled to be a part of this beautiful group of ladies, even if I haven’t published a book YET. Someday!!! Thank you for your faithful support and ecouragement to all of us out here in blogland! So happy God brought us all together!!!
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My first choice is Love Letters to God: Deeper Intimacy through Written Prayer. I am trying to journal my prayers this year to leave a legacy for my girls. My second choice was journaling for wholeness.
Question for the author of Love Letters to God: Deeper Intimacy through Written Prayer – what kept you accountable? Did you have friends friends who took this journey with you?
M.waters
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[…] friend, Dawn, is hosting a great giveaway of books from the Random Journal Reunion group. Most of the books in the giveaway have been a direct result […]
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Hello, Melissa,
I’m Lynn Morrissey, author of Love Letters to God: Deeper Intimacy through Written Prayer. I’m glad that I saw your question. Yours is an excellent question, and one that holds multiple potential nuances in how I answer. I tend to be detail-oriented, so please bear with me. First, when I teach journaling, I always say that it is invitational. I don’t push any woman to engage in the particular journal writes that I suggest. Journaling tends to be very personal. There are many forms of spiritual or secular journaling in which one can engage. But admittedly, for me, I use my journaling, for the most part, to write out my prayers to the Lord. Prayer is never optional. But that said, how we pray, is. We can pray orally, silently, or in writing (think of the psalmists and how they wrote down their prayers, as an example of written prayer). All this said, we are all accountable to God to pray. We sin when we do not pray. For me, as you will read in my book, I struggled to pray orally or silently. I was tongue-tied and simply couldn’t stay focused. I’d become distracted or else had difficulty saying to God aloud all that was on my heart. My sentences were scattered and didn’t follow logical trains of thought. But one day, when I picked up my pen (in a crisis situation), I found that I could pray effortlessly and naturally. In part, seeing the progression of my thoughts across the page helped me to stay focused, and my prayers were rational (in the sense of a rational thought-process). I also found that writing freed me to pray emotionally and cathartically, what I was really feeling. The thing is that I found when I didn’t write, I rarely prayed. So for me, God showed me that journaling was the form of prayer in which I should mostly engage. When I stop journaling for any length of time, I stop praying. Prayerlessness is sin. Ergo, for me not to journal is nearly tantamount to sin. I say this to demonstrate that the Lord holds me personally accountable to pray in this way. But I would NEVER tell anyone else that not to journal is to sin! God forbid!! You and I are not conversing face to face, with give and take and an opportunity for me to clarify if you have any questions about what I just wrote, so I PRAY I AM MAKING SENSE! 🙂 So . . . at any rate, I think I was accountable to God Himself to pray on paper and to do so regularly. When we make ourselves accountable to God, through humility, asking Him to stay faithful, the Holy Spirit comes alongside to encourage and bolster us and to give us the strength to obey. When I have gone for long periods of time not journaling ( which means, for me, not praying), then I confess this sincerely to the Lord as I would any sin and ask His forgiveness and strength to resume meeting with Him in my journal. To answer your specific question directly, no, I didn’t really have friends who took the journaling journey with me so many years ago when I started to journal. I was pretty much in new territory as a pioneer (though years later, I learned of many throughout the eras of Christendom who journaled). But since the time I began journaling (give or take, 40 years), I’ve met a number of women like Kel Rohlf and Dawn Paoletta who love to journal and who encourage me to do so. I also studied and earned a certification in journal facilitation from a world-renowned expert in the field of journal therapy, and have met many journal-keepers through her, and so we encourage one another by example. I have also taught journaling, and meeting women who love to journal and/or whom I see transform before my very eyes as they journal and share what they have written, inspires me to continue. You could certainly ask others to pray for your consistency to journal. I have done that from time to time w/ my prayer partners, when I am particularly struggling. I have also found that harvesting my journals is a powerful source of inspiration and motivation to keep journaling. As I reread old journals (please NEVER throw them out!), I can so powerfully see how God has answered prayer, released me from sin’s grip and some serious strongholds, proved His faithfulness over and over, given me joy and purpose in life, given me an appreciation for the beauty of His world about which I’ve written, given me a written record of His provision for me and my family, strengthened my faith, showed me areas of unresolved sin, given me clarity of thought to problem-solve (I could go on and on)!!–that all these benefits make long to continue journaling. When you understand the true treasure that journaling is, I believe that you will be sufficiently motivated and feel the accountability to continue. And think of those daughters! They are a powerful influence for accountability for you to leave a written legacy for them of your faith and walk with the Lord (your joys, failure, sin, victory through Christ–ALL of it)! What better legacy can you leave–in your own words, where no one can alter what you mean to say. Your journaling will provide tangible evidence of your faith and Christ’s power and provision, and something to which they can refer over and over again. Your influence will continue long after you are with the Lord in heaven, all because you have written it down. Not much else matters that you leave . . . like your jewelry, clothes, money, etc. But a written record of your faith (along with your personal, highlighted Bible) is a legacy that will stretch far into eternity. Finally, I would encourage you to know that the Lord Himself, through His Holy Spirit, will be your greatest accountability Partner. When you ask Him to keep you accountable and to give you strength and motivation to journal regularly, He will be faithful, because journaling was HIS idea. He knows its importance! I pray you go forward with a renewed sense of vision and excitement over journaling. I’d love to hear about your journey. Feel free to write to me to let me know or to ask any further questions: words@brick.net
Love
Lynn
PS And certainly, if you feel that meeting to journal regularly with other women is further what you personally need for accountability, I encourage you to gather your friends to do so! 🙂
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Thank you for answering my question! I love how in depth it went. What a blessing. I have asked for prayer regarding journaling and am praying for a journal buddy.
Melissa
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Dawn thanks for sharing all these amazing books with us. I must say I’m a word girl so hands down so I would love to get my hand on to Defining Moments by Kel Rohlf. I have green personality so I tend to over analyze everything even my journaling. I’m really hoping I can learn to relax and let the words just flow. Thanks for the chance to win.
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I adore Kel’s style of writing…honestly you will love that book! ENter to win them all BUT buy Kel’s if you do not win! YOu will not regret it!
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Dawn what are some things you do to prepare for journaling or writing?
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THis is such a great question…and I think sometimes if we think we need to prepare to journal it can keep us from letting the journal be what we need it to be. So I guess the best place to start is that most often I do not prepare to journal…I just journal. However there are times that I do prepare…and one of those times would be when I use my journal for my quiet time in the morning. This is probably my most consistent writing practice- meeting the Lord in the morning with pen and paper and open Bible…some ways I prepare? Keeping it uncomplicated is key for me…I tend to like to complicate things so in an effort to keep things simple, I try to only have my Bible and journal, I mostly go to the same small desk for quiet time…and I sometimes just sit and allow myself to be still and tune into myself, and then ask the Lord to help me truly hear Him…above the noise of self, life and the many distractions that come my way. Other ways I prepare to journal is by just honestly, sitting and spacing out…walking the dog, walking outside…watching the birds and nature…I think for me I need spaces of unscheduled time to journal…no matter what time of day- I have to allow time for the need to pour out on paper because I find it is KEY to my mental health and well being, my spiritual connectivity to God and others and my ability to not crumble into a million pieces. Pen, paper, journal….Bible…these are the mainstays- but carving out time is key. For me the best time is in the morning but I do write as opportunity allows otherwise. If I feel stressed I sometimes will collage or journal whenever I am able. Since my main focus is words and writing and I am not an “art journaler ” first and foremost- the other stuff (washi etc) is a bit irrelevant to my regular practice but make no bones about it, when the Spirit leads me to create, I do…or if my soul needs a playdate with God…then preparation might come in the form of collage. For me, collage is a way for me to journal when I need to rest from words…and I share the process in the presence of the Lord…I keep company with Him as I create. So for me preparation is this: What do I need right now, in this moment in my relationship to self, with God, and simply, I usually start off most journal posts, “Here I am God….” and then anything can happen…I hope this helps…I tend to write from this space most…as opposed to documenting what I do. Journaling for me, is all about the unseen realm of emotions, spirituality, – it is the beneath the surface quest of the soul. Hope this helps.
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[…] Fragrant Fields: Poetic Reflections for Journaling book is offered in the Random Journal Day Reunion Book Bundle Give-Away, hosted by Dawn at Enthusiastically Dawn! Check out her YouTube review of Fragrant Fields (at the 17:20 mark in the video), and the other […]
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