Titus 2 Men And Women

The Power Of Making A Memorial
Danette Tucker

"...Write this for a memorial in a book..."  Ex. 17:14

Repeatedly throughout the Old Testament God told the Israelites to make memorials so that they would remember the works that He had done on their behalf.  Even the Bible is a memorial written by God so that His Word would not become distorted in the retelling, guarding the truth for all time.

There is tremendous power in making an on-going memorial in your own life.  Keeping a journal is a great way to do this.  Journaling dramatically increases the impact of God's operation in our lives for several reasons.

The first benefit of keeping a journal is the one already mentioned -- making a memorial.  Keeping a journal provides a tangible marker to return to in times of discouragement or doubt.   Over time, it builds up a valuable resource.  When God shows you something insightful it often seems so significant that you feel you couldn't possibly forget.  But later the newness wears off and other circumstances come and go.  The insight that was so fresh when God gave it gets lost in the shuffle of life.  If you are keeping a journal, you can look back next week, next month, or next year and remind yourself exactly what God showed you about a particular issue in your life.   This also limits Satan's ability to steal away the light God has given.  Satan wants to keep God's children from walking in intimacy and victory with God.  He will use whatever means is available, including our own simple human inability to remember clearly.

Another benefit of keeping a journal is that it provides a safe place to pour out the thoughts and feelings that can be destructive when they are locked up inside.  When you're going through a trial or crisis sometimes the thoughts and feelings can just sit churning in your mind.  And Satan also likes to use the power of a secret to keep you locked up.  The power of exposing to the light what is in secret works even for fairly insignificant things.  Just the simple act of bringing it out into the light before God on paper can release Satan's hold.  When you put your thoughts and feelings onto paper you acknowledge the feelings and sometimes you're able to immediately see the truth about the situation and the turmoil vanishes.  It works even better when you address your thoughts specifically to your Father.  It becomes a written prayer and it turns from being a self-focused exercise to an act of worship.  Instead of you trying to figure it out, you turn to God to show you the truth.

A side benefit of dumping the "stuff" that's filling your mind onto paper can be learning to be completely honest with God about your secret feelings.  For some reason we tend to think that God will be displeased with us if we actually tell Him the truth about how we feel.  But look at the Psalms again.  Look past the poetic structure and the King James English to see what David said.   He told God He was angry and depressed.   He was honest about the fact that he felt abandoned by God.  He was honest with God about the fact that he was so mad at people who had hurt him he wanted them dead.  God is omniscient -- He knows everything.  He knows the truth about our feelings.  He is not shocked by them or displeased that we have them.  In fact, He created all our emotions in HIS image!  He has emotions too. 

When we believe we must hide our feelings from God because they aren't holy enough or are bad for some reason, we are hiding ourselves from God.  That hurts us, not Him, and it stands between God and us.  When we acknowledge the truth to God, then we are able to move past the feelings and see how God is the provider for every one of those needs.  We are able to learn the truth of how God views us.  We can see this in the Psalms as well.  David cried out the truth of His feelings to God but he always ended up praising God for His provision, protection, etc.   Although we read about this process in the matter of a few verses, David didn't necessarily experience the process that quickly!  God's love for us is not changed by the truth of our feelings.  But we are also only able to appropriate God's healing and answers for our struggles when we have been able to be honest with Him about them.

This aspect of keeping a journal is particularly powerful if you are walking through healing -- whether from a traumatic circumstance, the loss of a loved one, or an abusive past.  A key part of the healing process is acknowledging the reality of what has happened.  Putting it in black and white on paper does that while still letting you feel "safe" if there is no one you can talk to.  I have found this helpful even when I have had people I could talk to, simply because sometimes it's just too much to talk about.  Nobody can listen while I talk through all that has happened in my life.  And sometimes I need to dump onto paper today the same thoughts and feelings I needed to talk about two days ago because they are still there or have resurfaced.   If you are in counseling, keeping a journal can be a valuable tool there as well.  During a time that I was going to a Christian counselor I couldn't verbalize what was going on in my head.  But we found that if I wrote it down and then let the counselor read it we could then address whatever issues we needed to discuss  (I used a three-ring binder during this time so I could remove the relevant pages).

A third reason for keeping a journal is because God works over the course of time.  Sometimes God does dramatic works in our lives that change us in a moment.  But more often God changes us in steps over weeks and months and years.  Unless we are keeping a record of what God shows us each day, we cannot get the full benefit of His efforts.  If we document what He teaches us each day, we can later look back through the pages and see full life-changing lessons revealed over the days, weeks and months.  This is something that has been particularly powerful in my life.  I make a habit of occasionally looking back through my most recent journals to see what greater work God has been doing in my life.  It is always amazing.  And because I have this record and see His work, I am able to glorify Him and thank Him for it.   I would be unable to do that if I didn't have a record to look back at.

Over the course of years of keeping a journal there are some practical things that I have found beneficial.  There is no one way that is "right" for keeping a journal.  The one thing that I would say is most important is that keeping a journal cannot be a heavy obligation or another "should" to add to your life.  When I first started journaling, I just occasionally jotted down a few sentences about something interesting that I saw God do in my life or an insight He had given.  I didn't right every day, only occasionally.  After I learned that I could hear from God every day, I began to write down each day just the Scripture that He'd spoken to me from.  I made no notes about it and I didn't write down my thoughts, prayers or anything else.  I just wrote out the verse(s). 

One thing in particular that I would recommend about this is that you personalize the Scripture when you write it in your journal.  Don't merely copy it out of the Bible.  That's just a schoolroom exercise.  If God has spoken to you from His Word, write it as if He actually spoke it out loud to you.  God speaks modern English when He talks to you, just like He speaks in Spanish to a believer in Mexico or in French to someone in France.  God does not use flowery poetic words full of "thee's" and "thou's" when He converses with you as a friend or precious child.  The type of words found in our Bibles is the manner of speaking that was common (ordinary!) when the Bible was translated.  Don't let the language of the Bible translation make you feel that God is so holy and distant that He talks funny.  This can be a dangerous unconscious feeling.  God meets with us where we are and He is as close as my own skin -- not far away in celestial realms.  There's nothing sacrilegious about writing God's words in your journal the way He would speak them to you out loud.  Just don't fall prey to reading your journal as if it were the Bible.  Go back to the Word when you read back through your journal again in weeks or months ahead.

After a couple years of recording just the Scripture in my journals I began gradually to expand into writing out what God had taught me, how it applied to my daily life and to write prayers to God.  Written prayers are just my thoughts, feelings and questions addressed to God on paper.  The purpose of writing prayers is not to read them to God as some religious exercise.  It is simply addressing my thoughts of the day to God in written form. 

On a practical note, I have found a few technical things that are helpful.   There are a variety of notebooks that you can use for a journal -- anything from a steno pad or cheap spiral bound notebook to bound blank books or three-ring binders.  I think I've used them all at some point or other.  Now I specifically purchase a type of journal that has hard board or heavy vinyl covers and a large, heavy weight spiral binding.  They can be found in some office supply stores, discount stores and department stores.  I use this one type exclusively for some very specific reasons.  Steno pads and cheap spiral bound notebooks fall apart with daily use, making them difficult to keep for a memorial.  Bound journals are difficult to write in because whether you are right or left handed, there's going to be one side of the page where the gutter gets in the way of writing.   They are just awkward for daily use.   Three-ring binders work well, but they are awkward to use if you are trying to write in your lap. 

The type of journal I use is pretty - the exteriors are usually decorative and I tend to try to find one that is meaningful to me at the time I buy it.   It's just a little thing but it's another part of the memorial for me.  For instance, the one I'm using right now has a little saying across the bottom of the pages that says, "Beautiful things happen to those who believe."  At the time I began this journal I was having a hard time believing the truth of how much God loved me and that He sees me as a beautiful creation He has made.  I knew it was the truth but didn't feel the reality of it.  The little quote helped remind me of the truth and helped encourage me to hold onto the truth with an expectation of the fact that He makes all things beautiful in His time (Ecc. 3:11).  The company that made this journal has a slogan on the back cover, "It's all about you."  We have had a recurring theme in our accountability group that, "It's not about me; it's all about You."  So those words were a reminder of that as well.  This journal also has beautifully colored and decorated pages.   This is the first time I've had a journal with pages that weren't white.  To me, it was a little reminder that God has put as much effort into the creation of me as He did into the creation of all the intricacies in nature all around me.  I'm not just "plain white", I'm a beautiful creation in the works.  Having a journal that's pretty or has some little meaning to me just adds a special touch -- kind of like icing on the cake.  Not necessary, but nice.

This type of journal is also very sturdy.  In years of using them only one has never fallen apart.  The hard board or heavy vinyl covers and heavy-gauge wire spiral stand up to long-term daily use.

Using a spiral-bound journal rather than a bound one or a three-ring binder also allows me to fold the cover back out of the way.  This makes it more compact if I'm trying to write in my lap and it keeps the binding from getting in the way of my writing hand.  It's just a little thing, but it matters to me if I'm going to use it every day. 

These journals are also a convenient size.  At about 9" x 6" they will fit into a Bible carrier if you use one or will stack easily with your Bible.  You can take it to church with you if you like to take notes.  I do that because the pastor is invariably preaching about something that directly applies to where I'm living and his comments fit right in to what God is teaching me in private.  This size journal is also easy to take with you if you're going to be sitting somewhere and would like to take it along to write in while you wait.  And it's not something that would attract awkward attention if you were in the doctor's office or something.

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