Week 5 Focus: Keep a Journal

Throughout our lives, we have feelings and experiences that can keep our testimonies strong and give us courage in difficult times. But in order to remember them, we need to record them. Otherwise, these feelings will fade in our memories, and we may eventually forget them completely. A journal is a place to record experiences, thoughts, feelings, and events as they occur in our lives.

In 3 Nephi 23:6-13 Christ told the people in the Americas that there were important details missing from their records—the Savior was very concerned that the Nephites had not recorded some of the prophecies they had received. He expected the people to keep accurate and complete records.

President Spencer W. Kimball once said: “Every person should keep a journal and every person can keep a journal. It should be an enlightening one and should bring great blessings and happiness to the families. If there is anyone here who isn’t doing so, will you repent today and change—change your life?” (Ensign, May 1979, p. 84)
He also said: “Those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives.” (New Era, December 1980)
Elder Henry B. Eyring explained this further in the October 2007 General Conference:
“When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. Let me tell you how that got started. I came home late from a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house. He was carrying a load of pipes over his shoulder, walking very fast and dressed in his work clothes. I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property.
He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps toward the house, thinking of what he was doing for us, and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: ‘I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.’
I went inside. I didn’t go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family. Grandpa didn’t have to do what he was doing for us. He could have had someone else do it or not have done it at all. But he was serving us, his family, in the way covenant disciples of Jesus Christ always do. I knew that was true. And so I wrote it down, so that my children could have the memory someday when they would need it.
I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: ‘Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?’ As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.
More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened. “

A journal is so personal that each of us can decide just how we are going to write our own. Here is a list of some things to think about that might be useful to make it successful and worthwhile.

• DO remember that you are writing a journal for several reasons: for your posterity, for a record of your life, as a marker for growth and progress in your life, as a source of inspiration for yourself and others.
• DO write with a black ball point pen. Pencil and colored pens will fade or smudge over time.
• DO always date each entry with month, day, and year and sometimes even the time of day.
• DO set aside a block of time either daily or weekly to write like a Sunday afternoon.
• DO keep your journal handy or take loose pieces of paper with you on trips that can be added later.
• DON’T ever, ever think, “I’ll never forget this day, this person, this lesson, or talk”…40 or 50 years is a long time and you might not be able to remember your phone number let alone who Bobby was in the third grade.
• DO always use a person’s full name at least once. The best thing to do is make a list on the back page of your journal with the full name and a brief reminder description.
• DO write a couple of sentences about a special lesson, talk, or activity to help you remember it.
• DO take a note of medical history, both personal and family. When did you have your tonsils removed? Or, what was it like when your older sister had a baby?
• DO take a note of family events, vacations, weddings, deaths, and special activities.
• DO write about good and bad days. It can be a source of inspiration and comfort for your descendants to see that you were human, too.
• DO talk about how you feel about what is going on in your life.
• DO tell about the funny or embarrassing things that happen in your life, like running over the skunk and stinking out the car on a trip, or having your skirt tucked into your nylons at a church dance.
• DO collect and save important papers, poems, etc.
• DO make a record of music you listen to, movies you watch, books you read, and what you think of them.
• DO write a letter to yourself on your birthday examining what you did with your past year and making goals and wishes for the coming year.
• DO take notes of the prices of things, how much is a CD, a gallon of milk, stamps, a candy bar, ticket to the movies…
• DO record typical outings with your family and friends. In 100 years they will love that you would spend Saturday’s walking around the mall with your friends.
• DO be honest about yourself. DON’T lie-even if no one else reads your journal you will read it later and be sad for not telling the truth to yourself and your posterity.
• DON’T treat your journal as some kind of holy thing that you can only put deep thoughts in. This is about your REAL life.
• DO pick up and write each night. If you forget one night, don’t give up, just catch up the next night.
• DO be merciful to others. DON’T write gossip or trash about others.
• DO add letters, cards, awards received, etc. to your journal.
• DO write about deaths, births, marriages, baptisms, and endowments; personal triumphs, failures and struggles and how they are met, personal counsel, promises, and blessings received and the circumstances surrounding them, important events, personal feelings, impressions, current local, national and world events that impress you or influence your life and last but not least, simple occurrences in your daily life.

Being creative will help our journals reflect our own personalities and interests. One young woman explained her method of making her journal interesting:
“I named my journal Lucy. It’s like my best friend. It’s kind of hard to talk to a page, but now I talk to my best friend Lucy and tell her my feelings.” (A Journal Named Lucy- Kathleen Lubeck, New Era November 1981)

President Kimball again said: “ Your journal is your autobiography, so it should be kept carefully. You are unique, and there may be incidents in your experience that are more noble and praiseworthy in their way than those recorded in any other life…What could you do better for your children and your children’s children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved?...Get a notebook, a journal that will last through all time, and maybe the angels may quote from it for eternity. Begin today and write in it your goings and comings, your deepest thoughts, your achievements and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. Remember, the Savior chastised those who failed to record important events.” (New Era ,October 1975)

Elder Eyring finished his talk with these words. “Tonight, and tomorrow night, you might pray and ponder, asking the questions: Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my life or the lives of my children? I will do that. And then I will find a way to preserve that memory for the day that I, and those that I love, will need to remember how much God loves us and how much we need Him. I testify that He loves us and blesses us, more than most of us have yet recognized. I know that is true, and it brings me joy to remember Him.”

Each of us are special to Heavenly Father and He knows the lives that we will bless because we are willing to take the time to recognize and record His hand in our life. Our posterity will be so grateful for each of us individually if they have a chance to know us through our journals. As Pres. Kimball said, we are each unique and have stories and perspectives that no one else in the world can compare to. This week our challenge is to write at least a few lines every day. Maybe the angels will quote from it for eternity!