Keeping a Personal Journal Shows You Where You Have Come from and Where You Are Going

Journaling in a personal journal can help us move forward in our lives, but it can also help us to see what we have already learned or come through with greater clarity. Journal writing is an important part of your arsenal for personal growth. Keeping a personal journal can also be the difference between learning from what we've experienced and just going on without any change. Here are a number of things to keep in mind when using personal journal writing and journaling.

Also, be sure to take a look at the end of this article for a series of articles on journaling in a personal journal.

How We Learn, and How It Relates to Keeping a Personal Journal
As we learn and grow, we file away the things that we learn in our brain so that we can use them later. First we observe the events around us and take in all of the data we can. This isn't something that we can just turn on and off; our observation happens one way or another.

We can, however, choose what we will do with the information that we take in automatically. It is up to us to categorize the events, information, and relational input that we receive throughout our lives. We make judgments about events, and classify the responses we get from people as being something desired or not desired.

Using those classifications then, we can choose how to utilize all that we have learned as a benefit to our lives.

Using Your Personal Journal Writing to Categorize and Utilize
This is where a personal journal comes in. Use the personal journal to record the things learned and begin to apply them.

This can happen by using your personal journal writing as a personal study notebook. What I mean is this: as you are presented with input from those who are seeking to teach you, take what they say seriously, and record it in your personal journal. The times you have someone teaching you are useless if you do not actually learn from the teaching given you. Instead, take the opportunities you have to learn from those who have experienced more than you have, or who have had the opportunity to acquire more knowledge than you have.

Everything we experience is an opportunity to learn, and therefore an opportunity for journaling. Information is a useful ally, but only if we employ that information in an attempt to grow spiritually.

Let journal writing be that ally for you. Write down your interpretations of what people around you say in your personal journal, and keep track of what is different from your understanding. Writing it down helps to solidify it, to encode it into your head and into a record of what goes on in your head, so that you do not lose it in the future.

Follow the trail through your personal journal, praying through your learning and working through your lessons to apply it to your life.

Tips for Recording Your Learning In Your Personal Journal Writing:

Take diligent notes in your personal journal. The more you record, the more useful it will be in the future. Our retention of the things we see and hear is incredibly low. However, if we have a permanent record, cemented on paper, of what we are learning then we can refer back to it at any point.

Pray through your learning when writing your in your personal journal. Don't allow your times at church and in personal Bible study to remain ineffectual. As your are being taught, write out prayers born out of the topics of the lesson. Through your journal ask God to use the things taught you in your life, to grow you in areas of weakness, and to enhance your strengths.

Trace your path through your personal journal writing. Periodically, look through the things you have learned in your journal, and trace the path of your learning. Take a look at where you've come from, and notice the points that your thinking was changed or you came to grips with something new. Notice the subtle shifts in your personality, fears, and confidences, and draw strength from them.

Plan your future. Our past provides a window into our future. When we can see where we've come from, we can better see where we are headed. Take into account the things that you have learned, and use them to plot out a path for your future growth.

For more of this series, please read:

• Journaling 101: A Tangible Evidence of What God Is Doing in Your Life in Your Personal Journal Writing
• Journaling 101: Personal Journal Writing as a Place to Process Life, God, People, and the World
• Journaling 101: Using Your Personal Journal as an Outlet For Prayer
• Journaling 101: Personal Journal Writing Provides an Easy Outlet For Self-Evaluation

Also, please check out the Spiritual Growth Home on Mentorship