Journaling

Captain’s Log, Stardate 12.31.04

I feel like I accomplished something today, I balanced the checkbook and filed a few things that needed to be put away.

I had a great quiet time this morning, using "Authenticity" by Bill Hybels. He went into methods for journaling and prayer. He uses ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. But my Adoration and Thanksgiving kind of melded together.

He also spends time Listening, asking key questions that all start with "What’s my next step in . . ." It was a neat way for me to hear the prompting of the Spirit, bringing up issues and topics I need to work on in different areas of my life: Ministry, People, Family, Personal. I liked how Bill Hybels broke up his prayer into those areas.

It’s made me wonder if I should spend more time and paper journaling, versus just writing key praises and prayer requests in my new journal. The problem is that I like how easy it is to find my prayer requests, remember them and keep praying for these highlighted areas. When I wrote out my prayers in my journal before, I rarely ever went back and read what I’d written because my requests were mixed in with all kinds of other thoughts and questions.

But writing out my prayers and thoughts in a journal seems good, especially the Confession portion. I don’t think I spend enough time in self-reflection, and I think that has made me proud or deluded about my sins. Well, I’ll think about this and find a method that works for me.

Writing: Zippo words, but I did work on my website, updating links and adding a few. I need to write my Real Life Q&A today, and possibly a writer’s corner article.

Diet: Pigged out last night while watching Star Trek. :( I need to be more aware of what’s best for me, rather than focusing on my immediate hunger.

Categories:

• Bible-study