What to Write and How to Keep Writing in Journals

Writing and drawing in journals has grown me as a woman, spiritually and emotionally.  I have disciplined myself to only write things in my journal that will edify me, or anyone else who will ever discover them after I am gone.  When I began these Omers of Manna 15 years ago, I gave myself some rules to keep them beautiful.  After all, these were to be my "stones of remembrance" of all the great things the Lord had done for me.

Here are my personal guidelines.  Personalize your own guidelines if you decide to start writing your own Omers of Manna.  Make it meaningful to you.

Guidelines

1. No negative rambling.  If I must write about a negative experience, stick to the facts and give the rest to God in prayer. Negativity about myself would be limited to regrets in my prayers of repentance.


2. 50% of my journaling would be what the Lord was teaching me through writing out scripture and prayers.  25% would be "this is what is happening in my life right now". and 25% would be artwork or items I glued into the books.


3. No talk about others--not their lives, not their sin, unless it is written in my prayers, and those people would feel loved if they happened upon that entry by chance.


4. Create these books to be "stones of remembrance".  Keep in mind who will be reading them when I am long gone.


I wrote out the verse of Exodus 16:32 in the cover of every journal; the start date of the journal and the end date.  And then I just began to write, and draw, and glue. 

Motivation

1.  Small goals.  My goal has always been to make an entry in my journals every 10 days.  I always try to write more entries...everyday would be my ultimate goal one day...but every 10 days has been very do-able for me for the past decade.

2.  Remember this will be a "gift" to those you leave behind one day...a niece, the child of a cousin, or maybe the general public.  I doubt if Anne Frank ever imagined her journals would become so precious or so universally read and appreciated.

3. Make them beautiful and meaningful with "scraps" and notes glued into them.  I've glued in the scrap of paper my husband gave me with his phone number on it the day we met.  I've printed and glued in several love-emails (instead of love letters which may actually be extinct) from my husband as well.  These precious additions keep me motivated to complete the volume.


The library of my life that I now hold in a plastic tub has been well worth the effort.