Jump-Start Your Journal

By Shanna Butler

There is more to a journal than just events and dates. Journals record who we are and how we are blessed. Try some of these fun ideas for keeping track of your daily blessings.

• Type your journal, print it out, and keep it in a binder instead of writing in a book. You can also add handwritten notes about something you learned in church, or other items such as programs or magazine articles.

• Use newspaper clippings to show what’s happening in your world, and then write how the events have affected you.

• Record your feelings through art, poetry, or music.

• Print off and save emails you’ve sent that talk about your life.

• Keep a joint journal with a brother or sister. Take turns writing in it each night.

• Keep a travel journal of places you go or of places you would like to go. Include your tickets, brochures, and photos.

• Write about what you read in the scriptures each day. Record favorite verses and how they make you feel or promptings you receive while reading.

• Write entries from other people’s perspectives, such as how your sibling view you after you’ve had a misunderstanding or how the day might look from your parents’ point of view. You might talk to the people involved to see it your perspective of them is correct.

• Keep a gratitude journal. Every day write down those things for which you are thankful.

• Keep a journal jar (see Journal Jar sidebar to find out how).