How often do you keep a journal at your side while studying the scriptures? from them daily.
Perhaps it could be said that just as I can’t remember what I ate for lunch nine days ago, scriptural food is as easily perishable. If I’m not recording the spiritual insights, revelations, and promptings I receive during my time each day the Lord’s word, I won’t later be able to benefit much thereby . . . nor will my children or posterity!
Have you ever thought about the potency of keeping a “scripture journal”? It is a most wonderful thing. The first time I attempted such a feat, I was in college.
As for many, college for me held ups and downs. I felt much comfort each day, therefore, as I read my scriptures. Eventually I found myself keeping two journals – one to record the daily events in my life (i.e. taking a test, going out on a date), in the other smaller journal I recorded the spiritual “happenings” of my life.
Each day while reading the scriptures, I would look for a verse or two that particularly jumped out at me, one that really stuck out in a way that taught me. At the top of the page of my spiritual journal (I called it my “small plates”, after the ancient way of keeping records), I would record the verse(s) that had touched me.
After writing them at the top of the page, I then would write about those verses. I would share why they had touched me. Or I would muse on the significance of those verses to me – especially during such a meaningful time in my life. It was not lost on me that I was living during a potent era of my life. So many choices – what to study, where to work, who to marry. The thought of all the choices felt dizzying to me.
And so I would write every day after coming home from college classes – just me there at the kitchen table, with my scriptures laid out in front of me and my two journals.
Years later, I relish those thoughts. Some I chuckle at, some I smile at, and at some I simply nod. All of them were worthwhile thoughts on my part. All of them made a difference. And each page I wrote brought the scriptures deeper into my heart, making those verses become intertwined with who I was.
If you’ve not yet gotten a “scripture journal,” do so today. It can be one of the most rewarding things you can do for yourself this year.
