Journal Your Way to a Brighter Future

Sharon S Hines
www.heargodsvoice.org

Copyright © 2012 Sharon S Hines

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Sharon S Hines
310 Major Rd
Piedmont, SC 29673

For more information, please visit
www.heargodsvoice.org

Email me at shinespied@gmail.com
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Follow me on Twitter: @SS_Hines

Thanks for giving me this opportunity to share. My name is Sharon Hines. I help Christian
women regain hope, strengthen their faith, and increase their capacity to love through
journaling. My hope is that I can help you find a new path on your journey toward a deep and
abiding relationship with God.

If you’re like me, you’ve had some significant challenges in your life. Maybe you’ve been
widowed or divorced or been in an abusive situation. Maybe you’re worried about your
finances, your job, or your health. Or maybe, like so many other women, you’re worried about
those around you: your family, close friends, or co-workers.

If you’ve asked yourself recently “Why is God letting this happen to me?” then you are just the
sort of person I want to help.

Just like everyone else, I’ve faced many challenges in my life – marital problems, health issues,
and job loss, to name a few.

But as I worked through each successive challenge, my hope only increased, my faith only grew
stronger, and my ability to love expanded. How did that happen? The secret is that I have used
these challenges as opportunities to get closer to God and to actually hear God’s voice guiding
me through the troubled waters of life.

I want to share with you how to start getting closer to God. It’s not a quick trip, but it’s worth
the effort. I know that if you put in even five minutes a day on this, and make it a life-long habit,
you can have every bit as much hope, faith, and love as I do, if not more.

The first step in getting closer to God is to recognize God’s hand in your life. That’s what I want
to teach you in this brief booklet. Specifically, I’m going to teach you how to journal for the
purpose of recognizing what God has already done for you. Here are some of the topics I’ll
discuss:

 Why should I bother to journal? Isn’t it time-consuming?
 How, when, and where should I journal?
 What should I write about?
 Ok, so I wrote in my journal. Now what?

But before I jump into all of that, let me quickly share with you a little glimpse of my journaling
story.

How Journaling Helped Me
At the age of 25, I was happily married, had a great job working for a boss I loved, already
owned my own home, and had started night school to earn a master’s degree. Then one day my
wonderful life came crashing down when my husband of four years admitted to me that he

Journal Your Way to a Brighter Future www.heargodsvoice.org
Copyright © 2012 Sharon S Hines Page 3 of 12

thought he might be in love with someone else. I thought the world was falling apart. All I could
pray was “what did I do that was so bad, that this happened to me?”

My marriage counselor was the one who suggested I started journaling about what I was going
through. (If you want to hear the whole story, see the About tab on my website.) For now,
suffice it to say that journaling turned out to be terrific advice. It not only helped me get
through that situation, it continued to be a significant part of my life.

In fact, journaling has been so important to me, particularly in my spiritual journey, that I came
to realize that there are others who could benefit from my experience. I’m looking forward to
sharing all I know about journaling with you. So let’s get started.

What is a Journal?
Once I realized that journaling was helping me put my life back together after my marital
difficulties, it became part of my standard toolbox for life and for spiritual growth. I’ve had
dozens of different journals over the years, in many different formats, for many different
purposes. As a woman of faith, I consider them all important to helping me fulfill God’s plan for
my life.

Of course, people of all faiths (and no faith) journal. In fact, journaling has become increasingly
popular over the course of my lifetime. We’ll look at the benefits in a minute. But first, let me
give you my definition of what constitutes a journal.

As I see it, there are four basic elements of a journal.

1. Journals are distinguished from other forms of writing or authoring by their link to
time. Each entry is identified by a day or time or year or all of those. In some
journals, such as art journals, the creator might come back to a previous page and
add something later. However, the date an entry was written is an integral part of
the story.

2. Journals are written for the writer. Unlike writing a book, the writer doesn’t have to
imagine some “ideal” reader. Of course, sometimes the writer might be thinking
his/her children may read it someday, but in the short term, the writer and the
reader are the same person. (I’m ignoring for the moment the special category of
group journals.)

3. While the writer doesn’t have to worry about an imagined reader, or about whether
or not the book will sell, or even if the spelling is correct, a journal writer does
generally have a purpose in mind. This might be a psychic purpose (like venting or
preserving memories or clarifying thinking) or it might be an extremely practical


purpose (like keeping track of which relative already received which gift, or having
documentation to prove your charity mileage on your taxes).

4. At one time, you could have argued that a journal involved pen and paper.
Nowadays, it could involve a computer and a word processor. Or it could involve a
recording device, whether audio, video, or both. It could be comprised of words or
images or both. The only common aspect is that a journal is information recorded in
such a way that it can be re-acquired later by seeing or hearing. It’s external to the
human brain.

So there are my four components: linked to time, created for the writer, created for a purpose,
and created in some media. That leaves a whole lot of room for variety in your journaling.

I’m going to narrow that variety down a little bit and focus just on one purpose: to facilitate the
conversation between you and God. Journaling for this specific purpose is called spiritual
journaling. From here on, whenever I say “journaling,” I’m referring to spiritual journaling.

In a bit, I’m going to make some suggestions on ways to get started. But before we get into
that, let’s look at why you would want to keep a spiritual journal in the first place.

What Good is Spiritual Journaling?
Spiritual journaling is a way to learn about yourself, to learn about God, and to learn about
what he wants for you and from you. In my own experience, here are the 3 most important
things God has helped me see through my spiritual journals:

 God always has something better in mind for me. I had already learned this lesson
before I got laid off in 1994, so I didn’t respond to the lay-off in the normal way. During
my last six weeks on the job, people would stop me in the hall and say “I thought I heard
you got laid off. Why are you smiling?” My answer: “I know God has something better in
mind for me. I’m looking forward to whatever that is.” Journaling helped me to regain
hope because I could start to catch glimpses of God’s plan coming just around the
corner.

 God’s timing is perfect. The scriptures tell us this, but documenting the personal proof
over and over will really make you a believer. After my lay-off, I found that proof for the
first time, in a really big way. I had given myself 6 months to find an idea for a business
to start. I ran around like a crazy person looking for an idea for the business that I felt
God wanted me to start. In Month 6, out of the blue, a former colleague called wanting
to know if I could help him with a consulting project. And just like that, I had a new
business as a consultant. After that experience, I became much better at trusting God’s


timing. Journaling strengthened my faith as I could look back to see how God had gotten
everything to work out just right.

 God loves me. This isn’t just words from a song or a scripture to me anymore. I have
proof. In fact, I have lots of proof, right there in my journal. And to paraphrase John (1
John 4:19), I have a greater ability to love others because I know God loves me. When
you have enough and to spare of something, it’s easier to give some away. In my first
marriage, and even before that, I felt a lot of jealousy. It caused me a great deal of pain.
But as I reviewed the journal entries showing my progress in working through my
marital difficulties, I saw how much God loved me. As Sister Theresa told me, “God
doesn’t want you to be unhappy.” That experience helped me to get over my jealous
tendencies before I started dating the man who would become my second (current)
husband. Journaling increased my capacity to love because I could recognize all the
ways that God loved me.

Now that I’ve shared about how spiritual journaling has helped me, let me ask you some
questions. Take a few minutes to think about your answers as you read them.

 How much more could you accomplish in your life if you had more hope?
 Would you spend less time wallowing in self-pity?
 Would you be willing to work harder on something because you had more hope
in a positive outcome?
 Could you start avoiding negative self-talk like, “Oh, that will never work. Why
even bother?”

 What more would you be willing to try if you had a stronger faith?
 Would you be more willing to put your life and your problems in God’s hands?
 How much easier would it be to make decisions if you were convinced God was
behind you 100%?
 Would you be less likely to worry about and stress over your loved ones?

 How much better would your life be if your ability to love expanded?
 What affect would more love have on your willingness to share what you have
with others?
 How would it feel to be free of jealousy, deceitfulness, or vengeance?
 What affect would it have on your family if you felt no need to hold a grudge?

I hope you have seen some ways that journaling could help you regain hope, strengthen your
faith, and increase your capacity to love. I’m sure you have a lot of questions about exactly how
to get started. I’m going to answer the simple questions (like when and where to journal) in a
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format. Then I’ll go into more detail about what to write.


Spiritual Journaling FAQs
How much time does it take? Journaling can be done in as little as 5 minutes a day, if you
follow the Rose-Thorn-Sniff format I suggest below. However, if you have more time, I
recommend spending between 15 and 30 minutes a day. Decide now how much time you want
to spend each day.

How hard is it to learn? The great thing about journaling is that it’s basically impossible to do it
wrong. If you aren’t sure what to write about, you can start with an easy prompted journal
where you just answer a couple of simple questions about your day. I’ll show you exactly what
to do before we’re done here.

How much will it cost? It doesn’t have to cost anything. You just need a way to record your
thoughts. You could write on sheets of paper rescued from a recycle bin, type entries in Word,
or even send a text to your email.

If you want to spend some money on a paper journal, the options range from an inexpensive
spiral notebook to a bound hard-back blank book to a really pricey hand-sewn leather
keepsake. On the electronic side, there are lots of inexpensive apps available for a variety of
smartphones, and only slightly more expensive secure online versions .

Or, you can download and print a 4-week journal from the link at the end of this booklet. To
start with, at least decide if you want to use a paper-and-pen format or an electronic format.

What physical type of journal is best? For just starting out, printing my downloadable 4-week
journal is quick and easy. After you get the hang of things, or if you feel like you’d like to have a
book right away, I recommend either an inexpensive spiral notebook or a bound hard-back
blank book. You should be able to find something pretty nice for less than $10. My favorite
places to buy journals are office supply stores, warehouse clubs, book stores, and Amazon.

To get started as quickly as possible, print out my downloadable journal and use that while
you’re shopping for something more permanent.

When do I journal? Personally, I like to journal in bed, right before I turn out the lights. It’s
quiet, everything I might want to write about has already happened, and it’s still fresh in my
mind. Other people like to write as soon as they get home from work, or even when they get up
in the morning. If you already have a consistent prayer time, this would make a good time to
add in your journaling discipline. Just pick a time that works for you and stick with it.

Where do I journal? This is also a matter of personal choice. You want a place where you are
unlikely to be interrupted or distracted. As funny as this sounds, this could be a crowded place,
like on a bus. Even though lots of people are around, chances are they won’t be talking to you.


Wherever you pick for your journaling spot, it should be someplace you can go every day.
Figure out now where that is.

Should I share what I write? Most of the time, you won’t want to share what you write. You’ll
be recording your personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings. You’ll want to be able to be
completely honest with yourself and with God. If you are expecting to share this with someone,
it might affect what you say and how you choose to express yourself.

If you live with others, make sure they understand that your journal is private, and ask that they
respect your privacy. If this is going to be an issue, find a safe place to keep your journal away
from prying eyes.

How big of a commitment am I making? I would encourage you to just try this out for 4 weeks.
See if you enjoy it and if it has value for you. If you’re not sure, you may want to try some other
format (like drawing instead of writing) before you give up completely.

If you can’t find a journaling format you like, maybe this isn’t the spiritual discipline for you.
There are lots of others, so keep looking. Eventually, you’ll find one that suits you.

Spiritual Journaling Levels
A recent study sponsored by Willow Creek Community Church identified 4 stages that
Christians go through on their spiritual journey. These stages are:

1. Exploring Christ: “I believe in God but I’m not sure about Christ. My faith is not a
significant part of my life.”
2. Growing in Christ: “I believe in Jesus and I am working on what it means to get to know
Him.”
3. Close to Christ: “I feel really close to Christ and depend on Him for daily guidance.”
4. Christ-Centered: “My relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship in my
life. It guides everything I do.”

Interestingly enough, the 4 levels of spiritual journaling that I have gone through over the last
30-odd years map very nicely into these 4 stages of discipleship.

Even if you consider yourself to be beyond the first stage (Exploring Christ) in your spiritual
walk, I recommend you start your journaling at the first level. This is because the journaling
styles you learn at Level 1 will continue to be relevant as you progress to higher levels.

This isn’t any different from being a professional in football, and then switching to baseball (as
Michael Jordan discovered). Even though players in those two sports pass through a similar
process, you still have to start with the basics of baseball.


What is Level 1 Journaling?
If I could use just one word to describe this first stage of spiritual journaling, it would be

RECOGNIZE.

Specifically, Level 1 journaling is about learning to recognize how and where God has worked
with you.

 You will begin to discover your strengths, gifts, and purpose by becoming more aware of
patterns in your life.
 You will search for insights about the spiritual meaning behind things that happened in
your past.
 You will deepen your trust in God by seeing all he has done for you already, without you
asking.

Another way to say it is that Level 1 journaling is focused on understanding your past. This
includes what has been happening recently as well as what has happened in prior periods of
your life.

As you explore your past, you will come to recognize that God’s hand has been in your life all
along. You will see how he has worked with you, guided you in certain paths, and protected you
from harm.

You will find God “speaking” to you through your memories, experiences, and insights. Writing
them down becomes part of your conversation with God.

So now that you know the purpose of Level 1 journaling, let’s look at how exactly to get started.

Rose–Thorn–Sniff
When my two grown sons were in Boy Scouts, they had a tradition called “Rose & Thorn.” After
every camping trip, they would sit around the campfire at the “Scout Shack” and basically de-
brief about the trip. Each boy and each adult would take their turn giving a rose, a thorn, and a
bud.

A rose was something that was good about the trip. Common roses had to do with the food
(they had some great cooks) or the activity (hiking, biking, fishing, etc.).

A thorn was something that wasn’t so good about the trip. Probably the most common thorn in
our troop was the weather. We had a running joke about how they took the rain with them
wherever they went.


A bud was something that they wanted to do better next time. Like not make the youngest
scouts do all the clean-up. (Of course, that comment would be made by someone who got stuck
with all the dishes!)

For your very first stab at Level 1 journaling, I suggest a slight adaptation to the Rose & Thorn
format. I call it Rose–Thorn–Sniff.

The rose and the thorn are pretty much the same sort of thing the Boy Scouts would list: a
good thing that happened, and then a bad thing that happened (or something that you found
difficult).

The difference comes when you get to the third part. I picked the metaphor of sniffing the rose.
What you should write here is a reflection, rather than a re-telling. It’s more about the
emotions than about the facts.

For example, you might choose to write how you felt about either the rose or the thorn. Or you
might write an insight you received. Or you could write about how you would react differently if
you had a do-over.

This is the quickest form of journaling I’ve found. If you only have 5-minutes a day to get this
done, then you only have to write one sentence for each of the 3 parts. One day’s entries might
look like this.

If you really want to speed things up, you could write yourself a note when something
particularly good or bad happens, or text yourself right away. Then you won’t even have to
spend time remembering what you wanted to write at the end of the day (as long as you don’t
lose the note, that is!).

If you have more time, you could write out the story like you were sending someone a letter or
an email. In fact, you could send yourself an email if that helps you to get it done.


Remember, this is for your eyes only. So don’t worry about spelling or grammar or using
complete sentences. As long as you can read it, that’s all that matters.

The Real Benefit
Now comes the most important part: reviewing what you wrote. Pick a day when you will have
time to review the prior week’s entries. Make it the same day each week. Allow about 10 or 15
minutes to do this review.

On review day, add an additional entry highlighting progress you were proud of (the weekly
rose) and progress that was disappointing to you (the weekly thorn). Finally, add your reflection
for the week (the weekly sniff). This could be something you learned about yourself or about
God, or where you either did or didn’t act in a Christ-like way, or a situation where you
recognized God’s hand in your life.

If there is something for which you need forgiveness, pray for that. Then let God’s forgiving love
rest on you. Release that burden and resolve to become more Christ-like in the week to come.

As you continue to journal over weeks and months, continue to look back at your older entries
periodically. Look for patterns of behavior, parallel situations, or similar stories that might
provide insights into your strengths, gifts, and life purpose. And look for all the places where
you can recognize God working with you.

Work on learning from your mistakes and failures, and on becoming more Christ-like. The rough
spots will be harder to miss once they’ve been written down in your daily thorns.

As you have time, think back over your entire life and record any incidences that seem
significant. You may even want to do a Life Journal, where you devote one or two pages to each
year of your life.

As you do this life review, keep looking for patterns and clues to gain even more insight about
where God has worked with you before, along with clues to directions in which he might be
guiding you. Remember, the goal is to RECOGNIZE God’s hand in your life to this point.

What’s Next?
I hope you won’t waste any time getting yourself a journal, or picking some electronic format,
or downloading my free Rose-Thorn-Sniff journal. Then get started writing every day.

If you need a little help staying on track, or if you want to learn more, be on the lookout for my
next 4-week tele-class starting soon.


I’m excited that you’ve decided to give journaling a try. I know it can help you to regain hope,
strengthen your faith, and increase your capacity to love, just as it has done for me.

I look forward to hearing your journaling story someday soon!


Journal Your Way to a Brighter Future

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