When I was a young and impressionable Christian (as opposed to being the old and impressionable Christian that I am now) I was encouraged to keep a 'prayer journal'. Even now I am still unsure what a 'prayer journal' is, but I've been writing stuff down for a while now. Actually, I've been writing stuff down since 28th February 1996. At least, that's the date on the first page of my first journal.
It's gone up and down. Sometimes there have been periods of months where I wrote nothing (I'm sure there's a silent period of at least a year somewhere in my history) and then others times it's been a daily habit. Generally, I've recorded my feelings and thoughts about how I am on a given day, and what God might be up to. Other things make an appearance every now and then, such as lists of people to pray for and quotes that I thought were so good that I should record them somewhere, but on the whole it's a collection of where my soul has been over the past fifteen years.
And I'm thankful for it. It's been immensely helpful for me to have documented evidence that I have grown in my faith over the past fifteen years. It's encouraging to have records of what God has done, both in my life and the lives of others. It's amazing to see how the things that I feared the most never actually came to pass, and that God has kept His promises. It's great to see how my theology has developed and my thinking has changed. It's humbling to see the context of my journey, to see the patterns and plans come together leading me not necessarily to a certain role or location, but rather towards Christ-likeness.
I am very glad that I made the decision to keep a journal and very glad that I still have them to look back on. It's easy to forget things. It's the natural state actually. It's remembering things that takes work, and every footstep on my journey with God is worth remembering.
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