Why is Journal Writing important?

We tell ourselves, "Journals are for posterity." Well, maybe my grandson will break both legs and be desperate enough for something to do that he’ll pull out my dust-covered journal. But the remote possibility of such an event in the future has never been motivation enough for me to keep a journal. In my life, I had to discover that writing in my journal is valuable for me-whether my grandchildren ever read it or not.

Keeping a journal helps us learn who we are Writing is an important form of communication, but that is scarcely its major value. Like shooting baskets all alone in your driveway, writing does not require an audience beyond yourself to be worthwhile or enjoyable.

A family I know of was moving to Colorado, a tragic moving-van fire destroyed all their belongings, including family photograph albums and personal journals. One well-meaning friend lamented, "All that work for nothing!" The Mother of the family responded: "The process we went through writing our journals can never be burned. Every hour we spent on those books helped to make us the people we have become."Personal journal an ideal environment in which to "become."

Do you remember your health class with Mr. Neal when it talked about keeping your life in balance? Do you remember the areas? Work hard, play hard, and romance hard.

I want to talk about the romanicing area. (Remember--this is not the lovey dovey stuff! ) In the romancing area, it is about people, being with one another, serving and being served by others. There are several things you must do to be able to romance.

You must have time to think, feel, discover, expand, remember, and dream. When these get cut off, or out of balance, you can not romance.

As I was studying this lesson I realized that a journal provides all these things... Let us look at each of those areas in more detail:

THINK: "Thoughts are created in the act of writing. You often need to write in order to have anything to say. Thought comes with writing, and writing may never come if it is postponed until we are satisfied that we have something to say.

FEEL: When I bear testimony, it may be meaningful to the congregation, but not nearly as meaningful as it is to me. I am better for having required myself to verbalize my innermost feelings. When the Spirit confirms the words that come out of your own mouth, it’s really powerful!" Journal writing puts us in the same difficult but valuable position of finding words for hard-to-express feelings.

DISCOVER: Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, once said: "I don’t want to live in a hand-me-down world of others’ experiences. I want to write aboutme, my discoveries, my fears, my feelings, about me. "Often, simply by writing about ourselves we begin to see life from a new perspective. A young woman I talked to put it this way: "My journal gives me a chance to discover things about myself I didn’t even know were there. As I write, I can figure out who I really am."

EXPAND: President Spencer W. Kimball counseled, "Write your goings and your comings, your deeper thoughts, your achievements and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies"  (President Kimball Speaks Out [1981], 59).

REMEMBER: As Alma reminds Helaman, written records "have enlarged the memory of this people" (Alma 37:8) Modern memory experts agree that writing down experiences can help us remember them longer and with greater accuracy. Journals make it easy for me to look back over my own life and see the progress I am-or am not-making. They can motivate me to stay on course or make positive changes.

DREAM: "Journal writing gives you a place for self-expression where one can afford to take a risk, experiment with ideas and materials, and even make a mistake" Many professionals agree that because a journal is less structured, many find it instantly inviting-it’s a protected place, an invitation to open up. As with backdoor friends who have never seen my best china, the pages of my journal invite me to share myself-my real self. They are a safe place for
my most personal goals and deepest dreams.


Quote 1
President Spencer W. Kimball gave this counsel: "Every person should keep a journal and every person can keep a journal. It should be an enlightening one and should bring great blessings and happiness to the families. If there is anyone here who isn’t doing so, will you repent today and change-change your life?" (in Conference Report, Apr. 1979)

Quote 2
"Those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives" ("President Kimball New Era, Dec. 1980)

Stories
Clarissa Young, one of Brigham Young’s daughters, kept a very detailed journal during the years she lived in the Beehive House in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Beehive House was the name given to Brigham Young’s home. Clarissa not only wrote a detailed description of each room in the house, but included such things as the color of the walls, the furnishings used, and what things were set on the mantles from year to year. She even included an actual piece of the drapery fabric used in the "long hall," the room where all formal entertaining was done. In 1954, when the Church began restoration of the one-hundred-year-old Beehive House, Clarissa’s journal was invaluable. Even
the drapery sample she had kept was sent to a drapery company, and new drapes were woven to look exactly like the original ones.

On Saturday, June 1942, Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who eventually died in the Holocaust, wrote the following in her personal journal: "I haven’t written for a few days, because I wanted first of all to think about my diary. It’s an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary; not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I-nor for that matter anyone else-will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Still, what does that matter? I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart" (Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl [1952], 2).

I too have things buried deep inside that must find a way out. They can be freed in my journal. As we use personal journals for places to think, feel, discover, expand, remember, and dream, I believe we will come to better understand President Ezra Taft Benson’s words: "The Lord works from the inside out" (A Witness and a Warning [1988], 64).

Joseph Smith said, "If I had in my possession, every decision which had been had upon important items of doctrine and duties since the commencement of this work, I would not part with them for any sum of money; but we have neglected to take minutes of such things, thinking, perhaps, that they would never benefit us afterwards; which if we had them now, would decide almost every point of doctrine which might be agitated. But this had been neglected, and now we cannot bear record to the manifestations which have been made to us with that degree of power and authority we otherwise could,..."

All kinds of ways to keep Journals and different unique ways to record:

I understand the scripture that teaches, "they have enlarged the memory of this people". I take a lot of photos. They are a record of our adventures. I have added the stories to the pictures. This picture is of us standing in front of our camper. In 100 years will this picture mean anything to the person who sees it? But listen to this story..............now look at the picture again. Does the picture mean anything now? They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Scrapbooking is very popular right now and many who won't keep a journal WILL keep & mount photos. Encourage the YW to mount and write under each picture, detailing who, what, when, where & why--in essence, the story behind the picture. Remember to include emotions felt and things learned if applicble to that picture. Don't let this take the place of your journals, let it add too! Someday my children will sit with their children and tell them the stories and many things can be learned from "our" record.

How grateful I am for those who shared and preserved the good and the bad times. I see the value in recording some of the struggles and how they were resolved, or where we went for help....to our Heavenly Father. As our posterity learns of us and the struggles we faced we can leave them a record of our testimony. We can tell them how we faced certain situations and how grateful we have been for the trials we've experienced because of the strength that also came. We can bear witness of the truthfulness of the gospel and the happiness and joy that come from living as righteously as possible. We can let them know we were not perfect but we never gave up and that we don't want them to either. Our children and their children will need our testimony to strengthen theirs.

Our own records can be used for missionary work. Ammon and his brothers were able to use the records that had been handed down from generation to generation to teach the Lamanites that the traditions of "their fathers" were not foolish. The testimonies of the record became a tool to teach and many were converted to the truthfulness of the gospel.

What about your emails? If you go back in your program and look at the sent box, you can copy and paste your e-mails and print them out to add to your journals. They are an excellent resource as they ussually share events and how you felt about that event, They are dated and have lots of info.

I have an old journal from my great-grand father and the thing that impresses me the most, is his expression of love for my great-grand mother. He also wrote about the day-to-day business but it was the feelings that I remember.

I also have a journal of my great grandfather who was one of the first misisonaries into Austaralia. It is an account of his labors there. What impresses me most about this account is the man he seemed to be at the first and the different man he was at the end. His testimony solidified, his confidence soard, he was a walking testimony when he came back home. He may have been that before, but he developed the abiility to express himself through his journal keeping.

How many of you have scrapbooked a lot? If you haven't done so, go back to each page of pictures and write a journal page about the event...feelings they had about it, who was there, what happened, etc. They then insert the page next to their scrapbook page.

"Do the personal histories that we leave for our posterity bear witness of Christ? Do we leave for our children a record of daily events that testify of Christ through our daily experiences? The Words of Mormon: vs. 3 ....I searched among the records which had been delivered into my hands, ....Do we search the records of our ancestors and include a story or event in their lives that may teach something to our children to come unto Christ? Do we bear witness of the power and truth of the Book of Mormon...not only a verbal record to our children, but a written record for our grand children and great grandchildren?

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Conclusion:

If no one is going to read it, why write it? It is possible that no other living soul will ever touch my journal. My journal, could easily be destroyed in a fire. Yet the time I spend writing in it is not wasted. My personal journal is helping me become more like Jesus Christ and reach my highest potential. That is why I will continue to keep my journal-whether my grandchildren ever read it or not.

So get busy and write my friends!


(I used several resources from the lesson manual, YW Connection, a class at Ricks, and a health class here)