I have always been a big journal writer. My first one I started in 5th grade and each entry starts "Dear diary." It's so funny to read now. I have generally kept up ever since. If you haven't, start now! My family moved to a new town when I started high school. I made many friends, but didn't have many that I considered close confidants. My journal became my friend, the one I told everything. Each night I would write. It was therapeutic and helped me work through any issues I was having. My sketchbooks have also had this same sort of purpose for me, including working through artwork planning. Needless to say I have A LOT of journals and sketchbooks.
The time I was most vigilant about this was as I was serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints in Puerto Rico, Aruba, and Curacao. I managed to fill 3 journals and 3 study journals. My journals I would write in each night about my day and report about miracles and all the wonderful plus discouraging things that would happen each day. My study journals were sort of scrapbooks of my learning. They are highly valued possessions of mine. I would jump to save them in a fire.
I've tried several different methods of scripture study journaling, but the way I did it on my mission worked best for my brain. I'm going back to this type of organization as soon as I get my hands on the materials.
To create your own you'll need:
-A mini binder
-mini binder tabs
-mini binder notebook paper
-fun colored pens
These small binders can be hard to find at Wal-Mart or other grocery store type places, but you can find them online and at places that specialize in office supplies like Office Depot and Staples. Avery makes one here.
I love the size and the ability to organize. They're just the right size to carry around. And because it's a binder with pockets, you can move things around as you need and store photos, articles etc in it.
To get started....
1. Decide what you'd like in each tab: table of contents. This will depend on how many tabs you have. You can add as many as you like. You can see in this binder I have 2 different types of tabs. I divided my section 2 tab into 3 different sections.
I made a table of contents for each of my binders/study journals. Because I was a missionary at the time, you can see each tab has to do with my missionary service.
Now that I am a mom, wife, artist, and lots of other things, my new binder will have the following sections:
1. Personal study- (this includes thoughts each day from scriptures, talks, but generally consisting of my own thought)
2. Meeting notes- LDS folk go to a lot of meetings! This tab is a great place to keep all of that.
3. Quotes- I absolutely love having an area to write down great quotes that I find. Each of my study journals has a section with this.
4. Parenting- I'm raising a little boy and am always looking for good advice.
5. Goals- Write down goals, evaluate them often.
That's all I have right now. Depending on where you are in your life, you can create topics you'd like to focus on. If I were teaching Sunday school, I'd have a tab for lesson preparation. It's wide open to whatever you want to study.
2. Dress it up. You are much more likely to use a study journal that has your stamp on it. I like to cut out images from church magazines and glue them into my tabs, pages, wherever. I also love using different color pens to write and organize my thoughts. Plus it's prettier that way! It also improves my ability to remember where something is I wrote down because I remember the colors I used.
3. Include articles, pamphlets etc. Some things I study from fit right into the binder. So I just poke holes in them and keep them in my tabs. If you have a talk you'd like to study, shrink it down and then you can include it too.
Most importantly, remember that “Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need. Spiritually sensitive information should be kept in a sacred place that communicates to the Lord how you treasure it. This practice enhances the likelihood of your receiving further light” Elder Richard G. Scott.
Studying the scriptures along with a study journal makes it so much more powerful. Rather than just reading, organizing your thoughts can make your scripture study so much more meaningful.
What ways have you organized your scripture study? What helpful tips have you found?
