Prayer Journaling

Growing up, my family subscribed to some culturally Christian ideals, but for the most part we weren't what I would consider a "faith-based" home. We went to church and prayed before dinner but we didn't discuss our faith with each other. While I wouldn't recommend this way of living for every family, this approach did actually benefit me in a lot of ways--when I came to my faith, I came to it organically and genuinely. No one forced me to believe anything, so I learned what I did/didn't believe on my own terms.

Another way that this approach helped me in my faith journey was that for me, talking to God has always been the same as thinking. As a child, I developed a natural rapport with him and I literally felt like I could bring Him any topic, question, request, or feeling. There weren't limitations or rules about how to talk to God, which created a positive & healthy environment for me to grow a relationship with Him.

As I got older and life got more complicated, I found myself wanting to deepen my relationship with God, especially through prayer. The churches I went to as a teenager introduced different ways of praying, and I began to see how a lot of my prayer as a child was self-focused ("God, please help me with this" "Please don't let this happen to me" "Please tell me why You did this" etc.). I also discovered that while there was beauty in the accessibility of God, being able to pray anywhere or anytime made it easy for me to get distracted while praying or put it off for later.

So, I started prayer journaling in high school to see if that would help me be more focused and intentional while praying. I've been out of college for almost two years now, and I still prayer journal several times a week. As a person who loves to write, I've found it has deepened my prayer life considerably and brought me so much joy & comfort. If you're in a similar boat regarding the desire to intensify your prayer connection to God, I definitely recommend trying it!

TIPS I'VE LEARNED ALONG THE WAY:

• If you're the type of person who thrives on schedules, try to set your prayer time either at the end of the night (to reflect on the day's events) or early in the morning (to set the tone for the day). I find it's easier to remember what specific worries/questions/people you want to pray about if you pick one time of day or the other. 
• If you thrive off of flexibility instead of strict parameters, don't feel like you have to write a certain number of pages every session or journal a certain number of times a week--free yourself from that pressure! To be perfectly honest, it took me about three years of sporadic journaling to start doing it regularly. There was a lot of emotional turmoil in my life at the time, and I always felt so guilty about not journaling that I punished myself by continuing to put it off more and more, trapping myself in a cycle. Removing that sense of routine actually helped me pray more regularly.
• Don't worry about spelling mistakes, smudges, or making everything look perfect. While it can be relaxing for some people to make every page look pretty, these prayers are a conversation between you and God. What's important is what is said and what is learned, not how any of it looks (especially if aesthetic is stressing you out and making you not want to prayer journal at all). 
• In a similar vein: don't freak out about filling in all of the pages right away. I have one prayer journal that took me three years to complete and one that took me six months (and if you know how tiny my handwriting is, you know both statements are pretty wild). Some days my journaling consists of 3-4 pages, some days it's 3-4 sentences. There is no right way or wrong way to pray to God--if you feel like it's more helpful to do one or the other, then the journal is fulfilling its purpose. 
• When it comes to the journal/writing utensils themselves, don't stress about getting it right the first time; just let the process guide you. I used to think that it didn't matter, but I've learned what size/thickness of journal I prefer and that pen is superior to pencil since I write so small/like to look back at my prayers years later. I've also written prayers on napkins, looseleaf, the backs of envelopes, and on post-its and just stuck all them in the margins of my first journal.
• Let your journaling style change as you change as a person. As we grow and develop as humans, our schedules, priorities, and desires change with us, as do our writing styles. Whatever you find that works for you right now might not work for you later, and that's fine.
• If you find that prayer journaling doesn't work for you, that is totally ok!!! I still pray/worship in my head, out loud, through song and/or poetry, etc. As I said earlier, there is no right way or wrong way to pray to God. :) 

WHAT KINDS OF THINGS DO I WRITE?

*Note: you don't need to prayer journal all of these; these are all just things I've tried!* 

For the self:

• Hopes for the future: guidance towards a new job, help choosing a school/program, creative opportunities, guidance & direction with a new or changing relationship/friendship
• Fears: healing, comfort, and freedom from past pain, help for anxiety/depression, reminders that He is with me, teaching me to trust Him
• Questions: wisdom about a confusing concept (in scripture, a friendship situation, a class I'm struggling with)
• Provision: emotional, financial, spiritual, physical, occupational, health-related, creative, etc. 
• Lessons: teaching me to be better person/showing me how to love, forgive, & honor others, helping me have the clarity & understanding to learn from his lessons

For others (this includes family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, acquaintances, pets, and people I don't know personally):

• Specific prayer requests 
• Things I've noticed that I'm not sure about (for example: "God, I noticed that _____ seemed a little sad today. Whatever is going on, please bring her healing and comfort, Jesus.")
• Protection from harm and good/improving physical & emotional health
• Provision: emotional, financial, spiritual, physical, occupational, health-related, creative, etc. 
• Relationships: for my friends/family who are married/engaged, I pray for God to teach them daily how to build even stronger, healthier, more joyful relationships with their significant others. For my friends/family who have children, I pray for God to teach them daily how to be even more compassionate, loving, supportive parents. If a friend is pregnant, I will pray for the health of her and the baby (or babies) as well as a safe delivery with a quick, easy recovery. 
• Healing: Part of the human experience is to go through pain, so I feel it is incredibly important to ask God to bring healing to others as well as to ask Him to show me how I can help them heal.

For the world (for this it's sometimes easier to be specific instead of general): 

• Social justice: asking for healing and peace in regards to war/conflict (both in my country and other countries), asking God to strengthen the people in power to block incidents or legislature that will negatively affect marginalized groups or asking Him to strengthen & empower those in power to bring justice and freedom to marginalized groups, asking for Him to teach me how to be more generous with my time, money, and resources 
• Protection of the environment

Worship:

• Gratitude: thanking him for answered prayers, the positive things I or other people have experienced, comforts/privileges (hot water, heat, a bank account, money to pay the bills, remembering to pay them on time, food, etc). 
• Reflection: requests that He said 'no' to + how that answer was hard for me to understand at the time, but now I see that having those desires granted would have hurt me; ruminating on theological questions or scripture; writing out why I am scared/anxious/upset about a situation and letting Him guide me through, apologizing for whenever I am mad/disappointed/frustrated with Him
• Praise: Listing off ways He is great 

Miscellaneous:

• Song lyrics, verses, or quotes that speak to me spiritually 
• Learning: decoding a scripture passage, taking notes on a sermon/podcast/video (I love Tiffany Dawn and Glennon Doyle right now!), recapping a discussion I had with a friend
• Letters to my future husband (NOTE: I did this a lot in high school but I don't do it anymore because I don't presume to know what my future holds and honestly I would be just as happy to live the single life forever as I would to be married). 
• Ramblings: I believe God wants me to come to Him with anything & everything. I think He values the minutiae of my day as much as He values the important events, so if I feel like going on and on about how sick or ugly I feel or the friend who's been ignoring me or the article that freaked me out to the point of not sleeping, I will do that. God is pretty cool so He usually finds a way to make my rants into something meaningful, and being able to calm my mind by spitting all the junk out onto a page is such a comfort. 

Thanks for reading, friends! I hope some of you found this interesting and/or helpful! :) <3