by Mindy Hill
Throughout my life I have kept journals or diaries of my most private and personal feelings. Journaling has always helped me just calm down when situations get tough and when I need to get things out. Sometimes when my college semester gets overwhelming, I like to take a few moments and reread some of my old entries.
I recently decided to take out my journals, read them and see how God has gotten me through every situation in my life. God has been my constant through everything and he will also get me to the end of junior year. Seeing these journals has not only shown me what I have experienced, but also that I am a strong girl who can hold my head up and pray faith-filled prayers.
In High School I would always start out my page by writing the verse from my devotion that night at the top of the page. Looking back now, it shows me that God has always been there with me through every situation that I wrote about. Most of the verses related somehow or some way to the topic I discussed on that page, and it is amazing to me that at fifteen years old I was so in love with God.
I can remember countless rants that I had written about boys I had little crushes on, and then drama of the school day. I fully confided in my journal and put my whole heart into each entry. Reading it now, I still can feel the excitement, the hurt, or the joy that any of the situations I went through caused me through the words that I used. I wrote every detail almost like I was talking to my best friend. Through every heart ache and every joy my journal has been with me, and more importantly, my GOD has been with me.
I am so glad that my journals have now become something meaningful in my life instead of sappy love poems and crazy boy crushes saying “my life is over” type things. I really had no clue at age fifteen where God was going to have me at age twenty one, and how God was going to use me during the time in between.
Now most of my journaling is shared through blogging, and I do not get into the intense intimate details that I once did when keeping them private. Nonetheless, these journals are helping me grow in my faith by relating everyday situations to God and how he is going to use it later on down the road.
Do you ever read your old journals? What have you learned from them?
Mindy Hill is a Junior Child Development Major at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. She was born and raised in a Christian home and saw Christ through both of her parents daily. She loves learning about God and living her life for him daily. She also likes coffee and getting lost in a good book, and has has a passion for helping the people of Africa.
