A Short Post about Journaling

When we began traveling as a team in the beginning of September, Tom shared with us how he had begun the new practice of journaling this summer.

"I don't know why no one ever taught me how to journal before-they must have thought, 'he's Tom Short-of course he knows how to journal,'" Tom mused.

The system Tom taught us, which the five of us have been practicing daily, is called the "SOAP Method." Essentially, you need five things to begin:

A Bible reading plan, a Bible, a notebook, a pen, and a planner.

1) Plan out what you are going to read; typically, 1-3 chapters is a good place to start.

2) It is essential to bring your Bible along as well. If you are just beginning to read the Bible for yourself, find a translation that is easy to read and understand. I recommend the NIV, ESV, or NLT. Tom also says not to bring along an electronic Bible, because it is very easy just to copy and paste verses that way, and when instead you take the time to physically write down the scripture and your thoughts about it, you are forced to slow down and process things more deeply.

3) Get a nice journal that you will enjoy writing in-and 4) a nice pen as well. You can find both for fairly cheap.

5) The planner is to write down anything that comes to mind when you are journaling that you need to remember later. When you write it down, you won't have to worry about remembering it at the end of your quiet time and can remain undistracted to focus on what you're journaling about.

S: Scripture. Write down what passage you are reading, and write a verse or two down that stuck out to you. These verses will be what you will focus on in the journal entry.

O: Observation. What do you see happening in these verses? Write these thoughts down.

A: Application. What is something you can apply to your heart and/or to your life based off of the scripture?

P: Prayer. Write down a short prayer to God based off of what you read. Tom says that since most prayers are spontaneous, oftentimes it can seem strange to write prayers down. Once you begin doing it, however, it will seem more natural. Personally, in the past it was always difficult for me to write down prayers, but since I started the SOAP method, I've found it has become easier.

So, that's that! My next post will include an example of journaling with the SOAP method.