Why I Love Using a Prayer Journal (and How I Got Started)

As someone who grew up in a religious home, I have been praying ever since I could speak. And so have my children. Yet somehow, at 28 I still frequently feel like I’m not actually a very confident or eloquent person when I pray. And something I did not expect when my oldest daughter was born was that the habits of praying first thing in the morning and the last thing at night would become dramatically more difficult. Suddenly my nights no longer looked like they had a start and end point. I was up nursing a baby multiple times a night, and when my baby woke in the morning she was hungry and wasn’t in the mood to wait for breakfast until I had said a prayer. So that pattern of prayer I had established as a child began to slip away. Nearly five years later, this is still something I struggle with, especially now that I’m on newborn number three. It’s tempting to roll out of bed and start the day immediately, since three little people are demanding my attention from the moment my eyes open.

Finding the time to communicate with God is extremely important to me, and over the years I’ve attempted multiple methods to ensure that I get that time in. By far my favorite method is keeping a prayer journal. I’ve found that writing down my thoughts before saying them aloud helps me to stay focused, and to dig deeper than the surface level thoughts and feelings that are swirling in my head at the moment I kneel down. It also acts as a record of my life, fears, concerns, victories, and hopes. And, perhaps most valuable of all to me, it calms my often chaotic mind through meditation before approaching God in prayer.

I am not perfect at using my prayer journal every morning and every night. There are days when I manage to use it in the morning, but can’t find the time to fill it out before bed. And then there are days when my mornings are too hectic and I only manage to write in my journal at night. Occasionally, I will just skip a day here or there. I try not to beat myself up about that, because the prayer journal exists to help me have more meaningful conversations with God, not to be my only means of communicating with Him. On the days when I don’t have time to write, I still pray morning and night. I’ve just discovered that my prayers are generally more rushed, less coherent, and not as substantial if I don’t take the time to write out my thoughts beforehand.

There are so many different ways to approach a prayer journal that it might seem overwhelming. It definitely did to me when I first wanted to start one. Here is the process I used to help begin using a prayer journal.

• PICK A MEDIUM I currently use a prayer journal that I designed myself and had printed and bound at my local Office Depot. But a fancy prayer journal definitely is not a necessity. You can use a regular notebook, a notetaking app on your phone, a tablet, or a laptop. Go with whatever is most convenient for you and will mesh best with your needs and lifestyle. I prefer writing over typing when it comes to a prayer journal, because the physical act helps me focus more and feels almost meditative. But if you know you’re more likely to remember to use a prayer journal if you use a notetaking app on your phone, then that’s definitely the way to go.

• ORGANIZE THOUGHTS INTO CATEGORIES A prayer journal is not intended to be a full-on diary, in my opinion. Rather, it’s a way to organize my thoughts on paper before praying them aloud. Trying to write a full prayer down can be overwhelming. It works well if I’m praying for something specific, but not so well for daily prayers. Without organization, I can start rambling, or leave things out, or just feel stuck, like I don’t know where to begin. Because of this, I like to create categories that help me formulate my prayers. The journal I designed has four different categories: praise (this is where I thank God for my blessings), confide (where I tell the Lord what is weighing on my mind), account (where I tell Him what I plan to do/accomplished that day), and request (where I ask for blessings for myself and others). Before coming up with these categories, I reflected on what things I typically pray for/about, and found that they generally fall into one of these four categories. You may have more or fewer categories than I do, but it helps to give yourself specific areas to meditate on in order to make your prayers more meaningful.

• KEEP TRACK OF WHEN PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED I have a section in my prayer journal at the end of each week where I keep track of how and when my prayers from that week were answered. Some prayers take days, weeks, months, or even years to receive answers. It can be discouraging sometimes to pray for something for seemingly endless amounts of time with no clear answer in sight. But I find that noting when my prayers are answered gives me an increased sense of gratitude, and helps strengthen my relationship with God, because I have written evidence that He is listening to and helping me along. Some of those answered prayers are small. Some are big. Either way, I can see in black and white that they were important to the Lord.

• DON’T OVERTHINK IT Remember: a prayer journal is a tool. It’s not intended to replace your prayers. Some people can speak eloquently and fluently with God, without any prior meditation. If I’m being honest, I’ve never had that skill. It’s hard for me to pray with clarity and to stay focused without first organizing my thoughts. A prayer journal works well for me, but I also recognize that it is not my link to God. I have that link with or without writing my thoughts out first. So on days when I don’t have much to report, I don’t feel guilty writing little or nothing in my prayer journal. I don’t want prayer to just be going through the motions, so if writing in my prayer journal ever feels like it’s limiting my natural and comfortable dialogue with God, then I put it away for a little while and just speak freely. I’ve personally found the time to meditate and reflect before praying to be spiritually cleansing. But sometimes it can feel forced. There’s a balance between those two things, so don’t get too wrapped up in trying to keep a perfect journal. Use this tool when it serves to improve your daily walk with God. And when it doesn’t, move on to something that does.

Everyone has a unique relationship with God, and I am definitely no expert when it comes to developing one. A prayer journal has been a wonderful way to improve my connection with God and helps me keep track of my spiritual experiences. Have you ever used a prayer journal? I’d love to hear your favorite methods for making your prayers meaningful!