Last November, I started keeping a journal because it was a requirement for an American Heritage Girls badge, and I’m happy to say that I’ve kept up with it! I certainly haven’t been perfect with writing every day, but I’ve written something at least once a week. And as a *recovering* perfectionist, that’s good enough for me.

Since it’s been a year since I started journaling, I thought it would be fun to go back and read what I wrote. I’ve grown a lot and won several battles (mainly anxiety). It’s amazing to see how far I’ve come, and how God has been with me every step of the way.

When I first started the journal, I had a thing where I would always close an entry with a unique, encouraging line before I signed off. I have to admit, after a month or two, it was hard to come up with more ways to close! But as I went back and read some of the entries today, I was stunned by how encouraging some of those lines actually were. Some were pretty powerful (and some are pretty funny XD), and I thought it would make a good blog post to share them with you! The meaning of most of them is obvious, but I’ll explain the ones that need explaining. Things is parentheses are part of the line, things in brackets are my commentary. So here we go! These are some of the ways I closed my journal entries last year:

1. Be the soldier you were meant to be
2. Be positive
3. Always remember, “He’s got this. Rest in His power.”
4. Remember that Jesus’ peace is always available
5. Don’t forget the power of Christian music
6. Prayer warriors are God’s warriors
7. Forever God’s beloved daughter
8. God’s love NEVER fails
9. Never stop seeking
10. “Fear sees a ceiling, but hope sees the stars.” {Limitless by Colton Dixon}
11. He’ll help me figure it out eventually
12. Never forget the Jesus joy you once knew
13. Let Philippians 4:13 be your daily song
14. Perfect love casts out all fear
15. Immanuel never changes, even in the midst of chaos
16. Be an ant, but God’s ant nonetheless {talking about being diligent}
17. Saturdays come and go, but God endures forever
18. Prayer is powerful so engage in it often
19. Find God in the mundane
20. Meh {I was obviously running out of things to say at this point XD}
21. Umm….yeahhhhh
22. Happy Thanksgiving, and remember to rejoice always
23. Stop procrastinating, it’s causing stress! {I unfortunately still haven’t learned my lesson with this one}
24. God loves you beyond measure
25. Live the Jesus life
26. Keep on keepin’ on, ’cause you’re gonna see the light {See the Light by TobyMac}
27. Comparing killed the cat
28. Never give up
29. I may be falling apart, but God stands at the ready with super glue
30. He’s with me even when the waters won’t stop rising, even when I’m caught in the dead of night {Even Then by Micah Tyler}
31. Just breathe
32. You’re stronger than the anxiety that’s drowning you, so keep swimming
33. School’s calling
34. Live like He’s your Father, because He is
35. Human life is chaos, but God gives peace to His own
36. All things work out for good for them that love God {Romans 8:28}
37. Get some sleep, FRESHMAN
38. Let the light in
39. Never let fear win; never stop pursuing God
40. Jesus will always be the best friend anyone could ever have
41. Always remember your God and your purpose
42. A Proverb a day keeps the foolishness away
43. Remember how you feel right now and never forget
44. Life is good
45. God is good even when you’re not in the mood
46. Promote prayer to plan A for peace
47. You were born to run the race called life
48. See Him in everything, all day
49. God grants sleep to those He loves, but work is still incredibly important
50. Be strong in the Lord and never give up hope
51. It’s day 0; you’ve got time {referring to Christmas break}
52. When you get caught up in your day to day mess, just zoom out and look at life through His eyes
53. Chase the lion, even into a pit on a snowy day {I was so shocked when I read this, considering I hadn’t read any of Mark Batterson’s books yet! I think I read his devo on YouVersion and that’s how I knew about him, but it was still surprising. His books are my current obsession}
54. Get some self-discipline, girl!
55. Jesus is the Reason for the season
56. 2019 is coming, which means y’all should start planning your Jesus goals {why did I refer to myself as “y’all”? XD}
57. Make 2019 a year to remember (by crushing your problems) {2019 has definitely been a year to remember!}
58. Smile often and remember the good
59. Practice makes ya better
60. And 2018 is furtherly done (lol idk)
61. 2019 is going to be great only if you make it great (in other words…don’t be lazy and expect everything to magically happen while you sit back and watch, because it won’t)

I hope y’all were encouraged, if only a little bit. Until next time! Be blessed and be a blessing ❤