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:
- Be the soldier you were meant to be
- Be positive
- Always remember, “He’s got this. Rest in His power.”
- Remember that Jesus’ peace is always available
- Don’t forget the power of Christian music
- Prayer warriors are God’s warriors
- Forever God’s beloved daughter
- God’s love NEVER fails
- Never stop seeking
- “Fear sees a ceiling, but hope sees the stars.” {Limitless by Colton Dixon}
- He’ll help me figure it out eventually
- Never forget the Jesus joy you once knew
- Let Philippians 4:13 be your daily song
- Perfect love casts out all fear
- Immanuel never changes, even in the midst of chaos
- Be an ant, but God’s ant nonetheless {talking about being diligent}
- Saturdays come and go, but God endures forever
- Prayer is powerful so engage in it often
- Find God in the mundane
- Meh {I was obviously running out of things to say at this point XD}
- Umm….yeahhhhh
- Happy Thanksgiving, and remember to rejoice always
- Stop procrastinating, it’s causing stress! {I unfortunately still haven’t learned my lesson with this one}
- God loves you beyond measure
- Live the Jesus life
- Keep on keepin’ on, ’cause you’re gonna see the light {See the Light by TobyMac}
- Comparing killed the cat
- Never give up
- I may be falling apart, but God stands at the ready with super glue
- 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}
- Just breathe
- You’re stronger than the anxiety that’s drowning you, so keep swimming
- School’s calling
- Live like He’s your Father, because He is
- Human life is chaos, but God gives peace to His own
- All things work out for good for them that love God {Romans 8:28}
- Get some sleep, FRESHMAN
- Let the light in
- Never let fear win; never stop pursuing God
- Jesus will always be the best friend anyone could ever have
- Always remember your God and your purpose
- A Proverb a day keeps the foolishness away
- Remember how you feel right now and never forget
- Life is good
- God is good even when you’re not in the mood
- Promote prayer to plan A for peace
- You were born to run the race called life
- See Him in everything, all day
- God grants sleep to those He loves, but work is still incredibly important
- Be strong in the Lord and never give up hope
- It’s day 0; you’ve got time {referring to Christmas break}
- When you get caught up in your day to day mess, just zoom out and look at life through His eyes
- 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}
- Get some self-discipline, girl!
- Jesus is the Reason for the season
- 2019 is coming, which means y’all should start planning your Jesus goals {why did I refer to myself as “y’all”? XD}
- Make 2019 a year to remember (by crushing your problems) {2019 has definitely been a year to remember!}
- Smile often and remember the good
- Practice makes ya better
- And 2018 is furtherly done (lol idk)
- 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 ❤
