Would you like to sharpen your children's observation skills, give them a healthy outlet to express their emotions, and help them develop an intimate relationship with God? By teaching them how to keep a journal, you can encourage growth in all of these areas.
I introduced my children to journaling when I realized how important it had been to my spiritual growth. Together my children and I have experienced many special times of sharing, and they have learned a devotional technique they can use for the rest of their lives.
Love Letters to God
As soon as a child is old enough to express thoughts on paper, he or she can learn to journal. Entries can be as simple as verses copied across a page; one-sentence prayers ("I love you, Jesus"); or questions ("God, what made You think of colors? Which one is Your favorite? Mine's blue. I think Yours must be too, because You made so much of it."). As they get older, children can use journaling to clarify their changing emotions and the struggles of adolescence.
Preserving the "Wows"
Journaling can also be a way for children to hold on to the wonder of who God is and what He has created, especially if an adult encourages this in the early years. My uncle did that for me. When I was a child, my Uncle Lawrence would take me outside into a night exploding with starlight, and we'd look at bright red Mars hanging low on the horizon.
He told me that Mars wasn't a star. He said that it circled the sun the way our earth did, and was bigger than my house, bigger than our barn, bigger even than all the houses in the huge, far-off town of Portland, Oregon.
As he talked about a mighty God flinging stars into place with only the sound of His voice, my "wow" turned to wonder, my wonder to worship.
I can remember such experiences with my own children. One day my daughter and I witnessed the glory of a sunset painting the sky. Her small hand slipped into mine, and she said in an awed voice, "I think it must be Jesus coming."
Later my daughter asked for the water colors that had been set aside for special occasions. Sunset splashes of orange and gold spilled across her page. She selected black paint and added two stick figures standing hand in hand. Underneath she printed, "Jesus and me! Together!"
It's important for us to preserve the "wows" in our children's lives. It's important, too, to guide their thoughts to the One who created it all. These shared moments sharpen your children's grasp of spiritual truth and help them see God's presence in daily life. If parents can guide their children into writing these experiences down, they will be even more firmly cemented into the children's lifestyle.
It Only Takes a Spark
You can stimulate your children's Bible reading by providing a list of questions. The list can be their own or include some questions you might ask yourself as you read the Bible. Such a list might look like this.
- What does this show me about You, Lord? About me?
- What warnings, promises, or information do You want me to know about? Can I write it down in one or two sentences?
- How can I make the truth I just wrote down a part of my life today? Tomorrow?
These kinds of questions dig deep and make us vulnerable to the Holy Spirit's teaching. They also make us vulnerable to one another.
I have found it greatly beneficial to meet with each of my children for an occasional shared quiet time. We pray together and then open our Bibles to the same verses and take turns reading them aloud. Next, we think, pray, and write. Then we talk. This prime-time sharing encourages us to ask: So what? So what if David killed Goliath? What does it mean to me right now? What can I learn from David's actions that will help me today?
Often these times alert me to problems and struggles in my children's lives, and I learn how to encourage and guide them.
These questions can be especially helpful if the Bible character demonstrates success in an area where your child struggles. For example, my daughter Leelee is a fighter—she's out to pick quarrels, not stop them. By studying the actions of Abigail, a wise woman who actively strove to be a peacemaker against great odds, Leelee can learn a lot about her area of need.
Other examples of Bible character models:
- Ruth models loyalty and the good results of making right choices.
- Both Sarah's and Peter's lives teach biblical principles for handling failure.
- Esther's life is a beautiful example of courage. Girls love this fairy-tale-like Miss America story. And it's full of principles for godly living.
Is laziness a problem? Spend time with Joshua. Selfishness? Greed? Look at the results of Achan's folly. Wallowing in self-pity? Fear? Learn how God ministered to Elijah when he ran away, fearing for his life.
You can pave the way to study a Bible character who reminds you of your child by saying something like: "I notice you sometimes talk before you think through what you want to say. Let's look at Peter. He often did the same thing. But look how God used him!"
Many Scripture passages and books of the Bible are especially adaptable to children and teens. Proverbs is one. A pastor friend encouraged my husband, Bud, to study Proverbs with our son, Darren. They read one chapter every day for thirty-one days, matching the date with the chapter number. We found it to be a practical book for Darren. We compared several translations and discovered The Living Bible to be especially vivid. Here is a sample:
- Telling lies about someone is as harmful as hitting him with an axe, or wounding him with a sword, or shooting him with a sharp arrow (25:1).
- Yanking a dog's ears is no more foolish than interfering in an argument that isn't any of your business (26:17).
- Don't talk so much. You keep putting your foot in your mouth. Be sensible and turn off the flow (10:19)!
- The lazy man won't go out and work. "There might be a lion outside!" he says. He sticks to his bed like a door to its hinges! He is too tired even to lift his food from his dish to his mouth (26:13–15)!
These word pictures challenged the cartoonish art talent of our children. It was fun to see their notebooks sparkle with humorous truth.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
What excites one child may bore another. So tailor your children's Bible study to fit their learning style. Don't be afraid to try something different. One child will learn from illustrating biblical truth, another's spirit will soar as he discovers poetry.
If your child likes word pictures, take him to Job, who pictured frost as God's breath, thunder as His voice, and the sky as a great mirror. Job wrote about morning stars singing together when God created the world. He pictured God cutting out rivers among the rocks.
Isaiah liked word pictures, too. He imagined trees clapping their hands and mountains singing out loud. He wrote about people roaring like bears and crying like doves.
Jesus said the lilies of the field didn't sew, yet God clothed them in loveliness.
To start the word pictures flowing, imagine flowers nodding, leaves whispering, sleet hissing. One twelve-year-old boy wrote, "The angels are having a pillow fight. The feathers are falling thick." Another wrote, "I heard creation praise God today. The rain drummed a tune on the rocks. I think the drops were singing, "He's alive! He's alive!'"
Composing a praise litany is another way to encourage your child's relationship with God. Litany was a strange word to Leelee when she was eight years old. I explained that it was a kind of prayer in which one line is repeated several times. Together we read Psalm 136. We discovered how David formed a litany prayer by repeating the phrase, His love endures forever, at intervals throughout the psalm. Leelee liked that. Later she wrote her own litany of thanks to God for the springtime.
For evergreen trees blowing in the wind
For the ducks I see waddling toward the water,
For the earthworms deep within the dirt,
For the daffodil's sweet-smelling flowers,
Thank You, Lord, for Your springtime creation.
For leafless trees beginning to bud,
For warm spring rain falling down to the ground,
Giving water for the trees to drink,
For the croak of the frogs down at the pond,
Thank You, Lord, for Your springtime creation.
For my puppy running and chasing her tail,
For my brother's orange kitten, "Peachy Puff,"
For the swallow's nest outside my window,
Thank You, Lord, for Your springtime creation.
Amen
Both my sons, Darren and Mark, enjoy writing songs. They often do this when they have deep feelings that cry out for expression.
My children and I have shared special times of insight through quiet time journaling. There have been discouraging times, too, when they quit reading their Bibles and writing in their journals. But regardless of their ups and downs, my children have internalized some basic spiritual principles about how to praise and worship God.
As parents, we can participate in the most significant discipling relationship we will ever enjoy -- that of guiding our children into an intimate relationship with God. All it takes is pencil and paper, and a little quiet time..
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