Quiet Time Journals

Do you have a method for keeping track of what you're thinking and reading and studying and praying during your "God Time"?

Right now, I'm lousy at it. There have been times that I have been really good at journaling and recording my big ideas. But those seasons of life have seemed to be sporatic, not consistent. 

I'm on a roll of reading my Bible daily, but just not writing anything down. I haven't been able to find a method or tactic or system that seems to work. 

But here's what I know from an educator's perspective...

In lesson planning, there are several components to designing an "effective lesson". You have the "hook" - the thing that gets your students' attention - this could be a task, a demonstration, a reading passage, whatever. Then you have the acquiring previous knowledge, the direct instruction, the guided practice. All teacher stuff that if you're teacher, you know and if you're not a teacher, all you've been reading for the last couple of sentences is blah, blah, blah.

But the one final component that teachers include in a lesson before turning students loose to practice the skill on their own is Closure. As a teacher, I need to be able to assess what stuck in my students' thinking and what completely went in one ear and out the other. Closure can be in the form of Q&A or having students jot down what they got or what they didn't get or a myriad of other techniques. 

I think that same component of Closure is necessary in my my quiet God Time. Otherwise, I'm just reading Scripture and praying prayers that are littered with random thoughts, like what do I need to buy at the store later today and how can I get so and so to do such and such. 

Journaling can be considered a type of Closure. It's a way of recording, what stuck and what went through one eyeball and out the other as I read. In my past experiences, I have been more focused as I record my thinking. 

I have a ton of Closure templates that I've created to use in the classroom that I'm thinking that I will attempt to convert into more of a Bible Study/Quiet Time format that I hope to eventually make available to anyone who wants to use them. But for now, here's one. 

Here's a link that I think you'll be able to download a copy of this template if you're interested in using it. Quiet Time Journal #1. This is the first time that I'm attempting to link a PDF to my blog, so if it doesn't work, please let me know. Thanks.

If you're a Google user and you'd prefer to keep this digital - CLICK HERE to make your own copy of the template and save it to your Google Drive.

So let me know what methods, systems, strategies, techniques, you've used or are using to record your thinking as you study God's Word. If you have an idea for a template & you'd like help in creating it, let me know about that too. I'm not promising anything fancy, but it will be functional. 

Thanks and many blessings to you today!
Bethany