One-Word Journal Prompt: “Keel”
What in your life keeps you on an “even keel”? (This is part of a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set … Continued
Nature Journaling for the Bookish Family
I believe in the importance of time spent in nature. But going outside has never been my natural instinct: I’m just more of a curl-up-with-a-book-and-tea person. I read with awe about mothers who are constantly outside with their kids: getting … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: Cultivate
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! Definition of “Cultivate”: … Continued
Hands Full of Words: Merging Word and Image in Your Journaling
I have always been fascinated by words that are part of visual images, and I decided to play with that in my Bible journaling last week. The second half of Mark 1 has Jesus reaching out with his hand twice–once … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: Fold
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! Definitions of Fold … Continued
A Rhythm of Topics for Your Journal
My early journals were very one-dimensional. Whether I intended them to or not, they usually covered one topic: my emotions in my teens or self-analysis and career in my twenties. Eventually, through examples, I began to branch out and include … Continued
Journaling Bible: My Process
For Christmas, I received an ESV Journaling Bible: one of those now-popular Bibles with extra margin room for notes and illustrations. I’ve been admiring all the Bible-margin artwork popping up on the Internet these days, and wondering what it would … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: Grace
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! Definitions of … Continued
The Simplest Journaling for Language Learning
What kind of foreign-language writing is simple enough to keep up every day? or even every week? Writing in the foreign language(s) you are studying is powerful, and I have gained a lot from each “journal” I have started over … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: “Ash Breeze”
This is a series of one-word prompts (OK, sometimes two-word!) that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours. … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: “Open”
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! “Merely having an … Continued
Announcing The 7-Day Prayer Journal
Happy New Year! I’m excited to announce that we have just released The 7-Day Prayer Journal and the companion e-book The 7-Day Prayer Journal Guide. A few years ago, my mother, my sister, and I began to experiment with prayer … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: “Awake”
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! When are you … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: “Delight”
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! ‘Tis the gift … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: “Still”
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! In his stillness … Continued
How To Start a Creativity Journal
What if your journal could be a place to find and incubate new ideas? A greenhouse, a workshop, a laboratory? My journals as a kid were essentially diaries. Gradually they expanded to include “commonplace” books or pages (copied quotes I … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: “Wind”
This is a series of one-word prompts (OK, sometimes two-word) that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: “Make Straight”
This is a series of one-word prompts (OK, sometimes two-word) that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! … Continued
Thanks for the Weeds
Gratitude Lists are popular for good reason. They not only lift your spirits, they fulfill your ultimate mission, “to glorify God and enjoy him forever,” or as poet Mary Oliver puts it, “Instructions for / living a life: / Pay … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompt: “Juxtapose”
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! “ A wonderful … Continued
A Simple Way to Illustrate a Verse
Writing out a verse slowly and illustrating it can be a wonderful way to meditate on it, to “think on the page.” But it’s not always easy to get started, and to know what to draw. Here is one straightforward … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompts: “Steam”
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! “a vapor … Continued
How to Start a Reading Journal
Do you keep a reading journal? One just for your thoughts about books? I have to confess that soon after I started with the bold title page in the picture, that journal started to have entries about other things…and soon … Continued
Colorful Close Reading of Poetry (with a printable reference card)
How do you help a kid find something to write about a poem? How do you dig into a poem yourself, especially one you don’t “get”? And how do you find the beauty in densely poetic scripture texts? I use … Continued
One-Word Journal Prompts: “Alight”
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! “A disciple once … Continued
The Blank Journal Page: Start With the Date
Seasons of Journaling I have found that my journal-keeping runs in seasons. There are seasons when I need to spill page upon page of freewriting, clearing out emotions and working through fears, like the “daily pages” of The Artist’s Way. … Continued
Kids and Journals in the Art Museum: 4 Tips
Taking your children to an art museum can be frustrating: it can involve hot children, tired feet, a harried parent, and a fair amount of squabbling. But it can also—even on the same trip—involve a few moments of magic. For … Continued
One-Word Prompt for Journal Writing: “Jungle”
This is a series of one-word prompts that you can use to get writing today. Each is accompanied by a little doodle from my own journal, to set the scene: a gift from my journal to yours! “The task … Continued
Journals & Journaling
I am re-launching this blog today with a tighter sense of focus, and a theme I’m excited about: Journals and Journaling. Does that Mean it’s all about Diaries? When I say journals, I don’t really mean daily diaries—only very … Continued
Both Mine Eyes
You had a good plan. A lovely plan. If God had just gone along with it, you would have given him the praise, and the world would have been a better place. But omnipotent God somehow let everything go wrong, … Continued
“Big Name” (#8 in the Psalter Project)
“You are holy…” “I praise your name…” Does it seem like you’ve sung the same words of praise a hundred times? This morning? A villanelle is a poetic form in which two whole lines must be re-used in a strict … Continued
Psalm 7: “Shield” (Psalter Project)
I’ve never used an actual shield…but every day I feel the need of some kind of shielding, and I started this psalm-poem thinking about that need for protection and escape. It moves on, of course, from there through all the … Continued
Psalm 6: “Emergency Room” (Psalter Project)
Some Psalms cry out in pain…we rarely sing those verses in our praise songs or print them on posters or pin them on pinterest, but the songs of God’s people are often full of agony mixed in with faith and … Continued
First Words
What are the first words out of your mouth each morning? It only recently occurred to me that this might be important. For many years, without any thought at all, my first words have been to ask my husband how … Continued
Psalm 5: “Spinning” (Psalter Project)
“Sweet God, turn to me, I turn to you…” From “wooly thoughts” to “echoes laid straight,” here is my version of Psalm 5, “Spinning.” (My sister Lindsay and I are writing poems based on each of the psalms in order. … Continued
Psalm 4: “Amplify” (Psalter Project)
From “speak softness when I make an ugly noise” to “amplify, great God, turn up the shine”–I love the way psalms move from one emotional place to another, like a river sweeping the reader along. Here is Lindsay’s version of … Continued
the Unicorn Yoke
per There are days when freedom to choose what to do is a great burden. This week I am feeling the combination of anticlimax (after my sister’s wedding), spring fever, and Santa Ana winds (i.e. heat and headaches). It’s exactly … Continued
Riding the Storm of Tradition
This week I decided to read John Milton’s poem “Lycidas,” which I saw praised as the greatest elegy in English. But as I stepped into the poem, I felt disoriented–I felt, I imagine, as Milton might if he stepped into … Continued
Safety, Shelter, Home
The slogan of a local radio station, “Safe for the Whole Family,” never fails to irritate me. It’s not only that I don’t think the station is safe–from the lure of American consumerism, for instance. It’s not only that I … Continued
A White Lent
Spring is here, and everything is fresh and restless…and pastel. It doesn’t seem to fit the Lenten mood or palette sometimes. I expect to dwell in purple, moving somberly into black, and instead the world around me is full of … Continued
Psalm 3: “External Heart” (Psalter Project)
Here is my poem version of Psalm 3. (You might want to start at the beginning of our Psalter Project, or see all the psalms I’ve posted so far.) I am my own worst enemy. God, swarms of fears are … Continued
Prayer Journal (Coming Soon!)
Have you ever wished for greater consistency in your prayer, but simultaneously felt bored by praying for the same few things each day? I have! A few years ago, my mother, my sister, and I began to experiment with a … Continued
Psalm 2: “Necks in the Sand” (Psalter Project)
Here is Lindsay’s poetic response to Psalm 2, the next installment in our Psalter Project. (To see all the psalms posted so far, click here.) Why do they stew in their own spleen in a bath that boils but does … Continued
Sooner Than You Think
“Longer than you wish, sooner than you think.” I was driving 65 mph on the 110 when I heard this today, and laughed aloud. My daughters promptly reminded me that I had laughed at the same quote last week–which I … Continued
Ash Wednesday
“In what torne ship soever I embarke…” The very word “whatsoever” is ripped apart, flapping around that wounded ship, and suddenly I feel the torn ship of my life. The sea of “s” sounds swallows me and washes me into … Continued
Psalm 1: “Fulfilled” (Psalter Project)
A few years ago, my sister Lindsay and I began writing a “Psalter” together: our own poems based on each of the biblical Psalms in order. I write the odd-numbered psalms, she writes the evens! All kinds of life events … Continued