Remember It

Facebook is a public journal.  People’s status’s range from personal feelings to ordinary life events.   

There are the everyday statuses.   “Just got home from the store with the kids.  Now off to make dinner!” or “Going out to dinner with my hubby!  I can’t wait!”  

There’s the more touchy feely, ones, “My little boy came and gave me hug today out of the blue and told me he loved me.  I really needed that.” 

Or the testimonies, “Today was another reminder of how amazing the Savior is.  He never leaves us, even when it feels like we’re alone.” 

I’m not saying a person sharing their lives on Facebook is bad.  (If I had a problem with it then I would delete my Facebook account).  What I am concerned about is all those little things we put on Facebook will eventually fade away.  I don’t see the day, but I’m sure someday Facebook will be like MySpace—no one uses it anymore.  The same will probably happen with Twitter, Instagram, and Pintrist.  All of those tidbits of life will eventually disappear. 

May I suggest a simple way in which people can preserve those special moments of their lives?

Keep a journal

Maybe you’re the kind of person who “doesn’t keep a journal very well.”  Honestly, it’s easier than you think, and there are soooo many ways to keep a journal! 

The Personal Traditional Journal

I’ve kept one since I was nine years old.  It is so much fun to look back on my kid and teenage journals to see how much I’ve grown.  Journals like these can provide a sense of strength.  Earlier this year I was pretty down.  I flipped open the journal in which I recorded the last few months of my mission.  I read several entries where I had gone through difficult times and how I overcame them.  Reading those entries strengthened me at that particular difficult moment.  I knew I could do hard things.

Your entries don’t have to be long.  In fact my last entry was a paragraph long.  I recently came across something on Pintrist where a lady literally wrote 2-4 sentences for each day.  Those simple sentences are snapshots into her life. 

Adding titles to some entries makes it a little more fun.

I sometimes add pictures to my journals.  It spices things up a bit.

My very first journal entry.

Typed Journal

Maybe writing’s not your thing.  I admit it takes awhile.  Typing doesn’t. There’s nothing wrong with typing out our journal.  Just remember to print it out once in awhile and get it bound so you can go back and read it now and again, and your posterity can have it as well.

Bullet Journaling

I saw this on Pintrist a couple months ago, and though it’s not for me, it was still pretty cool.  What you do is write the date, then write bullets as to what happened that day. 

An example:

This is not mine.  I got this image from Pintrist.  Yours doesn't have to be this fancy

Blog Journal

My mother in law has a blog journal.  She writes the happenings of her family and life on a private blog, posts pictures, and then gets them printed in a book.  It’s a place where both pictures and words go.  It’s not personal, so her boys can flip through them.  I had the privilege of looking through one.  It was amusing to see my husband as a young teenager, looking tough in his Bomber football uniform, or snazzy, all dressed up to go to the Prom.

If you’re looking for something kind of like a scrapbook, but way easier and not as fancy, try blog journaling.

Kid’s Journal

Again, I found this idea on Pintrist (don’t you love that site)?  A couple kept a journal for each one of their kids from the time they found out they were pregnant (or the adoption was official) to the time they were 18.  Then at graduation they gave their kids the journal.  The couple wrote about special events in their kid’s life, and how they felt about them, as well as the everyday things their kids did. 

Thinking this was a fabulous idea, Chris and I bought a journal for Lilly when we found out we were expecting.  My first entry was the day we had our first ultrasound and I saw her for the first time.  I was able to tell her about her birth several days after it took place, while it was fresh in my mind.  I recorded when she cut her first tooth, when she had her first taste of ice cream, and when she began to crawl—little things that are forgotten overtime.  I don’t write it in everyday, or even every week.  I do try to write in it every 2-3 months, or whenever something monumental happens.  I also stick pictures (or ultrasounds) in the journal too.

Spiritual/Scripture Study Journal

I have so many of these, and I hardly look through them again.  For this reason, I stopped keeping one, until one of my mission companions showed me something spectacular—a topic-by-topic study journal.  I listed a whole bunch of topics, then wrote each one on the top of a different page, leaving anywhere from 1-4 pages in between each topic.  When I found a scripture, a quote, or had an insight, I would turn to the appropriate topic and write it down, dating it afterward. 

If you are exclusively studying one topic you can write everything down on a loose sheet of paper.  Then put it in a three ring binder.  Continue to add to it as you study more topics, or the same one.  This gives you the freedom to add to it over the months and years.  You’re not constrained by how many pages there are. 

I love adding fun things to my scripture journal . . . like stickers

A sample from my journal.

Photo Albums

Hey all you Instagram junkies out there.  Ever thought of printing off your photos to put in an album?  Yeah, a bit too much work, I have to agree.  I have several boxes of pictures in my closet just waiting to go into albums.  I thought of an easier way to make pictures available in print (although I’m definitely not the first.  More like the millionth).  Go to Shutterfly, Walmart.com, Snapfish, or any other picture book website and make a picture book, adding words and titles.  These books usually cost less then printing out all those pictures, and buying countless albums, and they are thinner, which means more room on the shelves! 

Pictures are a great way to preserve memories and events.  I enjoy going through albums of when I was a kid, remembering camping trips, birthday parties, and everyday life.  Next time you post a picture on Instagram or Facebook, remember it will fade away someday so you might as well print it so you can remember the memory. 

Good memories from my high school days captured in a photo

Scrapbooks

If you’re looking for a more artsy way to display your pictures, you can scrapbook.  I scrapbooked during my teenage years.  It was not for me.  I however, love looking at different layouts, amazed at what some people can do.  It’s a beautiful way to document a life.   

One of my first attempts at scrapbooking when I was a kid

I got a little better, but eventually gave it up.

Smash Books

I prefer the Smash Book.  I’m a pack rat.  I have papers from my grade school days.  I keep movie and concert tickets, notes from friends, cards from grandparents, and feathers from camping trips.  Instead of piling them in a box I Smash them.  I glue them into a special book, write a little something about it, and call it done. There’s no color coordination, or picture placement.  It’s a way for me to keep those things that are sentimental in a place I can go back to, without having to unpack and repack a box. 

I told you I'm a pack rat! 

This page took me about 30 minutes, and I have a memory preserved. 

Hobby Journal a.k.a I-don’t-want-to-forget Journal

My hobby journal is just a notebook.

For me a hobby journal consists of writing down ideas for stories and blog posts, mainly so I don’t forget my ideas.  For you it could be a doodle journal, an art journal, ideas for a room you want to decorate, the first verse to a song you’re writing, ideas for how to better your business, date ideas, or fun things to do with kids—anything.  Write them down before you forget.

Only one of these stories ended up on paper.

The Purpose of Journals

Why keep journals?  I believe there are a couple reasons.

For posterity

Journals are for our posterity to read and learn about us.  When we read the personal words of our ancestors we learn about them, their likes and dislikes, what a regular day was for them, what they feared, what they treasured, and trials they went through.  Our hearts are turned to them.  When our posterity reads our journals their hearts will be turned to us.  Keeping a journal is having the Spirit of Elijah. 

Al 22 of my journals I've kept over the past 16 years

For Remembering

We’re humans.  We forget.  It’s so fun to go back through my childhood journals and remember what it was like being a kid, when my only worry was a scraped knee.  When I read those scribbled words I feel like a kid again.  I keep a writing journal to remember things I want to write someday. 

Memories are treasures we should always keep with us.  Memories become stories we tell our children and grandchildren.  We, and they, can learn from them.

Journals come in all sizes

So next time you write something on Facebook, post a picture on Instagram, pin you’re favorite quote on Pintrist, make sure to write it, glue it, or print it. 

Remember it. 

For some fun journaling ideas visit my Pinterest board on Journaling! Click Here.