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Journal
Writing
"I make a record of my
proceedings in my days" 1 Nephi 1
I am hoping to make this a page that
can help you teach a class, learn more or give a talk on Journal writing. It all
started when I was asked to give a class at a Stake Activity Day's. Another
sister and I gave the same class, thank heavens for Cathy who came up with the
outline, and then I took the outline and made it my own. Cathy has given me
permission to post her outline and I am also including handouts I made and
handed out and story, articles and more on this subject.
Stake Primary Activity
Day ( can be used for any age)
Lesson Plan – 20 minutes
Keeping a Journal
Attention getting activity:
You can tell your own story about journals or share this
one:
My Father’s Journal; a true story.
A man died unexpectedly. A few weeks after the
funeral, his daughter was helped her mother go through his things. While
cleaning out the closet she came across his journal. She was so excited to
find something that her father had written. What had he said about her?
She sat down on the bed, eager to read about his life. She lifted the
leather cover to her face and smelled the musty aroma from being in the
closet so long. Then she opened the journal; it contained only blank
pages. He father hadn’t written one word of his life. She cried with
disappointment.
Discussion questions under chairs (click here for
printable questions)
What is a journal?
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Why should we keep a journal?
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Who needs to keep a journal?
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What is the difference between a journal and a diary?
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Where can I keep my journal so that no one will read
it?
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What if my handwriting is REALLY messy? Do I still have
to keep a journal?
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What if my life is REALLY boring, what do I write in my
journal?
Handouts – Journal
Prompts and or Keeping a Journal
Have each girl read one of the points and discuss as
needed.
Keeping A Journal (for handout
click here)
Cathy Brundage 9-1-06
If you are a perfectionist – lower your standards.
Set a goal –
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Once a week, twice a week, or everyday. If you go a
few days, weeks or months without writing, then pick up your journal and
write a short entry. Sunday is a wonderful day to write in your journal,
reflecting upon the sacrament, the talks, testimonies and lessons.
Be honest in your writing.
Remember the details - date each entry & number
pages.
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Take your journal to General Conference, vacations, or
other situations where you will have time to make entries.
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Use first and last names when writing about
individuals. Identify important locations and people in your entry.
Forget about:
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Punctuation & spelling – just do the best you can.
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Sounding righteous, amazing, or perfect.
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Selling the rights of your journal for a TV movie.
Items to include in your
journal
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Important events, impressions, personal feelings.
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Talks you have written, inspiration you have received,
the annual family Christmas letter
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Personal counsel, promises, blessings received and
circumstances surround them.
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Deaths, births, marriages, baptisms, endowments, temple
service
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Personal triumphs, failures, challenges and how you
handled them
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Current local, national, and world events that impact
your life.
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Simple daily occurrences.
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Poems and stories
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Dreams, goals, plans for your future.
Remember – your journals are the field research for
you personal history. Expect it to be at times chaotic, boring, inspiring, sad,
and joyous with some spelling and grammar errors. Enjoy the journey!
Everyone’s journal is different because everyone’s life
is different. There is no right or wrong way to keep a journal. The only
mistake you can make with your journal is NOT to write in it! (Closing
statement)
If time allows, have then do the following Auto-bio poem"
“The Auto-bio
Poem" (for a printable you could blow up larger for all to see
click here)
Auto-Bio Poem
- Your full name
- Three qualities or traits that describe you.
- Daughter of (your parent’s names)
- Who loves ( name three ideas, people or things)
- Who feels ( name three sensations or feelings)
- Who finds happiness in (name three people, places or
things)
- Who fears (three people, places or things)
- Who likes to wear ( three colors or items)
- An native of (where you were born)
- Your first name or nick name, who some day wants to be
a __________.
Journal Prompts: can be made in to a
handout (I put it into a bookmark click
here)
- Tell about your Family Christmas Traditions
- Tell about your least favorite job that you do around the house.
- Tell a story about a pet.
- Tell about a time your got in trouble with a brother/sister.
- Tell about a time when you were really scared.
- Tell about a time when you were brave.
- Tell about your favorite teacher.
- Who gave you your name? Do you have a nickname? How did you get it?
- Describe your bedroom, your house, your yard.
- Tell about a favorite experience you had with your dad.
- Tell about a favorite experience you had with your mom.
- Tell a story about your grandparents/cousins/aunts/uncles.
- Tell about the fun things you do after school.
- Tell a story about when a prayer was answered.
- Describe your favorite meal.
- Who is your best friend(s). Explain why.
- Describe your hobbies.
- What is the nicest thing you ever did for a member of your family?
- What is the nicest thing someone ever did for you?
- What is your earliest memory of Primary?
- Describe what it feels like when the Holy Ghost prompts you.
- What is your favorite subject in school? Your least favorite?
- What does your family like to do on the weekends? Vacations?
- List ten things for which you are grateful.
- What is your favorite thing to do as a family? By yourself? With a
friend?
- What was your favorite toy as a young child? Explain why.
- How did you know that God loves you?
- What kind of car does your family drive? Where do you like to sit?
- Tell a story about the family car.
- Who did you dress up as for Halloween? Where did you get the costume?
Printables of items used for this lesson
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By
Brad Wilcox
Keeping a journal helps us learn who we are.
Brad Wilcox, “Why Write It?” Ensign,
Sept. 1999, 56
“Why?” I overheard the woman ahead of me in sacrament meeting whisper to
her husband. “If no one is going to read it, why write it?”
The not-so-hushed conversation in front of me happened simultaneously
with our high councilor’s exhortation to rededicate ourselves to writing
regularly in our journals. “But why?” the woman whispered to her husband
again.
It is a good question. With everything else we have to do in a day,
why journals? We tell ourselves, “Journals are for posterity.” Well,
maybe my grandson will break both legs and be desperate enough for
something to do that he’ll pull out my dust-covered journal. But the
remote possibility of such an event in the future has never been
motivation enough for me to keep a journal. In my life, I had to
discover that writing in my journal is valuable for me—whether my
grandchildren ever read it or not.
Writing is an important form of communication, but that is scarcely
its major value. Like shooting baskets all alone in your driveway,
writing does not require an audience beyond yourself to be worthwhile or
enjoyable.
When my in-laws were moving to Colorado, a tragic moving-van fire
destroyed all their belongings, including family photograph albums and
personal journals. One well-meaning friend lamented, “All that work for
nothing!”
My wise mother-in-law responded: “The process we went through writing
our journals can never be burned. Every hour we spent on those books
helped to make us the people we have become.”
Like my mother-in-law, I have found my personal journal an ideal
environment in which to “become.” It is a perfect place for me to think,
feel, discover, expand, remember, and dream. Let us look at each of
those areas in more detail:
Think: I once asked a college professor what he thought about
a particular issue. He said: “I don’t know. I’ve never written anything
about it.” His response puzzled me at the time, but not anymore.
“Thoughts are created in the act of writing. [It is a myth that] you
must have something to say in order to write. Reality: You often need to
write in order to have anything to say. Thought comes with writing, and
writing may never come if it is postponed until we are satisfied that we
have something to say. … The assertion of write first, see what you had
to say later applies to all manifestations of written language, to
letters … as well as to diaries and journals” (Frank Smith, “Myths of
Writing,” Language Arts 58, no. 7 [1981]: 793, 795).
Feel: Primary children are taught that journal writing
reinforces the idea that each person is important. His or her
experiences and feelings are valuable and are worth recording so they
are not lost (see Valiant B [Primary manual, 1985], 7).
When I bear testimony, it may be meaningful to the congregation, but
not nearly as meaningful as it is to me. I am better for having required
myself to verbalize my innermost feelings. After a youth conference
testimony meeting, one young man put it like this: “It’s one thing to
listen to everyone else and a totally different thing to get up there
yourself. When the Spirit confirms the words that come out of your own
mouth, it’s really powerful!” Journal writing puts us in the same
difficult but valuable position of finding words for hard-to-express
feelings.
Discover: Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, once
said: “I don’t want to live in a hand-me-down world of others’
experiences. I want to write about me, my discoveries, my fears, my
feelings, about me.”
Often, simply by writing about ourselves we begin to see life from a
new perspective. A young woman I talked to put it this way: “My journal
gives me a chance to discover things about myself I didn’t even know
were there. As I write, I can figure out who I really am.”
Expand: President Spencer W. Kimball counseled, “Write … your
goings and your comings, your deeper thoughts, your achievements and
your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and
your testimonies” (President Kimball Speaks Out [1981], 59). It
follows naturally that if we are expected to write such experiences, we
will become more aware of them in our lives.
Writing, like other arts, is a representation of life. Thus, the
writer is compelled to live life more consciously. Journal writing will
not make passive people miraculously more active. However, regular
writing does make it harder for us to remain passive.
Remember: As Alma reminds Helaman, written records “have
enlarged the memory of this people” (Alma
37:8). Modern memory experts agree that writing down
experiences can help us remember them longer and with greater accuracy.
Journals make it easy for me to look back over my own life and see
the progress I am—or am not—making. They can motivate me to stay on
course or make positive changes.
Dream: “Journal writing … [provides] a place for
self-expression where one can afford to take a risk, experiment with
ideas and materials, and even make a mistake” (M. Joan Lickteig,
“Research-Based Recommendations for Teachers of Writing,” Language
Arts 58, no. 1 [1981]: 46). Many professionals agree that because a
journal is less structured, many find it instantly inviting—it’s a
protected place, an invitation to open up.
As with backdoor friends who have never seen my best china, the pages
of my journal invite me to share myself—my real self. They are a safe
place for my most personal goals and deepest dreams.
On Saturday, 20 June 1942, Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who
eventually died in the Holocaust, wrote the following in her personal
journal: “I haven’t written for a few days, because I wanted first of
all to think about my diary. It’s an odd idea for someone like me to
keep a diary; not only because I have never done so before, but because
it seems to me that neither I—nor for that matter anyone else—will be
interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Still,
what does that matter? I want to write, but more than that, I want to
bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart” (Anne
Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl [1952], 2).
I too have things buried deep inside that must find a way out. They
can be freed in my journal. As we use personal journals for places to
think, feel, discover, expand, remember, and dream, I believe we will
come to better understand President Ezra Taft Benson’s words: “The Lord
works from the inside out” (A Witness and a Warning [1988], 64).
If no one is going to read it, why write it? The sister in front of
me in sacrament meeting had a good question. It is possible that no
other living soul will ever touch my journal. My journal, like my
mother-in-law’s, could easily be destroyed in a fire. Yet the time I
spend writing in it is not wasted.
My personal journal is helping me become more like Jesus Christ and
reach my highest potential. That is why I will continue to keep my
journal—whether my grandchildren ever read it or not.
Gospel topic:
family history
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By Lilia M. Crouch
Based on a true story
“I make a record of my proceedings in my days” (1
Ne. 1:1).
Lilia M. Crouch, “Jared’s Journal,”
The Friend (Liahona), Aug. 2006, F8
Aaron burst through the front door after school and ran straight
upstairs to his bedroom. He began searching for something while his
little brother Jared curiously watched.
“Where are you? Where are you?” Aaron mumbled to himself.
“What are you looking for?” Jared asked.
“I’m looking for …” Then Aaron spied the very thing he needed up on
the corner shelf in his closet, next to his scriptures. “Here it is!”
Aaron exclaimed as he reached up and plucked his journal from its hiding
place.
Aaron’s mind was buzzing with thoughts from his day. He wanted to
begin writing as soon as possible so he wouldn’t forget about all the
things he had heard and seen. He sat at the desk and carefully opened
his journal to a blank page. He began to write.
Jared watched his big brother, wondering why he was so determined to
write in that book. “What are you doing?” he asked. Aaron continued to
concentrate on his journal. He wrote down the date, time, where he was,
and how he was feeling. Jared became impatient and asked again, “What
are you writing in that book?”
Aaron stopped writing and turned to Jared. “I’m almost finished,” he
said. “Then I promise I’ll tell you what I’m doing, OK?” Jared nodded
and sat patiently on his bed.
After writing some more, Aaron finally closed the book. Then he
grabbed his scriptures and carried them with his journal to where Jared
was sitting.
Aaron held up the Book of Mormon. “This book is kind of like a
journal,” Aaron explained to his little brother. “It’s written by
prophets and tells what they did and taught.”
Aaron told Jared about some of the stories he remembered reading and
learning about in Primary: the Lord teaching Nephi to build a ship, the
brave Lamanite Samuel standing on the wall to preach, Jesus Christ
coming to the Americas and teaching the little children.
“Mormon and his son Moroni finally finished writing their people’s
history on gold plates. Then Moroni hid the plates as God had
commanded,” Aaron said. “The Book of Mormon was left for us to read
today. Someday, someone in our family will read my journal too.” He
smiled. “My journal is not scripture, but it will tell about all the
important things that happened in my life and about the people I love,
like you, Jared. It will be my testimony of the love Heavenly Father has
for me.”
Jared thought about what Aaron had told him, then sprang off the bed
and ran out of the room. He soon returned with a piece of paper and some
crayons. He began coloring. Now Aaron was curious. “What are you doing?”
“I’m almost done,” Jared said. This time Aaron waited patiently.
Jared put down his crayons and lifted up the paper for Aaron to see. He
had drawn a picture of himself and his big brother. And he had drawn a
journal and a Book of Mormon in Aaron’s hands. “I’m writing my journal
now!” Jared said. “This is where I put down the time, the date, and
where I was.” Then Jared pointed to the cartoonlike picture he had drawn
of his big brother. “And this is where I put the person I love.”
At that moment Jared remembered he had forgotten something. He
reached for a bright yellow crayon and drew a big smiley face on the top
of his paper. “And this is how I am feeling inside!”
[Keep Journals]
“I promise you that if you will keep your journals … , they will
indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your
children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations.”
President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985), “Therefore I Was Taught,”
Tambuli, Aug. 1982, 4; “President Kimball Speaks Out on Personal
Journals,” Ensign, Dec. 1980, 61.
Gospel topics:
Book of Mormon,
family history
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Journal
Jars |
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Here
is a label I made to go on the jar, when we made these!
Journal
Jar Questions.pdf
RS/Journal Jar Lables.pdf |
Print out the questions below, and cut them out. Fold and place into a jar . Wrap with a ribbon and include a pencil or pen. Each day, pull out a slip of paper, and write about that subject in your journal. This will quickly become a precious history of you and your family.
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Tell something about each of your children, their personalities, their talents and traits that make them different and special.
Describe a favorite vacation of your married years.
Tell about home cures or old wives tales, hiccups, toothaches, earaches, and arthritis.
Where were you and what were you doing the day the wall came down in Germany?
Describe your wedding dress.
Write a description of your husband or wife.
Tell about retirement... when, where, what will you do with your time?
Describe your mother's wedding dress. What do you know about her wedding?
Where did you live as a child? Town, country, suburb, etc?
What is your greatest joy, your greatest sorrow?
Do you have a favorite author? Why? Who? Tell about your favorite books as a child and as an adult.
What do you feel have been the most significant world events that have taken place in your lifetime and why?
Describe the most serious illness or accident that you have had.
What is your favorite book and what do books mean to you?
Describe your yard as a child - did you help with the yard work? What are your memories? Draw a diagram if you can.
Tell about Family Reunions.
Tell about your teen-age social life. Your friends, dances, dating, outings, church functions etc.
What would you like to be remembered for?
Describe your first home as a young couple.
How did your father spend his time supporting his family?
Tell about exciting experiences in young women, scouting or whatever.
Tell about handed-down talents, foods, and clothespin dolls, willow whistles, pottery, quilting, whittling, meat drying etc.
What lessons did you take as a child? Did you carry any over into adulthood?
What were the favorite places to go with your family when you were young?
Tell about any ancestors that you know about. Names, dates, etc. for historical purposes and any stories about them.
Tell about anniversaries, celebrations, trips, and gifts.
What were your fears, expectations, and anticipations about getting married?
Tell about a special date you had with a boy friend or your fiancée.
What is your mother's best trait? Worst? What are the traits you share?
What is your father's best trait? Worst? What are the traits you share?
One word on how to live successfully.
How do you feel about winning? Losing?
Tell a courtship story about your parents, how they met etc... Tell the same about your courtship.
Describe a favorite childhood friend and something you did with her or him.
Tell about your grandchildren - how many- how did you feel about being a grandparent?
Have you met or worked with famous people? Who? Where?
How did you become engaged?
What is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to you and the worst?
What is your child rearing philosophy?
Describe your Sundays as a mother or as a child.
What can frighten you the most and why?
Describe your conversion to the gospel.
Do you wish you had more sisters or brothers, and why?
Tell about your favorite aunt.
What is the most exciting place that you have ever been to and why?
What was your worst, really embarrassing moment?
What games did you play as a child - inside and outside?
Where did your Grandparents live? What was their home like? Did it have a certain smell or look?
Tell about your favorite uncle.
Did you have a close relationship with your grandparents? Tell about it.
Write your testimony of life, marriage, and the gospel.
Did you have a bicycle and what was it like?
Tell how, when, where you learned to drive and any memorable experiences.
Tell about each of your children's names, birth date, where, doctors, circumstances surrounding the birth, raising them in the home, problems, joys etc.
How did you like being the oldest, youngest or middle child? What were the advantages or disadvantages?
Tell about a frustrating experience that you have had with a car.
What is your advice to those younger than you?
Were you ever in a drama, speech, sports, pep or glee club? Tell about it.
Did you and your father share any interests together? What and why?
What is your favorite scripture and why?
Describe a childhood Christmas.
Describe a typical day in elementary school.
What did you do when you were a child that got you in the most trouble and how did your parents handle it?
Tell about your first crush.
What church callings have you had and which did you enjoy the most?
Did you go camping? Tell about your experiences.
How did you feel about school?
Do you remember any of your four grandparents? Any greats? What were their names? Any memories that you have.
Tell about your mother: personality, characteristics, stature, coloring, talents, temperament, family stories about her, her role in your home, etc.
Do you have a favorite General Authority? Who and why?
What do you fantasize about doing or being?
What is your personal secret of happiness?
Describe a perfect spring day and activities on that day?
What is the most important lesson, message, or advice that you have learned that you might pass on to others?
Thinking back was there a teacher who had a great influence on you?
Tell about your own family traditions. Christmas, birthdays, graduation, fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Mothers or Fathers Day, weddings, funerals, hunting etc.
Describe a childhood birthday.
How did you become engaged?
What personality trait do you admire and why?
Did you have a favorite TV or radio program as a child? Tell about it.
Did you go to college or have vocational training? Where or when?
Did you have a childhood hideout? Tell about it.
Tell about a favorite trip or vacation.
What is your secret for good health?
Describe a childhood Christmas.
Did it snow much when you were a child? tell something about it, what did you do?
Describe getting a Christmas tree as a child, when did you put it up and decorate it?
Tell about your civic or political activities.
Write about some places you went with your father.
Write about some places that you went with your mother.
What do you think about movies - what is your favorite movie and why?
If you could be an animal, which one would you choose and why?
Describe a typical day during your Jr. High years.
What kind of extra-curricular activities did you participate in at school?
Tell about the houses you lived in during your childhood.
What do you think brings good or bad luck?
Tell about all the places you have worked.
Describe your wedding day.
What are your food preferences and how did they come about?
How did your mother spend her time?
Were you responsible for household chores? What were they? Which did you enjoy most? Least?
What are your most deeply and imbedded values?
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Primary Journals |
| I put these together for my sisters ward, the first one was for JR (
9 pages) and the other one Sr Primary (7 pages). They did a page once a
month or so, and then bond them and gave them out at the end of the
year!
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Youth Journal Booklet |
|
 This
is a booklet I put together for my daughter's Activity day's group, it
is a booklet that has Questions in it, all they need to do is answer the
questions.
Youth
Journal Booklet.pdf |
| |
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Would you like
to learn more about the Mormon church? Or receive a free Book of
Mormon, please click
here
Email
us at
info@theideadoor.com
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By
clicking on a flag you can translate this site into 8 different
languages, no files will be translated, just the text on each
page. The translation is not all that great, but it will give
you a general idea! Thanks |
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"Choose
you this day
whom ye will
serve
but for me
and my
house we will
serve the Lord "
