Sometimes the world can make you feel small. It can be a crowded place with so many voices. Loud. Insistent that you have to show something for who you are and what you have to offer. What you hold in your heart — faith, hope, and love — can feel inadequate.
As you see what others are offering, you may be tempted to put your hopes and dreams back in your pocket and close the door of your heart to the possibility of who you really are.
Don’t listen to those voices. Step closer to the one Voice who knows you, who created you with all you are. He knows what you’ve been through. Let His complete understanding and love wash over you.
Listen to the One who saw you the very moment you were born. When you broke into this world, helpless, eyes shut, fingers balled up in trembling fists, lungs blaring with hungry cries, God saw you and loved you completely.
You are exactly the way God dreamed of you when He made you lovingly. You are still that same beloved. When He looks straight into the deep places within you, God sees the real you.
Jesus whispers, Lean into me.
He says, Yes, beloved.
Yes, I still love you.
Yes, your idea is still good — very good.
Yes, I will help you.
Yes, I know it feels hard.
But just look into My gaze.
Feel my hand in yours.
Yes, we can do it together.
Say yes.
For me, saying yes means picking up my pen to journal because it is tempting to just stay quiet and ignore my heart and what’s really going inside, to stop hiding my heart and allow the words from my heart to flow. Have you noticed that if you start writing, your words will lead you somewhere you didn’t expect them to go?
Even though my heart always came alive whenever I wrote in my journal as a little girl, I stopped journaling after college. I wrote papers as a college student and for work as a high-tech professional. But I forgot about words, the ones in my heart. I didn’t think it was important to talk about what was happening and how I felt. What would be the point? I told myself.
So now when my heart feels stuck, I can fall into that old pattern of hiding my heart. I do something that seems insignificant: I stop writing. I stop journaling. I tell myself whatever hard things I’m going through isn’t that important, because if I just push through, I’ll be fine. But emotional honesty and intimacy are important to God. He cares about how we feel. He cares about our losses, hopes, and dreams.
Every time I hide my heart, that light in me that once sparkled as I poured my heart out to God as a little girl begins to dim, because God doesn’t speak through a disconnected heart. I lose the ability to feel honestly and express my soul to God. By losing touch with the moments that brings me loneliness and pain, I also extinguish the ones that spark joy, passion, and hope.
Whenever we hide, shame like walls of stone separate us from the childlike spirit and curiosity God uniquely created in you and me. It is in the intimate spaces of your story that God becomes real in your heart.
Journaling – putting words to paper – is a live conversation where you allow Jesus to step into your inner world. Journaling is prayer that says, “Yes, Lord. This is where I am. I’m letting you in.”
When Jesus says, “Come to me, you who are weary and heavy-burden, and I will give you rest,” (Matthew 11:28 NASB), journaling is a powerful way to intimately experience rest and to come to Him.
“Dear Jesus, I’ve been quiet about this . . . ” I often start my journaling with this prompt when my heart feels stuck, and it frees my heart. I know it will help you begin too! Try it. Let it flow!
In my journey to heal from a season of anxiety, I began prioritizing my well-being by creating small pockets of rest and practicing soul care. It was like speaking a foreign language at first. But journaling returned to being my safe place, slowing me down as my words flow into a living prayer as I confide in Jesus, as friend to friend.
I love finding scientific studies to encourage my soul care. Research shows the power of writing your personal story lowers anxiety, leads to behavioral changes, and improves happiness. Just ten to fifteen minutes of expressive writing makes a difference! And it doesn’t have to be daily. Even writing just once every two to three months works!
So, don’t hide your heart. Hear Jesus tenderly whisper, Lean into Me. Say yes. You are loved, and open your heart.
Bev @ Walking Well With God says
Bonnie,
Emotional honesty – it sounds easy, but letting ourselves be brutally honest with God takes time. Writing my thoughts and feelings down has helped me to become more honest with Him and more honest with myself. Sometimes I don’t really know what’s eating at me until I start writing. Also, as a blogger, God will speak to me by giving me a post that I simply have to stop and write down at that moment. I simply capture, for others, the wisdom that God wants ME to know. I love how He speaks to us in so many ways, but He also wants to hear the longings of our heart. I can believe that there is scientific evidence that proves the positive benefits of writing our inmost thoughts. It’s been part of my journey to better self care. Thanks for the reminder to keep it up.
Blessings,
Bev xx
Kathleen Burkinshaw says
Dear Bonnie, your post today reflects the feelings tumbling in my heart. My father passed away 2 weeks ago today. Our relationship the past 4 years since my Mom passed away was complicated,to say the least. My parents relationship was always pretty rocky,and I was told I would be the fixer, to keep them together at a young age. When he passed away ,I couldn’t physically be there because of a pain flare up from my Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy,but the nurse held phone to his ear and I told him I forgave him(I finally did), I loved him(not his choices) ,he passed away right after I said that. I began journaling again since participating in your “Whispers of Rest” Lenten journey. I found myself writing a lot about him and the burden placed on me to think I was responsible for not only my parents’ happiness but their marriage. This journaling helped me to find forgiveness. I continue to journal through this journey of grief. Thank you for sharing your faith and heart with us. Thank you for inspiring us to write through all the various emotions churning inside our heart and memories. It can lead us on the path to a peace beyond all understanding. I’m not fully there yet, and it’s something I will struggle with every day,sometimes by the hour,but I do not feel as helpless or hopeless as I once did.God bless you. ❤
K Ann Guinn says
So sorry for all of your recent losses, Kathleen! It’s wonderful that you are staying connected with other believers here and that you are learning to use writing to process your grief. Be gentle with yourself, as I know God is with us, and you will make it. Praying for you today.
Kathleen Burkinshaw says
Thank you so very much for your kind words of encouragement and solace. You are also in my prayers ❤
Andrea C says
I needed this today. Thank you for sharing!
Michele Morin says
I’ve never thought of journaling in this way before, Bonnie, but what a beautiful act of respect for our God-given feelings when we take the time to set them down on paper and then bring him into the experience. I’ve been trying to engage in more reflective practices, having realized that I’m missing things in the blur of the day. Writing is good, and going back to re-read completes the circle.
Millie says
Thank so much for this message. I have started journaling my feelings. I’m so quick to hid my heart. I’ve been seeking clarity in a relationship and seeking God. I have so much pain in my heart of past and present hurt and I don’t want to hide anymore. I’m a child of God deserving of love. And I am loved. I want a heart of love.
Maria says
Millie, i find journaling helps, with good thoughts, and bad. The lord knows our pain, right now am going through a season of pain with in my family writing down feelings, helps, along with prayer , i pray for you to find peace, you are loved god sees your pain.
Kamilah says
Journaling is medicine for my heart and soul!
Jenna says
I relate to this article so much! I faithfully kept a journal from the time I was 6 years old until I started college. College was just so busy that I never really had time to think and process my feelings. Now I will journal on days that I feel overwhelmed. Sometimes I don’t even know what I want to write, but I just start and it’s amazing the words that start to come on the paper. It’s also amazing how much better I feel after getting all those overwhelming feelings on paper. Great article! Thank you for the encouragement!
Beth Williams says
Bonnie,
This world is loud, boisterous & can be intimidating. Looking around our ideas, plans & hopes may seem small & unworthy of God’s attention. You wonder if you should tell anyone. Who would care? What difference can I make? So instead we hide those things in our hearts & never do anything about them. Which is a shame. With God’s help those plans, ideas, & hopes could change someone’s life or make a difference somewhere. Instead they sit there withering away eating at our hearts. They cause us to build a wall & not let anyone or anything in. God doesn’t want that for us. I know God can use our efforts. I volunteer with Relay for Life. I’m not on a committee Just a person who wants to help raise funds & awareness for all types of cancer. God is using me to be His hands & feet. That is what Jesus wants for us.
He wants us to come to Him with our ideas, hurts & hopes. Tell Him what we would like to do, how we feel what our hopes & dreams are. We may be surprised how God can use those in big ways. Journaling your thoughts, ideas, hopes & dreams may help you slow down, heal & tear down that wall in your heart. It can help you emotionally also. Let those words fly onto the paper like you’re talking to God. He will hear & help you heal. God is always waiting to hear from us.
Blessings 🙂
Lynn says
I’ve started and stopped journaling for many years. Sometimes I’ve wondered, does anyone else do this? And what’s the point? You encourage me to remember that God wants me not to compare, analyze, and even criticize but to lean into Him. And that journaling is a way to rest my mind and allows me to rest in Him!
Rebecca says
How timely this is this morning. After a very anxious and restless night I sat down this morning to pour out my concerns to my Abba, Father. In doing so, I received His love and forgiveness for my lack of trust in Him to see me through this difficult season of my life. I find that journaling opens up truths that I otherwise keep buried deep within my heart.
Maria says
Millie, i find journaling helps, with good thoughts, and bad. The lord knows our pain, right now am going through a season of pain with in my family writing down feelings, helps, along with prayer , i pray for you to find peace, you are loved god sees your pain.
Areum says
Seven years ago when I walked through an unwanted divorce, my journal became my best friend. It was like my second bible! I carried it every where and whenever I felt God speaking to me I would write it in my journal. I believe this was a huge part of my healing process. I don’t journal as much as I used to but times when I know my heart is troubled and I need to get it out, I pick up my pen and start writing. It is the best way to get the yuckiness out!
Tara says
Bonnie,
Exactly what I needed to hear! Thank you! Journaling bits of my story, expressing myself through writing, jotting down anecdotes from my day…these are the things God has gifted me with and blessed me with. I have journaled off and on since I could write but it’s only when I actually did put pen to page that my soul was satisfied. At first, it was just a way to remember what happened that day. But now, and even then, I was putting down bits of my story, pouring out my soul on the page. In those days, months, and even years that I didn’t write I always felt guilty, like I was missing doing something important. God created me to write, whether it’s little bits about my day or struggles that are on my heart or my entire story to share to others, He wants me to write it. Thank you again! This has encouraged me to just pick up the pen and put it to the page. What I find most fun for writing is to come up with a one word prompt for my day and write it at the top of the page. I then write with that word in mind. I often stray away from it but that’s okay! It leads where it leads! Again thank you for sharing this! Love your writing, your heart for Jesus, and your books!
God bless you!
Tara
Maylee says
I love journaling, I cannot speak eloquently but through writing, I can better convey my feelings, thoughts and able to communicate with others better. It is such a huge help to be able to release my anger, pain, hurt, happiness and so forth. I have books and books where I had journal and from time to time, I re-read them and see if I had grew or if there are still pending issues I haven’t resolved. I am just afraid though that one day, someone from my family will come upon it and read them and get mad. When I write, I pour out my heart and there is no filtering (I know that sounds horrible). So I know I must get rid of them and keep only the most current ones. Definitely journaling is such a great way to feel connected with God. Thank you for sharing Bonnie…
Debbie says
Bonnie, I’m a little late in reading this post but maybe it’s really the perfect time. I realize I’ve been stuffing my feelings lately. I’ve not been journaling as I used to do. I’ve also not been blogging which was a great outlet for me and a way to connect with others. Sometimes, I go back to retreating inside. Thank you for the reminder.