Capturing Your Memories in a Journal

As parents, we follow our kids around with cameras trying to record those happy moments of childhood. Snap! First tooth. Snap! First steps. The milestones show up in baby books and photo albums (or for those of you less organized, like me, they show up in shoeboxes, with good intentions!).

Yet even more important than taking pictures is writing down our memories, recording our parenting journey. A journal gives us a private place to taste both the sweet and bitter again through our words.

Nine years ago, my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was a scary time, as she underwent surgery and chemotherapy. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her, but I didn’t know how.

So I started writing out thoughts in my journal. I called it “Tribute to Mom.” God miraculously healed my mom that year, although the cancer returned a few years later. Once again, I prayed, “Lord, how can I show Mom how much I love her?” I’d never given her the tribute because it was still just scribblings in my journal.

Then I went to a Christian writers’ conference, and a door to a publisher opened. I was invited to write a tribute book from a daughter to her mom. I wept as I went back through my long-ago journal and rewrote out my sentiments to meet the needs of the publisher.

These thoughts became a book, From a Daughter’s Heart to Her Mom: 50 Reflections on Living Well, published last spring by Thomas Nelson. Once again, the Lord spared my mom’s life, and I was able to give her my journal scribblings, polished by an editor, in book form.

Whether your memories remind you of pain or joy, the time to write about them isn’t years from now; it’s today. Grab some paper and write down what you’re going through. And pray that God will show you how He can use your stories to minister to others.

He will. In His time.