Sunday, December 21, 2014

Journals



Shortly after Bray turned one I purchased a journal for him. I love to journal and I thought this could be a good way to record moments of his life, as well as my prayers, through a means that comes naturally to me.

Now, I'm three kids deep and I've continued the tradition with all of them. would you look at that.  

The way it works is around each child's first birthday I buy a leather journal. For Avery it was more like a year and a half, but who's counting. I got all three journals from Barnes & Noble, because I didn't plan ahead to have them made by a small business. Though if I did it over, I'd use a local company.

After I purchase the journals I write as often as I can. Which mean't two times last year and the year before, eight times. I'll record anything from what they did that day, to their personality quirks, to funny moments, to our fights, to my prayers for them.

The hope is to give each child their journal as either a wedding gift or a birthday present (should they not marry), and that it becomes a place to see God's love and care over the details of their lives.

Not only do I love having this to hand down to my kids, it's become a wonderful way to keep me grateful. As I think about what to write, I get to step back from the hard work and messes and be reminded me that though these details feel mundane they serve a great purpose.

Side note: I love reading blogs and hearing how other moms do life. This is one reason I share what I share on my tiny corner of the internet. But I never want to heap guilt on another parent or make one feel like their not up to par. We do that enough to ourselves, amen? So if you don't like journaling, don't do this and don't feel like less of a parent for not. Find other ways to record memories. Or don't record memories.  I think it's important to run our families in such a way that fits the personalities God has given us. To do anything else is silly and  quite painful. 




1 comment:

  1. We do this too, and I love being able to look back and read something that I forgot about. I also love that my kids will see the good and bad, because my parents tend to remember only certain details about my childhood ;)

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