How to Start Devotional Journaling

It’s easy to fly through your daily devotion–read the words, say the prayer, close the book, and move on with your day. What if you wanted those words to stay with you, though? One Visual Faith® practice helps me meet that end: devotional journaling. In this post, I’m sharing how to start a devotional journal and why it might be beneficial to your faith journey.

This is my brain on overload: I finish reading a helpful article, a chapter in a nonfiction book, or my morning devotions and think I want to share this with my kids or my husband. Then I shift gears and begin my writing day or toss in a load of laundry or run to the grocery store and poof! What I learned has disappeared from the accessible part of my brain.

I didn’t know the brain science on all of this, but I have learned from experience that if I don’t physically write something down (or type it), I will forget what I read.

With devotions, perhaps this isn’t so important. After all, we’re not in college preparing for an exam. We’ve read God’s Word and some devotional thoughts about applying it to our lives, and this is good!

But what if we did one more simple act that would help us carry those words throughout the day? What if we journaled our devotional reading?

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What is devotional journaling?

If you are like many, you might see the word “journaling” and think this means you need to grab a notebook and write down your thoughts. Yes, that is one good way to journal, and one I love to do, especially to help me process my day.

But in the Visual Faith® world, devotional journaling is a simple and visual practice in which you use a pen or colored pencil to capture what you just read in your devotions. It’s not note-taking (although this would be a good way to retain what you just read, too) but simply writing a word or phrase that helps you remember what you read and learned.

Devotional journaling is a beautiful spiritual discipline that draws us closer to our Lord, strengthens our faith, and equips us for the day ahead. And when you are finished for the month, you will have a record of your journey with the Lord. (These could become beautiful faith-heirlooms for generations to come.)

Photo of calendar spread that has been filled with notes and doodles on daily devotions

Brain Science behind Taking Notes

First, a quick look at why writing things–like a takeaway from our daily devotion–actually helps us retain that information better.

I’m no neuro-scientist, so bear with me as I try to take some complex ideas and make them simple.

Taking hand-written notes creates a tactile information recall (source). The movement of your hand making each letter and the feel of the paper as your pen glides across it make an impact on your brain. The stronger the tactile memory, the easier it is for the brain to recall it later. Like when the smell of your grandmother’s perfume takes you back to her living room, playing cards when you were little.

And when you connect your motor and sensory systems together to communicate an idea, “you’re taking a perceptual understanding of something and using your motor systems to create it (source).”

You’re attaching those sensory cues to ideas you want to retain, so your memory is improved by producing something tangible.

And it turns out that doodling and coloring our notes can solidify that memory even more than just writing by hand because of visual triggers and dual-coding. Dual-coding uses multiple stimuli to help you remember the things you learn and retrieve them more easily later on (source).

The visuals will trigger memories–like how picturing the diagram on the bottom left page of the book you’re reading helps you remember what it was about. And by doodling, you’re giving yourself multiple sensory cues to draw on when trying to remember.

Plus, color and doodles just makes notetaking more fun! Sold? Now, you’re wondering how to start a devotional journal…

How to Start a Devotional Journal

Pray and consider.

If you already read a daily devotion, wonderful! You are reaping the benefits of this spiritual discipline.

If you aren’t already reading a daily devotion, I would encourage you to consider giving it a try.

Maybe you’ve tried before and failed to keep up. You had good intentions.

Or maybe you’ve always thought this would be too time-consuming. Your mornings are super busy. No way. You’re too tired in the evenings.

Wait.

This blog post may be just the encouragement you need to begin. Start with a simple prayer. Ask the Lord what will work best for you in this season of life. What time of day? Mornings? Evenings? Ask Him to help you find the right materials. Then take your time. Read the rest of this post, and pray some more. You’ll figure it out.

I want to add that if this is not for you, that’s fine! Each of us has a different faith journey, and you may find another way suits you and your season better.

Choose the Devotion

You want this to become a daily practice, so find a devotion that works in your schedule. I love doing something simple and short, something I can do in ten minutes or less. Why? It’s repeatable. If you pick something longer, you’ll be rushed through it or you will procrastinate because you don’t have time before you get out the door. I’ve been there. Done that. Daily devotion is not the time for deep study. That can come at another time of the day.

For me, at least, I begin the day with this simple ten to fifteen minute practice. Here are a few options that I have used over the years:

I often use my denomination’s devotional book, Portals of Prayer. I am currently using their app, which is handy when I’m traveling.
I also really enjoy the classic, My Utmost for His Highest.

Your denomination certainly has many materials for you to choose from. The most important thing is to pick something that offers a short devotional reading along with passages from the Bible. Many include a short prayer.

Gather your materials and give them a home.

Choose your devotional journal/calendar.

Of course, like any journaling, you can use a notebook or simply a blank sheet of paper. But I have seen lots of women I follow using a calendar for this practice. I’ve been trying it this year, and I love it!

For a calendar, again you can use anything you like or have on hand: a pretty pre-printed one that you can hang in your kitchen or office, a planner-style calendar in a notebook, or even a printable calendar you can download and print each month.

Remember to pay attention to the size of each day’s squares, though. Tiny squares won’t give you much room for the take-aways. You want a little room to write a word or two and possibly add some doodles or coloring.

Decide on your writing tools.

Keep a pencil, pen, and a couple colored pencils or markers handy. I sometimes choose a two-color theme for the entire month. This way I don’t need to make a decision every single day from the rainbow of beautiful colors.

Store it all together.

Contain all of this in a basket or stack it wherever you will sit to read your devotions. If you have to wander the house to find this pen or that pink colored pencil? You’ll be frustrated. We don’t want frustration to enter the devotional scene.

My Devotional Journaling Process

You have your supplies, your devotion, and you’re ready to start. What does the actual devotional journaling process look like? I’m sure everyone does it a little bit differently, but here’s how it looks for me. (Remember, there is no right or wrong for any of this.)

First, I read the devotion, and then I ask the Lord one question, “What’s important for me to remember here?”

Starting with my pencil (so I can erase if I change my mind or make a mistake), I write one or two words that I want to remember.

Oftentimes it’s clear because it’s the headline of the devotion. Sometimes, however, I have to dig a little deeper. It might be a word or phrase from the Bible verses or prayer. And sometimes I will simply write the Scripture–not even the entire verse, just the book, chapter, and verse.

Printed. Scripted. Bubble letters. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I love to do lettering, so this is fun for me.

Maybe you love to draw. You could write the words tiny at the bottom of the square and then fill the rest of the square with an image. I’m definitely not an artist, but over the years I have practiced simple drawings which I can repeat. You can do this too!

Here’s a wonderful online resource called The Noun Project which offers thousands of icons/images for nouns. You’ll find simple pictures of concrete words like cross, dove, and mountain. What’s fascinating are the images for abstract nouns like pain and suffering and joy. One image for suffering is a heart with a teardrop inside. Isn’t that beautiful!?

(If you’re looking for somewhere to start with doodling, here are a couple of my go-to doodle books:

Once I’ve penciled in my word and doodles, I’ll add color or ink over the pencil marks. Some days, I’ll leave the unfinished doodle after my devotion and then come back to color the square later in the day, bringing to mind the devotion yet again.

And some days? Nothing.

I don’t faithfully do this every single day. We all know some mornings are hectic or perhaps you have a change in schedule or an emergency. A last-minute work phone call. You’re out of town. Maybe you’re not feeling well or your loved one is in the hospital. Some days there’s barely time for reading a devotion let alone journaling it.

When this happens to me, I write the word GRACE in the box or boxes, and know that all is well. Because it is.