Importance of Keeping a Journal.

Thats cool, hope your doing ok.

I totally agree with you! My mom only had a few lines in her journal when she was a teenager and it said, "I saw Dean today..." LOL!!!! I totally made fun of her, but I thought it was so cute to see that she had secret crushes just like I used to!

I try hard to keep a journal because I know someday my kids will cherish it. I also want my children to know how much I love them! Cause somedays I can be mean & in my journals I write my true feelings of the situation & why I was mean & how bad I have felt of yelling at them & what not. I also write the cute little things that they will do that just make me love & adore them so much! I think kids like to have that record.

I was actually thinking today that I want to start a family bible. Which is a record of our family. Like have everyone in my family write a journal or biography of their lives (good & bad, because I feel like the bad can be very important too...I mean the bible doesn't only have good stories in it. ;o)). I was thinking of having pictures of the family with some of the stories & having their own "books" like in the bible. Then having a geneology of who they begat LOL. Anyways...I think you are right! ;o)

This is something that I have always meant to do, but I have a hard time writing about myself. I am more interested in writing fiction about other characters. I am so glad that you have those journals, though. It makes me rethink journaling myself,so that my daughters will have a piece of me when I am gone. My thoughts are with you. Hope you are doing well. Just know that people here on Gather are thinking about you and wishing you well.

Oh, I was so glad to read this. I have kept journals all of my life but I often worry that when I pass on to the next world (is there one?) that my kids will read my journals and think I was always depressed. I tend to write when I feel bad. I told both sons that my journals are not an accurate representation of my state of mind as I do write more when I am feeling upset about something. I have recently started writing a few lines every night in a small entry journal just so that I can record regular events. My friend suggested this to me. She can go back to nearly any date and see that she had a doctor's visit and what happened or she went to a birthday party and brought a certain gift. I loved this idea and am determined to keep doing it as well as keeping my scrapbooks, photo albums, etc.

I used to keep journals, then I lost them.

Such great comments! I am really enjoying all your thoughts on this subject.

I used to keep a journal, haven't updated for so long. I hope you're doing well.

I go in spurts, too. I am so glad you have those, Trista!

I understand the benefits of keeping one, but I never stick to it - I'm not sure why but I've stopped trying to keep them for many many years now.

I have been keeping journals since I was 15 and continue to do so. I would like for my kids to one day read them and see what I have been through and hopefully appreciate what they have. My life has been a soap opera and I have learned alot and struggled alot. I just got a brand new fancy one from my stepdad for Christmas since I am about to have my first baby and I plan to document every single day so that he can look back and say wow! Its always a good way to vent and to express yourself and kinda of tell your kids what kind of person you were and what your likes and dislikes were.

what a great idea. i wish my grandma had done that, I would have loved to read about the depression & war stuff. Maybe I'll try it. Hope you're doing better. Keep up the faith. :)

this is a great idea to be able to pass on

I do keep a "Dream Journal" and a normal journal but I don't write in the normal one very often. I will have to get better at it. Great information!

I'm the same way about writing in mine. I found out my last entry was in March of 2007. It's been a long time.

I've decided I should do it more often. I need a new journal though.

I agree with you .... I just find that 1) I write when I need to get things off my chest (things with which I don't necessarily want to burden others), 2) I don't draw a line between regular day-to-day events and intimate details ... it's all a part of my life and I'm not sure I'd want my kids to read all that I tend to write in my journals, and 3) I can't seem to stick with a regular routine in doing it and wind up doing the same thing as your mom with there being months or years between entries. I have actually been contemplating whether or not to destroy my oldest journal written when I was 18-20 years old that has a lot of, shall we say, inappropriate writings about things that happened before my husband or kids came along. What would you say about that?

Erin I kind of have been thinking about my journal from my teen years also. I wouldnt want them to read most of that and I have also been considering if I want to write my most intimate things, becouse again I'm not sure if I want my kids to read that either and why would they anyways. So I'm torn on what to do with those thoughts. So you brought up some good points.

Thinking about this more, it made me think that perhaps they could learn from how people change and evolve with age. You know, maturity levels and all. but, again, I don't really want them to know THAT much about me. The only one who needs to know that stuff might be my hubby. So, I'm going to get rid of the oldest journal and go from there. As for my more recent ones, I have been trying to add more positive things to it. I don't want it to be filled with emotionally-charged entries just when things have gone bad. And I've been trying to do entries more often as well.

That's a very nice idea Trista. I used to through my poetry. I'm afraid that I lost the knack for it though over the years... But I will consider what you said. Thank you my dear! I'm sorry to hear of your loss my dear. God bless you.

You made fantastic points.