If you’re looking for a journal to help you grow spiritually, a Write the Word Journal might something to consider. These journals are fairly popular. Friday Night Wives released one I’ve featured before that focuses on the word Thrive. It’s written specifically for coaches’ wives. There are other companies such as Cultivate What Matters, Proverbs 31 Ministries, and Wyns Creative Publishing that each has different journal formats for children, men, and women.
I have used the FNW journal and the Wisdom journal from Cultivate What Matters. I don’t believe it’s about the specific brand. Whenever you use a tool to connect with God or read the Bible, it should always remain a tool that you use to focus on God during your quiet time.
There are no rules for how long you must keep a Write the Word Journal, it’s simply meant to be used as a tool for stronger memory recall to help you grow spiritually throughout the year.
Accessories for the Write the Word Journals and Bible Study
Cultivate What Matters, owned by Lara Casey, offers journals, notebooks, planners, and stickers that you can use to make your daily journal time more creative. Because the journal includes a simple prompt and a lot of space to write or color, it’s appealing to artists who prefer interactive resources for journaling time.
Possible Write the Word Journal Supplies
.I think it’s best to keep your phone out of the room when focusing on journaling. Unless you want to play worship music and you need your Spotify app, this should be an analog experience. I like to keep a basket ready to go with the following supplies:
- Journal
- Bible
- Colored pencils
- Coffee (ok, so this isn’t IN my basket, but it’s part of my supplies!)
Why Write the Word Journals Work
It doesn’t matter if you choose a lined notebook or a blank journal. There isn’t a requirement to use a specific scripture writing plan for your study time, although the beauty of the journals is that a selection of Scripture is laid out on the pages around a theme. This may help you identify something new about God’s character you haven’t noticed before.
The reason that Write the Word Journals are so popular is that they help us create consistent daily practices of engaging in Scripture reading. When we slow down and connect our brain and our body, amazing things happen.
Writing Stimulates Your Brain Differently than Independent Reading
In one study, researchers looked at how typing and handwriting affect the brain differently. They compared the activation of the left hemisphere, which controls language processing, and the right hemisphere, which processes spatial information. In both cases, writing by hand activated the parietal lobe, which is responsible for integrating sensations like vision, hearing, touch, and balance.
Writing by hand also activated the occipital cortex, which is involved in processing visual stimuli. This indicates that writing by hand makes us see words better than we do when we read them.
Writing Stimulates Our Emotions
Another study revealed that reading handwritten text activates the left side of the brain while reading typed text activates the right side of the brain. Reading handwritten text also stimulates our emotions, which helps us remember what we’ve read. When we write and read, we connect our heads and our hearts to God.
Writing Allows for Deeper Comprehension
Another study found that students taking notes on laptops cranked out more words than hand-writers did, but the hand-writers ended up with a stronger conceptual understanding across the board.
Writing by hand is slower. Because students can’t possibly write down every word in a lecture, they listen, digest, and summarize what they hear and see on a PowerPoint so that they can succinctly capture the essence of the information. Taking notes by hand forces the brain to engage in some heavy “mental lifting,” and these efforts foster deeper comprehension and retention.
So, if you’re looking for a way to change up your morning routine and connect with God in a different way, give Write the Word Journals a try.
We Often Grow With the Support of a Mentor
As Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), we’re all called to “make disciples of all nations” wherever we live. God invites us to partner with him and live on mission every day, even in the mundane moments of life. We do this when we love people as Jesus taught the disciples to do, without stipulations.
Embracing Holy Interruptions: How Jesus Used Mundane Moments to Love People Deeply is a six-week Bible study that teaches people how to develop a disciple-making movement.
This is not a step-by-step instruction manual.
Jesus modeled using mundane moments to love people, build tension, and point them to God in a way that caused many of them to step from a curiosity about God to a fully surrendered faith. We can adapt his methods and learn from the examples in the Gospels today. This study aims to help people keep their eyes on Jesus and improve their inductive Bible reading skills while also learning to love their neighbors to the best of their ability. This 6-week study is available in both print and Kindle formats.