Other than Scripture reading, another important tool to help us hear the divine whisper is journaling. When I first started paying attention to the soft promptings of the Holy Spirit, I often carried a journal to write down thoughts from Scripture reading, sermons and also phrases that popped up throughout the days that may carry some significance. On the one hand, it seems very hard for us to fit journaling into our already busy routines, but on the other hand, with smart phones, emails, facebooks, twitters readily available, dropping down bits of short reflections seems easier than ever. Each journal entry is like a bread crumb intentionally put out by God along our journey to help us experience Him in authentic ways. Bread crumbs, as Mary Beth Chapman puts it from her book "Choose to See" . . .
"Whether you're in a good place, or in a place that's hard, sad, mad, or desperately hopeless. In the midst of it all, God really is with us and for us. I have found that even during these times when the path is darkest, He leaves little bits of evidence all along the way--bread crumbs of grace--that can give me what I need to take the next step. But I can only find them if I choose to SEE."
As Mark Batterson noted it in "Draw the Cirlce,"
"Journaling is one of the most overlooked and undervalued spiritual disciplines. In my estimation, it's on a par with praying, fasting and mediating. It's the way we document what God is doing in our lives. In Habakkuk, 2:2, the Lord states, "Write down the revelation."Why? Because we have a natural tendency to remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember. Journal is the best antidote, maybe the only antidote, to spiritual amnesia. My prayer journal doubles as my prayer genealogy. I can trace many of the blessings, breakthroughs, and miracles back to their genesis prayers. As I look back through my journals, I'm able to connect the dots between my prayers and God's answers. Connecting these dots inspires my faith like nothing else because it paints a picture of God's faithfulness"
May we set up a spiritual routine to experience God in personal ways. One day, when our children come and ask us, "Mom/Dad, how do you know God is real?" At that moment, we would have pages after pages of amazing personal stories to tell. And we can tell our children, "I know God is real, and let me tell you why." And we open one of the many journals from our shelf and said, "Once upon a time, when mom/dad is at your age, God . . ."
God has laid down bread crumbs all along, but we may be too busy or too occupied to notice them. Let's learn to slow down our pace so we can see God's moving hand and be able to drop down our experience. Remember, the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory.