While the prospect of aging scares me at times, there are certainly a few activities that I look forward to taking part of in the future. These activities fall into my list affectionately known as "things old people do." Such activities include golfing, playing bingo, attaining family history champion status, and gloating to my kids about my senior discounts. Many of these things are things that I think I will enjoy but that, with the exception of golf, I believe will be best enjoyed during the twilight of my life.
Well, one such activity that I would have included on this list a few years ago had I been asked to share would be keeping a journal.
I am not sure exactly what motivated me to begin keeping a daily record but as of late, I have found my desire to keep up with it dwindling as I have felt like my life seems, well, boring. It is in this context that I share how I found renewed motivation to continue chronicling my life.
This week as I read Jacob 4, I read "Now behold, it came to pass that I, Jacob, having ministered much unto my people in word, (and I cannot write but a little of my words, because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates)... write a few words upon plates, which will give our children, and also our beloved brethren, a small degree of knowledge concerning us" (v.1-2). I felt like I could truly relate to Jacob as I read this passage--writing a journal seriously takes effort! While my record keeping is much easier than Jacob's due to our difference in stationary, I do sometimes find myself wondering if the "small degree" of information future readers of my journal will glean about me is worth all the effort.
However, I was then impressed with his following statement, "Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates...[and] we have written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory" (v. 3-4). Jacob's statement made me reevaluate my current chronicles. As I reflected, I began to feel a little guilty in recognition of the fact that in my daily journal entries, even though I would have been certain to list "making sure my kids know I believe in Christ" as one of my top reasons for keeping a journal, my entries didn't seem to portray the significance Christ has played in my daily life.
Feeling a bit discouraged and not sure my kids would want to read a daily testimony if I chose to only write about Christ, I began to seriously question my efforts to journal. However, it was then as I pondered a bit longer that it occurred to me that perhaps I already have been including something each day that reflects my belief in Christ. As I panned through entries, I began to see Him in the small acts of service I wrote about completing or the listening ear that I wrote about offering a friend. It was then that I recognized something powerful also about The Book of Mormon I had not previously noticed. The principle was that even in the stories about groups' journeys or battle scenes, reflections of Christ can be seen in the peoples' actions.
I think this was huge for me to realize because writing about our lives can truly be a testimony of Christ for our journals' future readers if we are living a life that He would live. I think that my journal has the ability to not only expressly testify of Christ but also implicitly do so as readers hopefully read of a life changed and influenced by Christ. In realizing this, I have found a greater desire to continue to document the seemingly uneventful life that I may feel as though I am living because it can be a strong testimony of Christ. I have also decided to make a more earnest effort to see Christ in the implicit testimonies of Him recorded in the peoples' lives of The Book of Mormon.
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