Private Electronic Journals

I just put my son on a flight to Spain. He can't wait to visit the country he called home during 8 years of his life. He'll be spending 6 months there on a study abroad program with Calvin College. A few days ago we were encouraging him to keep a journal about his adventures. Since he is not a paper and pencil kind of guy, I suggested he use a blog as a journal.

Keeping an electronic journal has many advantages:
1. Most people are connected to their computers most of the day. Journaling is a natural extension of that everyday habit. And we know that journaling is a habit that must be developed.
2. Most blogging sites allow you to create a private, non-shared, blog. You don't have to worry about sharing your thoughts, fears, and joys with your mission supporters. Knowing that your entry can't be read by others allows you to be transparent in your writings. Transparency is, after all, one of the best benefits of journal keeping.
3. Your journal entries, though private, can be a source of future public blogs after you have a chance to digest and edit your thoughts. A particular observation thought you find particularly profound can be easily copied and transferred to a "for-public-consumption" blog. Your private blog becomes a filing cabinet for your public page.
4. You can use "labels" or keywords on your journal entries to quickly find past entries that relate to similar topics. You can often gain great comfort by re-reading your past entry about "poverty" (for example!) and reflect  on how far you have come (or haven't come) since then.
5. You don't run out of pages and have to buy another notebook! (But you can easily change the design when you tire of the one you have.)
6. Photos can easily by added to your journal entries. (And no yellowing corners from that Scotch tape!) In addition, web page links (and many other applications) can be easily included in your entries. Idea: why not include a Google map link showing your recent road trip? The ideas are virtually endless.

I will post more on the specifics of how to do some of these things is a later post. Can you think of other benefits of electronic journaling? Why not leave a comment below.

Blessings as you communicate!