My Prayer Journal - To Bullet or Not to Bullet Journal

Prayer is a powerful tool we have to connect to God.  I know he listens and hears our prayers.  I felt like my prayer life was lacking so I created a prayer journal for some accountability.  I'll show you how I set it up, tell you why that didn't work for me, and what I am doing now. 

I have heard of and admired the bullet journal technique for a long time so I set my prayer journal up like a bullet journal.  Here is the index.  The index is important for organizing your journal and finding information.  I laid out page numbers and assigned my prayer categories to certain pages.

Next up is the daily tracker.  This is where you record what you've prayed for.  Some days it will be all of them, some days not.  

Below are my sections.  I found a great resource on Pinterest for these pages.  It gives the topic and then some ideas for what to pray for in those categories.  

I saw this sunshine gratitude page and thought it would be a great way to keep track of things I'm thankful for.  You can see my first one is coffee.  When you get up at 6am, coffee is big.  

Lastly, a section to record scripture that I want to memorize.  

Pretty cool, huh?  I kept up with this for about a week. This style of prayer journaling just didn't work for me.  It felt too much like something I had to do just so I could check off boxes.

So I switched how I journal my prayers.  Now I spend some time just being quiet after reading scripture.  Then I write some things I am grateful for, maybe some things from the previous day.  Sometimes it's things like a free margarita on my birthday.  Then I just write.  I write prayers of praise and thanksgiving, prayers specifically for certain people.  Whatever is on my heart for that morning.  Sometimes I don't write anything.  Sometimes I listen to worship music and sing.  It feels much more authentic for me.