I use a diary all the time for management of appointments and meetings, mainly for work, but also for home and church, but I have always found it difficult to take the next step and keep a Spiritual Life Diary.

A Spiritual Life Diary (SLD) is a condensed commentary of your life written on a frequent basis, usually daily.  Its main purpose is to help bring some basic discipline to your spiritual life, helping you keep track of prayers and answers to prayer, thoughts, general feelings and reflections on your walk with Jesus.

Why do you need a Spiritual Life Diary?

I suppose the real answer to this question is that don’t need one, but it can be a great source of encouragement and strength to look back over periods from your past and remember where you where and what you were doing.

I have started a Spiritual Life Diary many times over the last 30 years, but ended up neglecting it because I didn’t have the discipline to continue. Yet, when I look back at the times when I did keep it up to date and read the reflections and honest comments I made, I can’t help but be uplifted and determined to start again with the hope that this time, maybe, I can keep it going.

The good news (for me at least) is that I started my SLD again a couple of months ago, and am now using a really excellent diary tool called Advanced Diary.  I have used a number of free and purchased diary tools, but find that, for me, Advanced Diary is the best of the ones I have tried so far, and it does what I need it to do.

I will revisit the use of Spiritual Life Diaries again as we move on with this blog, mainly because they are a useful discipleship tool, and I would recommend that everyone who is serious about their spiritual walk should write one, if for other reason than it makes you take time out of your day to reflect and focus on your spiritual walk and life plan. The downside is that to really get the most our of it, you need to have some discipline, which is not my strong suit by any means!!