What 25 Years of Writing Taught Me About God’s Answers

God has blessed me with incredible treasures. One particularly valuable treasure is the habit of writing that I began over 25 years ago. Through this practice, I've built a treasure trove of confidence and awareness. I can see how God has provided so much information and insight to me over the years. When I look back at my entries, I can understand what I was thinking at different moments and see the fruits that came from that thinking.

We all have the blessing of being able to reconstruct our past. But our pasts aren't really the actual past. They're the stories we tell ourselves and the framing we put on the vague memories and circumstances that occur to us.

When I don't write anything down, I can base my story about my past on anything I see fit. But when I write and capture what I'm thinking, I can look at the results that came from that specific thinking and determine whether I like those outcomes or not. Without this record, I could have the same thinking I had 20 years ago and not even realize it. I can judge my thoughts based on their results and decide whether I want to continue or discontinue them. But if I hadn't captured those thoughts, I might continue acting and thinking in the same way while expecting different results. That's insanity.

I'm completely thankful for this habit and deeply grateful.

I can also see that God has been giving me so many thoughts, ideas, and answered prayers throughout my life. I wasn't able to recognize that some of these thoughts were actually answers when I first received them, because my mind and thinking couldn't accept them at the time. But with my expanded mindset, I can now see that God was helping me tremendously and answering quickly in many cases. Now I can work on building the skill of noticing those divine gifts more quickly in my current life.