Try!  - Valerie Sjodin© www.valeriesjodin.com

This journal page represents my current state: trying, learning, persevering, not giving up, things I am to learn and grow in right now. A time of personal growth. It's challenging, and I feel pushed to capacity, asking God for more and struggling to have faith as I take the next baby step. Pressing on. One quote I didn't have room for on my page is from Randy Pausch's Last Lecture:

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” 

― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

I didn't use the prompts for the "Try" page given in the journaling challenge, but sought out quotes and verses I need to hear and see right now. People journal for many reasons. One reason I journal is to gain courage by focusing on positive truth, putting it into visual form. Also, I'm trying to laugh, or at least smile at myself in the midst of life as I face my insecurities and work to stretch my limits of what I thought i could do.

As far as this "An A to Z of me journal" goes, I don't like unfinished projects, so I am slogging through the last letters of the alphabet when the group has already moved on. In the persevering, am finding solace in the encouraging words as I search for quotes about words such as "Try" and "Vision". Something to be thankful for. Also, the process of art journaling, doodling, and finding creative ways to express letters and words, are all therapeutic for me. I think a journal is a type of witness to our lives, recording expressions of the heart.

Thank you for visiting and reading this today. I hope you are blessed this day with encouragement and hope!