Saturday, November 24, 2018

Hustle and Bustle





Whew! Thanksgiving has come and gone. I don't know about you, but I’m still blinking my eyes and trying to figure out where October went, let alone almost all of November.

The rest of the year, I’m sure will go by just as fast as we are all bustling about, to and fro, getting all the things done. But why do we hustle and bustle our way through the days? Why are we hurrying at all?

Not only are we bustling around, sometimes the grouchiness comes along for the ride. Okay, maybe not for you, but I have to intentionally choose or it creeps up on me.

We can’t stop the way the world presses in on us, but we sure can stop the way we react to all of it. We can prepare our hearts as we start each day, and that certainly helps set the tone for our response to the demands of this time of year.


I was reading the other day in 2 Corinthians chapter two where Paul tells us that God uses us to “diffuse the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” Hmmm. That made me think.

When I’m hustling and bustling, am I diffusing Christ...or something a lot less pleasing? When that one family member that gets on my last nerve, gets on my last nerve, how do I respond? Or do I react? What about that driver that cuts you off? Or the person who picks up the last item of the shelf at the store?

In those moments, I have a choice. I can be the fragrance of Christ and make His presence known, or I can act ugly.

For me, I’m much more likely to diffuse Christ when I’m in the Word and responding instead of reacting. As the hustle and bustle approaches, I encourage you to spend a little extra time with Him so that you’ll be a pleasant fragrance!

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
‭‭II Corinthians‬ ‭2:14-15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬





Art behind the story:

Poinsettias and Pine are the perfect representation of Christmas fragrance, so I knew these Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps were perfect for this page. I used Christmas Pine to stamp the frame of branches and pine cones on the scrapbook paper. The words are stamped with Rebecca Script Alpha and Free Indeed. The Christmas Poinsettia flower and leaves were stamped on separate card stock. I used a loose watercolor on them, and then added inktense pencils for added depth. After fussy cutting the flowers and leaves, I adhered them to the background. For a pip comfort color, I stapled a piece of ribbon to the top of the page. Lastly, I adhered the page to the page in my interleaved Bible.

Editor’s note
: This is the page I started earlier this week (11/19/18) in the Facebook live on the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps page.



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