Praying for Our Kids

And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep Your commands, statutes, and decrees, and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided. 1 Chronicles 29:19 

Hi Friends!

As we all know, prayer is SO important. Today, I want to focus on praying for our kids. Now when I say "our kids," I'm not just referring to any children that may be in our families. I'm talking about the kids in our families, but also in our churches, in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our communities. It is imperative that we pray for the next generation.

In 1 Chronicles 29, David knew he was close to death. He prayed to God, praising Him, and asking Him to work in the lives of the Jews and in the life of his son Solomon. The first part of verse 19 stood out to me: And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep Your commands, statutes, and decrees. Oh, how I pray this for my own 2 daughters. And that's what I journaled in my Bible. But I also pray this for the youth of this nation. Oh, how our nation would be changed if only we and our youth would be wholeheartedly devoted to God.

Prayer is powerful. Prayer is our communication with God. Let's pray, Church! Let's pray for our kids, every single one, that they would be wholly devoted to the Lord.

Page details: I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Consider the Wildflowers and Prayer Time. I painted the page with acrylic paint, and used a stencil with the paint to make the dots. I printed a photo of my girls out and adhered it to the page. I stamped the flowers on a hymnal page, cut them out, and added them to the page. And that's it!

Have a blessed week! Andrea

Keeping It Simple

Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed is the Lord, who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel." Ruth 4:14

Hi Friends,

Sometimes, simple is best. Can you relate? Often we get so caught up in whatever we're doing, that we make it harder than it needs to be. We don't mean to, we just want it to be nice- whether it's a journaling page, a wedding, a small get together, something at church...

God sometimes goes the simple route. Our great Lord and Savior was born in a simple, definitely not extravagant, manger. And, He lived a simple life, not interested in material goods and focused on relationships. But He could certainly do extravagant things when He wanted to!

In this season of my life, things are changing. We are about to move to another state. My husband and I will be living in the same town as our parents for the first time of our adult lives. One daughter is going into her senior year of college and the other daughter is going into her senior year of high school. And, right now, "simple" is really attractive to me. And, simply, I'm focusing on the fact that Jesus is my Redeemer. No matter what changes in my life, that will not change. 

The women talking to Naomi were talking about Boaz who was her and Ruth's kinsman redeemer. According to Jewish law, a kinsman redeemer was usually the nearest male relative, and had 2 main responsibilities- to redeem family property and to marry a childless widow and raise children in her dead husband's name. Ruth is a beautiful story that gives us a picture of Jesus as our Kinsman Redeemer. Ruth was in need of rescue. And so are we. Jesus redeems us; and the church is His bride. All we have to do is repent and call out to Him, and we will be saved. No strings attached. It's that simple.

May Jesus' name become famous in not only Israel, but around the world!

Page details: Black and white is about as simple as you can get. And these days filled with activities preparing for a move, I am thankful that I can still find time to do some black and white pages while focusing on Jesus. I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: His Name, Way Maker, & Prayer Time. 

Have a blessed week! And keep it simple.😆 Andrea

Rest on His Promises

The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as He had sworn to their ancestors...

Not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed;

every one was fulfilled. Joshua 21:44-45

Hi Friends!

Today we are in Joshua 21 which ends with 2 verses about God's rest and His fulfilled promises. Let's take the promises first. God had promised land to Abraham and his descendants. That land was a very long time in coming. And, the Israelites had to fight for it. It took patience and work, but God kept His promises. Every. Single. One. Our great God is a Promise Keeper. What He says He will do, He does. Not just sometimes, but every time. The Israelites could count on that; and we can too. Now, let's talk about the rest. The following comes from the SheReadsTruth devotion: The foundation for any true rest is built on the fulfilled promises of God. God promised and delivered rest to His people. Although man threw away perfect rest and peace in the garden, God faithfully and continually rescued His people from slavery and unrest of their own folly, and brought them to a land of rest that He had prepared for them. The promise is for us also. One day, the chasing and straining of this world will cease, and we will find perfect rest and peace in Him forever.

Trust our Promise Keeper, my friends. And rest in Him.

Page details: I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Count Your Rainbows, Prayer Time, Way Maker, Faith Phrases, Sweet & Simple Alpha, All in All, In His Image, and Faith Wordfetti. Whew! That's a lot of sets! But I love combining sets on my pages, bringing words and images from different sets together. No special techniques on this page, I just did basic stamping. I outlines the heart in the rainbow with a Micron pen. I stamped the pencil on sticker paper and only partially adhered it to the page so I can lift it to read the Scripture underneath. I used Prismacolor pencils to color the pencil.

Have a blessed week! Andrea

High and Holy

 

"For thus says the High and Lofty One

Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

'I dwell in the high and holy place,

With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,

To revive the spirit of the humble,

And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'" 

(Isaiah 57:15)

The Israelites had the terrible habit of disrespecting God.  They forgot who led them out of slavery, and saved them from their enemies.  They forgot who daily fed them manna for 40 years.  They forgot who the One True God was, and mixed their worship with other false gods.  Therefore, here is Isaiah, God is reminding the people of His holiness and highness.  He is reminding them of WHO HE IS.  

We can cast blame on the Israelites, and ask why they would continue to act that way.  But the truth is, we act the same way.  Despite all the blessings, provisions, and watch-care that God grants us daily, we also disrespect Him by doing our own thing and worshiping our own gods (be they social media, our self-image, Netflix, our jobs, etc.).  We do not fully ascribe to God the respect and honor due Him.  

I created this page with the Puffy Clouds stencil.  I used two colors of ink (Tumbled Glass and Kitsch Flamingo) and shifted the stencil slightly on the second color in order to get the multi-toned effect for the clouds.  

I stamped my title with three different alphabet sets:  School Days Alpha, Typewriter Blocks Alpha, and Lollipop Alpha.  Then I colored in the words "high" and "holy" with some Wilted Violet ink using an aquabrush.  Next, I added some splatters with black watercolor paint and some smooshing and splattering of the three ink colors.  

Next, I added some white detailing to the letters with a white gel pen.  For my tab cluster at the top of the page, I stamped and fussy cut three little clouds from the Count Your Rainbow stamp set (although I could have used the coordinating die).  I added the sentiment "Praise the Lord" from the Prayer Time stamp set (the "Heavenly Father" and "Amen" over by the verse also came from the Prayer Time set).  Then I added some Sparkle Glitter glue to the title and cloud tab cluster.  

I encourage you today to worship, respect, and honor God for the God that He is.  One living in a high and holy place, but One who also lives inside of each of us.  

Thanks for hanging out with me today.  God bless!

--Julie @julesk.jewels

Here's a process video so you can see how it came together:

Product Links:  (Click the picture for the link)

Love God More

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Then tell her to help me." Luke 10:40

Dear Friends,

Look at the verse above. Can you relate to Martha? I sure can. In fact, one Thanksgiving comes to mind. We hosted Thanksgiving that year. My husband's brother and his family were with us. The family time was great. The meal was enjoyable. And then came the clean up, and I found myself all alone in the kitchen. Everyone else was in the living room enjoying each other. And I can remember thinking, "Seriously?! Is no one else going to help?!" Yes, I can certainly relate to Martha. Let's get the whole story from Luke 10:38-42:

As they went, He entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Then tell her to help me." Jesus answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her."

You see, Martha had invited Christ in. She welcomed Him. And she wanted to serve Him. She probably wanted everything just perfect. And before she realized it, all her focus was on what she was doing and not on Him. And the work was too much. She was frustrated that she had no help. So, she went to Jesus, expecting Him to tell Mary to help her. But that's not what He said. First He pointed out the fact that she had let her service to Him make her anxious and troubled. And then, He told her that only one thing was needed. One thing- Him. Jesus is the only thing that we need! So, service is good. But our focus needs to remain on Jesus, spend time with Him. We shouldn't let service or busyness of life drown out Jesus. Martha invited Jesus in, but she didn't take the time to sit at His feet. Instead, she immediately jumped into serving. When we serve... as we live, we need to sit at Jesus' feet FIRST. And then go back to Him time and time again. Martha wasn't wrong in what she did. But, we need to fill up on Jesus before we serve Him and others. He must always be the focus and the priority. So if we find ourselves busy, busy, busy with life and service but we feel far from Jesus, then we need to stop what we're doing and sit with Him. Jesus is the good part. We need Him.

Page Details: I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Prayer Time, Much Love, Consider the Wildflowers, and Gear Up. Prayer Time and Much Love are part of the December release. You can get Much Love for free with a $75 purchase! This is a super simple page! I just stamped the images and colored the centers of the flowers with Prismacolor pencils.

Have a blessed week, friends! Don't let the busyness of Christmas cause you to forget Jesus, the reason for Christmas. Spend time with Him every day, throughout the day. Remember, Jesus is the good part!