Beauty in the Hard

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 50:20

Hi Friends,

As a nation, as a world, we have been experiencing some hard. Individually, we may be experiencing hard. Joseph knew hard. He knew a lot of it. But through it all, he trusted God. He knew God was using the hard for His purpose- and that purpose was good. That didn't necessarily make the hard easier, but it did give it purpose, God's purpose. The same is true for us. Our hard has a purpose. God is working in it. Nothing surprises Him. Covid didn't surprise Him. The unrest doesn't surprise Him. Our individual circumstances don't surprise Him. He knew. He knows. And He is working His purpose through it all.

My friend and owner of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, Korin Sutherland, shared a post on FB originally written by Kimberly Henderson of Proverbs 31 Ministries. It really resonated with me and is what inspired this page. Here is what Kimberly wrote:

I would have pulled Joseph out. Out of that pit. Out of that prison. Out of that pain. And I would have cheated nations out of the one God would use to deliver them from famine.

I would have pulled David out. Out of Saul’s spear-throwing presence. Out of the caves he hid away in. Out of the pain of rejection. And I would have cheated Israel out of a God-hearted king.

I would have pulled Esther out. Out of being snatched from her only family. Out of being placed in a position she never asked for. Out of the path of a vicious, power hungry foe. And I would have cheated a people out of the woman God would use to save their very lives.

And I would have pulled Jesus off. Off of the cross. Off of the road that led to suffering and pain. Off of the path that would mean nakedness and beatings, nails and thorns. And I would have cheated the entire world out of a Savior. Out of salvation. Out of an eternity filled with no more suffering and no more pain.

And oh friend. I want to pull you out. I want to change your path. I want to stop your pain. But right now I know I would be wrong. I would be out of line. I would be cheating you and cheating the world out of so much good. Because God knows. He knows the good this pain will produce. He knows the beauty this hard will grow. He’s watching over you and keeping you even in the midst of this. And He’s promising you that you can trust Him. Even when it all feels like more than you can bear.

So instead of trying to pull you out, I’m lifting you up. I’m kneeling before the Father and I’m asking Him to give you strength. To give you hope. I’m asking Him to protect you and to move you when the time is right. I'm asking Him to help you stay prayerful and discerning. And I’m believing He’s going to use your life in powerful and beautiful ways. Ways that will leave your heart grateful and humbly thankful for this road you’ve been on.

He knows the beauty the hard will grow. He knows, friend. Let's lift our nation, our world, each other up to Him. He is our hope. He is working in this mess. And He is good.

Page Details: Do you ever work on a page and things just keep messing up? Well, I do! LOL I decided to do a background using acrylic paint and baby wipes. I just put some paint on the baby wipe, and spread it out on the page, blending when I started a new color. But, I dropped some paint on the Scripture. So, I tried to clean it off, and ended up rubbing the words a little too much so that they started to come up. OOOPS!

Then, when I went to stamp the words on the page, I started stamping the wrong word!

The great thing about acrylics is that if you mess up, you can just paint over it and start over! You can see that even after I painted over it, you can still see a little of the "HA", but once I stamped "WILL" over it, you can't see the mess up.

If I hadn't been using acrylics, I probably would have covered the "HA" with something- a word sticker, a torn hymnal page, scrapbook paper, something that would have camouflaged the mistake.

I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Playful Alpha, Bold & Outline Caps, True Beauty, and Made New. I also used a white pen to highlight the words.

Trust Him, Friends. He knows the hard you are in and He's right there with you. Have a blessed week! Andrea

Grace Changes Everything

All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" Acts 9:21

Hi Friends,

Have you read Acts 9? Talk about a transformation. Talk about grace changing everything. The chapter begins with Saul (Paul) threatening the early Christians. He wanted to imprison them for their belief in Jesus. He took this persecution seriously, not because he was a bad man, but because he thought he was right. Let me say that again. He persecuted the Christians because he thought he was right. He thought he was fighting for God. Makes you think, doesn't it? But, that's a whole other subject. Let's get back to his conversion. :)

Saul headed to Damascus for the purpose of imprisoning Christians. And Jesus stopped him on the way. Jesus asked him why he was persecuting Him. Jesus told him to go to Damascus and wait to be told what to do. And Saul did just that. Ananias, prompted by God, went to Saul and his discipleship to Jesus began. In meeting Jesus, Saul was completely changed. The grace he was given changed his purpose, his thoughts, his actions. Instead of fighting against Christians, he began fighting for them and spread the gospel in amazing ways.

Jesus does the same thing for us. We may not meet Him in the spectacular way Saul/Paul did, but when we come to Him and accept Him as our Savior, we receive the same grace Saul/Paul did. And it changes us in the same way it changed him. In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul said, "But by the grace of God I am what I am..." He knew that he was changed by God's grace. And it was that grace that helped him through the difficulties of life. I pray the same for you.

Page details:
I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Grace Upon Grace and True Beauty. Both these sets were part of the July release. They are both so versatile! I applied distress oxide for the background color, then stamped the roses and the words. I finished the page by detailing the letters with white accents using a white paint pen.

Let God's grace change you, my friends! Have a blessed week. Andrea

The Spirit of True Beauty...

Hi friends,

Have you ever read a passage of Scripture, maybe a verse in particular, and really felt challenged by how you could ever live up to that instruction or ideal? I know I have... many times! One of those passages is 1 Peter 3:3-4 where Peter writes to wives of unbelieving husbands in some first century churches, 'Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewellery or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is great worth in God's sight.'

The reason I have found these verses challenging is that quiet and gentle are two words that definitely do NOT describe me! I am chatty, loud and opinionated and can be stubborn and sometimes harsh in my tone towards others. God has taken me on a journey over the last couple of decades in learning how to temper these personality traits and he has chipped off and smoothed down some of the rough edges through gentle teaching and not-so-gentle experiences. But the fact remains that I am still not a quiet or gentle person. Does anyone else relate to this struggle?

When I was creating this page I started reflecting on this 'quiet and gentle spirit' and was reminded that this is a description that could be attributed to the Holy Spirit. One of the images used for the Holy Spirit is a dove, which is both gentle and quiet, and one of the fruits of the spirit is gentleness. That does not mean that the Holy Spirit is not also fire or that he does not challenge injustice or sin. But the Spirit does work in quiet and gentle ways to lead us to Christ and in his ways. That was encouraging to me because I know that the Holy Spirit dwells in me and therefore the Spirit who is gentle and quiet leads and guides me. Even though my personality is not gentle or quiet, I can rely on the Spirit in me to help me to quiet my spirit (and my mouth!) and to respond to others with gentleness.

I used the beautiful new True Beauty set on this page, stamping the roses with Sage Versamagic ink then colouring with watercolours and coloured pencils. The text is a combination of True Beauty, His Name and Bitty Minnie Alpha and I added a couple of little accent images from Let's Do This. I added a butterfly stamped and die-cut with Made New and the coordinating dies.

Let's be grateful for the quiet and gentle ministry of the Holy Spirit at work within us.

Be blessed...

x Amy x