War Room ~ It can be a place....

Have you seen the movie War Room?
War Room from the award wining creators of Fireproof and Courageous explores the power that prayer can have on marriages, parenting, careers, friendships and other areas of our lives.
After this movie many folks were inspired to create their own War Room or a place in their homes to have a personal prayer life.

War Room!

It doesn't have to be a room ~  it can be part of a room.

It can be a large very worn chair where the princess Boston Terrier dog sleeps at night.

It can be a place where you open the blinds and wait for the sun to come around and beam on your shoulder in the morning.

It can simply be a place where all of you stuff is that give you faith, hope and love each day.

It can be a place where you write down words that inspire you......

....words that you want to remember and share.

It can be a place where you end the day...to reflect and to pray.

It can be any place where you put on the armor of God and prepare to fight the good fight . A place to come to Him in your brokenness . A place to confess your sins and ask forgiveness. A place to give thanks , praise and glory.

IT CAN BE A PLACE.....ANY PLACE !

Read the Bible each day. Let the word of God mold you into a powerful person of prayer.
~War Room~

I saw this on Pinterest and thought this would be a good place to share it.

FAITHbooking with Hymns of Hope

Last year I bought this Project Life notebook filled with all kinds of journaling goodness and it was on close out ....bought it!

Over the months I found myself taking from it...using some of the tags and pockets, etc for other journaling projects.

But for today it will be repurposed and used as a holder for my FAITHbooking pages.

I haven't decide how I want the cover to look.....so for now it remains the same.

The pages are made from heavy weight shiny card stock. 

One side is a calendar the other is decorative. 

I covered the calendar side with printed scrapbook paper that I already had and left the back side as it is. 

The theme for the page is Hymns of Hope.

I printed some of my Grandmother's favorite hymns found online.

I decided to focus on a hymn called The Solid Rock ....it speaks of Hope and Christ being our solid rock.

My Grandmother had a strong faith. I give thanks that I had many years with her..many memories!

I cut out part of the hymn so it would fit on the page.

I drew two hearts and painted inside with watercolors ...colors of church windows.

I outlined with a black marker and added the names of some of Grandmother's favorite hymns,

 How Great Thou Art...she loved to watch Billy Graham and hear George Beverley Shea sing. 

Just As I Am ..the go to alter call hymn for most Southern Baptists.

I used washi tape to re enforce the holes where the notebook rings will go.

The back side of the page is pretty busy.

It is layered with washi tape, stamps and crocheted flowers. My Grandmother had many of those crocheted doilies that she placed on her side tables for decoration. These little flowers remind me of those doilies.

I used a variety of alpha stickers to build the first lines of the hymn.

I used my Illustrated Faith stamps to create the joy, faith and love wording. I thought the black was too black so I stamped some purple flowers over them. 

I used the free printable HOPE card also from Illustrated Faith to fill in at the bottom. 

As I was taking pictures of the finished page for this blog I noticed that the word righteousness did not look right...and of course I left out the letter "s" that should come after the letter "u". The only remedy was to squeeze it in. It works. Anything goes! It's all good!

The Project Life notebook came with many fun pockets in several sizes. This one is perfect for holding copies of the hymns. I dressed up the front with a heart cut from one of the hymns called What A Friend We Have In Jesus. We sang this gym at my father-in-laws funeral.

Added a tab at the top labeled "hope" and a pretty paperclip bow on the side. 

I love the size of the pages. A bit smaller than a bible page but large enough for journaling and art .

For those who might be uncomfortable writing, coloring or glueing things in their bibles...FAITHbooking is another great way to tell your faith story, a creative expression of a spiritual journey using scripture, hymns, photos, art and craft supplies.

I love to journal in my bible and I love to scrapbook. FAITHbooking is a happy mix of both.

And so, Lord, where do I put my HOPE ? My only HOPE is in you.

~ Psalm 39:7 ~

His Yoke is Easy...When The Load Gets Heavy

My illustrated bible journal entry this week is inspired by a devotion that I read called, His Yoke Is Easy, from A Little God Time For Mothers. As I researched about "the yolk" the message in the devotion took on a whole different meaning and spoke to me with a reminder that I do not walk alone. When we carry around all of the daily "Life" responsibilities, sometimes they just get too heavy to carry and we feel like we can't go on.....but, then there is Jesus , the stronger one. There to lead and guide us and carry the weight for us. 

In Matthew 11, Jesus said that His yolk is easy. He shared these words with His disciples. They knew exactly what He meant because a yolk was regularly used by many of them.  Now yokes aren't exactly an everyday household item we have around to use today and this city girl had no idea of what or how a yoke was used!

 Sometimes we need to do a little study on what Jesus' intended meaning was, so we can enjoy His life-giving words.

Here is what I now understand about the "yoke".  

Animals that worked side by side were linked with a wooden yoke. This yoke was laid across their necks and kept them together. When two animals were linked like this, they were capable of doing much more that what either could do alone. Often a weaker  or younger animal was linked to a stronger one. This allowed the stronger one to lead the younger and bear more of the weight.

I'm thinking that I would love to get my hands on a yoke. Where to display it would be a challenge.

Now for the rest of the post. Once I understood......everything made sense. The following photos are of the journal entry in my bible.

I found this photo but cannot find the source to give credit but it just jumped out at me as I was thinking about Jesus carrying my heavy "stuff" because I sometimes feel that I can not. All I have to do is just walk alongside Him and follow!

I attached the photo with washi tape and can be lifted to see the scriptures. I used a label maker to add the caption .

I use my study bible for my entries and it does not have a wide margin for journaling so to post my entries I have to get creative with the room that I have. I keep it simple. My journaling is more of a "smash book" style. 

 The Reminder. The Message.

Life Can Be Heavy! He Will Carry It For Me!

I enjoy adding color but I also like to see the print through the color. Water color crayons from Target used here for this post.

No bleed through adding just enough color without wrinkle on the thin rice paper .

I usually create some kind of book mark for the page. Here I used a large child's flash card covering up the numbers with card stock and attaching with washi tape on both sides. I had this " I will Follow "  card already printed from Illustrated Faith and decided that it went along with the message. A hole punched at the top for ribbon...it just happens to match the washi tape.

"My yoke is easy" Matthew 11:30

Do you feel the weight of responsibility driving you down? When Jesus tells us that His yoke is easy, He is simply inviting us to enjoy His strength. We only need to choose to walk alongside him and let him carry our load.