Grand Mommy Love !

This precious gift from God is my Grand daughter . This past July she and her family moved from North Carolina to Florida so Dad could relocate with his job. Her Grand Daddy and I have been a part of her life everyday for the last 7 and 1/2 years so to say that this move tugged at our heart strings ...is an understatement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At our home, the sweet Grand had her own art cart complete with assorted pencils, markers , stickers , paper and an assortment of other craft supplies. If you look closely you can see her Inspire Journaling Bible on the second shelf of the art cart. 

The rest of the art cart story and her Bible is the reason for this blog post.

The art cart pretty much sat quietly in its spot for a long while after she and I put it together and stocked the shelves . Warm weather and the swings in the back yard occupied her time at our house .

One rainy afternoon after school she was playing with random toys and games and I was in the kitchen. Some time passed and the sweet Grand ask me if she could use my highlighters. That request got my attention and I walked over to see why she needed them.

There she sat working in her Inspire Bible! Now, So, So, So  many times she would see me working in this same space but did not care to join me. This my friends was a proud Grand Mommy Moment!!!!

I discreetly took a couple of photos..( she is not a fan of Kodak moments) as she decided what to put on the page.

She turned back to the inside cover pages and decided that she wanted to embellish them too.

She proudly shared her pages announcing, " Grand Mommy, I highlighted the verse , added some washi tape and put some sparkle on it!" Now these pages she chose at random, and she was really just going through the motions knowing that usually I highlight, use washi tape and some sparkle when I am illustrating a verse in my Bible. She became frustrated as she was wanting to write her Bible memory verse for the week from school in the margins and then tried to erase and then decided to stop altogether. 

Her Inspire Bible and art cart are at her new home in Florida. My prayer is that the seeds of faith that have been planted here will continue to be nourished there and as she grows her faith will grow along with her giving her the HOPE that she can find in His words! 

One day my Bible will become her Bible and hopefully she can pass on the legacy of Visual Faith to her sweet Grand!

  

Let's Connect!

Bee Mail

All Things Children's Ministry

Children's Ministry at Concordia NC

@beebeebost

Creative Faith

Creative Faith....it can be a way to tell your faith story. It can be a way to document what the Lord is doing in your life. It can be a way to share the Peaks, the Pits and the Praises. 

My Creative Faith finds it's way into my bible, my devotion books, my journals, my day planner, cards I make for friends. Praying In Color and Visual Prayers are other places where I can share what is in my head and what is tugging at my heart strings.

Shanna Noel founder of Illustrates Faith and The Journaling Bible Community describes illustrating your faith this way: " God created us to share and use our gifts and talents in different ways to glorify Him.  He allows us to see the world through a colorful, beautiful lens.Use your gifts to share the Gospel. Paint, write, record what God has on your heart. This is your love letter to God. It is about honoring what God is doing in your heart".

My bible has a place in my foyer ....it is almost the first thing I see when I come in and go out each day. It is almost the first thing friends and family see when they come to visit. Most stop to look and most will ask questions.....a perfect time to share other pages and to share why I do what I do!

I enjoy adding mixed media to my favorite devotional pages. The tag bookmark can be flipped over to expose the complete text on the page or it may find it's way into a friends card.

Speaking of bookmarks.....recycle and repurpose those large flash cards that the kiddos have outgrown.  These make great additions to a greeting card or gift basket. Giving friends some Jesus!

This is the inside cover page of my Legacy of Faith journal I am keeping for my granddaughter......sharing with her my faith walk, my story and what the Lord has done in my life. One day she will read it and hopefully want to share her own story.

My daughter was going through a really hard time and I had so many things that I wanted to say to her but I decided to create something that she could, hold, read and touch...reminders of faith, hope, love and forgiveness. After I completed the paper bag book I found that I had renewal myself!

Pages in my daughters paper bag book offer comfort, hidden and waiting to be found.

There is Hope in my bible. My story is there. It is Gods revelation to me of His glorious plan for my salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. 

In most Journaling bibles there is an invitation printed to record thoughts and  interact with the Scriptures. The margins are designed for you to write observations, reflections,prayers, notes and journal entries. I just add a little color!

You may not be comfortable adding anything to your bible and that is A-OK! Create a FAITH book!

Illustrate your favorite scripture verse or hymn. The Solid Rock was one of my Grandmother's favorite hymns. These two pages are in memory of her.

Creative Faith....wherever you put it, someone , someday will find it and read it and will be blessed by it.

WE WERE CREATED TO CREATE!

The following photos are some of my Creative Faith creations. Enjoy. Be Inspired.

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.

Valentines' Day ~ Love From God's Word

What would the world look like if we could just love our neighbors?

Mark 12: 29-31
Love the Lord your God with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Love our neighbor as yourself.
There is no commandment greater than these.

1 John Chapters 3 & 4
This is the message you heard from the beginning.
We should love one another!

I enjoyed using watercolor gel crayons from Target to add the color to my bible pages. 

A water pen helps to get just the right amount of liquid on the crayon. 

Color a small amount of color on cardstock or something heavy and squeeze water down onto the tip of the paint brush . Rub the tip of the brush on the color......and SHAZAM you have water color!