Teacher encouragement

 This year is an exceptionally challenging year for teachers, with all the changes in school with COVID-19.  I cannot imagine how challenging it could be, even for seasoned teachers, having to change how they teach, sometimes drastically.

When Russ and I began counting up the family members and close friends we have in the field of education, either as administrators or as teachers, we were surprised to count seven in our immediate family!  We have been praying for them, and yesterday I decided we needed to send each one a card with an encouraging note in it.  Some of them have already started school, some start this coming week, and some another week later, so now is the time.

I have a new stamp set called "Home Sweet Home" from Simon Says Stamp

I have really enjoyed using it and I thought the sentiments on it were appropriate for what I wanted to say on the cards.  I made different cards for each person/family but put the same "Praying for you" sentiment on the inside with lots of space to write personal notes to each one.

 Here is a close-up of each one.  You will notice some shiny spots.  That is where I put some pale glistening ink just for a little sparkle.  It shines a lot in the photo because of the reflection, but in real life it is less noticeable in that it doesn't glare as it does in the photos.  So much for my photography skills!!  Anyway, here they are...

Covered composition book

 I wanted to start a new journal for a special project I am working on this year.  I remembered that I had one of those black and white composition books that you can buy inexpensively at the beginning of the school year, so I went hunting it down and found it in my craft room where I had stored it with the intention of covering it with pretty paper sometime as a gift.  So I decided to gift myself this time around!  I had some really pretty paper that I have wanted to find a use for but never could figure out how to make it good for a card.  I covered the front and back covers with it, then added some burgundy suede paper for the spine and I am really pleased with how it turned out.

I put a fancy title label on the cover and covered the inside of the front and the back with matching fushia paper.

I like the animal print background of the flowered paper, but like I said, I could not picture making a card with it ... I am not quite artistic enough to picture what to do with it, but I am glad I had that paper because it made a beautiful journal, I think!

Sympathy card

 I needed to make a sympathy card yesterday and turned to one of my favorite dies as the anchor for the card.  This simple spray of flowers is so easy to make into any kind of card and I have used it numerous times for everything from get well to birthday, and now for a sympathy card.

I used a green fern paper for the background because the one who passed was a man and I wanted to reflect a masculine "aura" on the card even though I was using flowers.  I cut the flower die out of dark brown suede paper and it turned out so beautifully against the cream colored card stock that I edged with some bamboo green ink and a little brown.  

Shrub or tree?

 

Jeremiah 17:6 He is like a shrub in the desert…

This morning I was reading Jeremiah 17 and was captured by the contrasts I found between the person described in verses 5-6 and the one in verses 7-8,

5-6 says, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength,  whose heart turns away from the Lord.  He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come.  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

Then notice the contrast in 7-8: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.  He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

Verses 7-8 have long been some of my favorites in their description of the person who trusts in the Lord, likening them to a tree beside a body of water.  I had never before noticed that this description is in contrast to verses 5-6, which describe the opposite – a person who trusts in the strength of their flesh, in themselves.  Notice the contrasts in the two scenarios:

1. One trusts in man, the other in the Lord;

2. One is like a shrub, the other like a tree;

3. One is planted in a desert, the other by water;

4. One experiences no good, the other remains green all the time;

5. One has a parched wilderness for living, the other has refreshing space;

6. One lives in an uninhabited (lonely) place, the other has no anxiety;

7. One lives in salt land, the other reaches water with its roots.

There is no doubt left as to the value of living close to God!

Be Prepared, it will come

    

I Peter 4:1-2, 12-19

Suffering for Christ can deepen our walk with Him.

The first time I read through this passage, I felt discouraged, thinking about suffering.  There is a certain kind of fear that lingers on the edge of my mind when I consider suffering.  So I read the passage again, actually several more times, trying to grapple with that sense of doom that was trying to discourage me. 

I noticed that there are several things the Christian believer is told to do in order to prepare for the time when some kind of suffering will come.  As we prepare ourselves, our walk with God deepens.  Being prepared is what will carry us through those dark times of suffering, no matter what form the suffering may take.  Recognizing that there are things I can do to handle my suffering better gives me a renewed sense of power for facing whatever may come in my future.

How does a Christian prepare herself for that inevitable suffering?  We have all had suffering of one kind or another in our lives, and will no doubt have it again, so we may as well prepare, right?  I found several things I can do to be better prepared for the next time:

     1. Arm myself mentally (v.1).  That is the first step… let God help me see/understand the circumstances I face from His point of view.   

     2. Don’t be taken by surprise (v.12).  Remember that God allows suffering for a good reason, and He will help you through it because He wants you to become stronger in your faith and walk.

     3. Change your way of thinking about suffering (v. 13).  Instead of bemoaning your situation, ask God to help you see His hand at work.  When you do that, you will remember that God will be helping you face the situation.

     4. Think ahead (v.13).  Do what a runner does and think ahead to the goal you have and the reward if you succeed in your quest.  Our goal is the presence of God in our lives now and heaven in our future.  No matter what suffering we may have, the end result will be the same … eternal joy in heaven.

     5.  Do not be ashamed to trust God in your suffering (v.16).  Verses 15-19 remind me that everyone suffers, but I have no suffering compared to someone who does not know the Lord.  How many times have you (as I have) said, “I don’t know how someone could handle this if they couldn’t trust God”?  That is the principle at work in these verses.

    6. Let yourself continue to grow stronger in your faith (v.19).  Do not allow your suffering or your insecurity about handling your suffering deter you from trusting God. That will speak volumes to those outside the faith, or who are weak in their faith, as they observe how you handle your suffering.

Happy, Happy, Happy

I really like the newest stamp and die set that I ordered online not long ago.  It is called Happy Days from CZ Design although I purchased it through my current favorite supplier, Simon Says Stamp.  I tried an idea I found on a blog using this stamp set and am very pleased with the results.  I needed to make a couple of birthday cards and this set was perfect. 

See what I mean?  I hunted down shades of card stock that I had that would work together.  I had only four shades of the right kinds of purple so there are only the four steps of "happy" on that card, but I had five shades of yellow and orange so it has one extra panel.  All I had to do was emboss the word in white and cut the panels so the words would follow the right alignment, then glue them onto another piece of card stock, which I then popped up on the card front with foam tape.  The little "birthday" is also embossed in white and attached with foam tape.  A couple of sequins and a stripe of metallic edging later and the card was done.  Simple, but I think quite effective.

Enduring hope

I Peter 3:8-17

What is it that keeps our HOPE alive through troubled times, or times of suffering and gets us through them? This passage from First Peter lists characteristics God looks for and wants to develop in us as His children: 1) be like-minded, i.e., unified; 2) be sympathetic; 3) be loving; 4) be compassionate; 5) be humble; 6) be forgiving.

This isn't all I found.  Here is the rest of my list.  

   7.   be a blessing (v.9)

   8.   be godly in how you speak (v.10)

   9.   be Christ-like in your actions (v.11)

   10. be peace-loving and peace-creating (v.11)

   11. be fearless (v.14)

   12. be holy (v.15)

   13. be ready to be a good witness to others (v.15)

   14. be gentle (v.16)

   15. be respectful (v.16)

That is quite a list, isn’t it?  I know I have not conquered this list yet.  God still has a lot to do in me to develop my HOPE but my goal is to allow God to help me continue to develop these characteristics in my life.  By doing so, God is preparing me to endure whatever comes even if that means suffering in some way.

Goaded

Ecclesiastes 12:11

The words of the wise are like goads …

When I first read this, my reaction was negative because when I think of “goads” I think of a cattle prod, something uncomfortable or even painful.  I looked up “goad” in the dictionary and as happens so often, I gained new understanding of the meaning of this verse by doing so!  “Goad” is indeed a prod, such as an electrified pole that pushes cattle along.  The other meaning of the word is “an encouragement or a stimulus,” and that puts a whole new layer of meaning to this verse.  The words of a wise person should be stimulating the hearers, encouraging them to do the right thing, to make wise decisions.  At times that might mean speaking uncomfortable things to them.  When I speak wisely, my goal should be to gently but firmly force the thinking and action of the hearer towards godly thinking and doing.  When I do that, I will be goading them along the path of righteousness.

When I read this in my devotions this week, I immediately thought of the Sunday School lesson I was studying for the week from I Peter 2:4-15.  There are goads that God uses in our lives to push us along toward spiritual growth, gently prodding us along. 

            v.5 = be a living stone, built to be a holy priesthood

            v.5 = offer acceptable sacrifices

            v.6 = believe in Him

            v.6 = never be put to shame

            v.7 = receive honor

            

I Peter 2:11-16 gives us the goads we use to point others to Christ, ways we can prod them along the path of righteousness. 

         v.11 = live pure lives

         v.12 = conduct yourself honorably

         v.13 = be submission to authority, wherever it is

         v.14 = do not abuse your freedom 

 

I need God’s goading to push me along into a deeper walk with Him and at the same time I want God to use me to prod others!

More thoughts on HOPE

I Peter 1:13-25

Our hope in Christ changes how we view the world and live in it.

I read recently that “Living as strangers in this world … [means that] we are no longer driven by the culture’s values and demands.  We fight the battle of the mind …”

This statement got me to thinking about how we fight this battle of HOPE so as I read through I Peter 1:13-25, I kept looking for clues.  I invite you to do this same activity right now.

Get some paper and a pen and make two columns.  Label one column “What God does” and label the other column “What we do.”  Then, as you read through this passage verse by verse, note what you find that indicates the role God plays and/or the role a Christian believer plays in the development of HOPE in one’s life.  Here is the list I found.  I would love to hear what you found!

WHAT GOD DOES:

v. 17 = acts fairly

v.18-19 = provides a means of redemption

v.18 and 23 = provides salvation that cannot be destroyed

v.21 = raised Jesus from the dead

v.21 = provides a reason for faith and hope

v. 23 and 25 = provides His Word [that never changes or dies or fades away)

WHAT WE DO:

v.13 = be ready for action

v.13 = be alert (sober-minded)

v.13 = be focused on Jesus’ grace

v.14 and 22 = be obedient

v.14 = be different (do not be conformed to sinful ways of thinking and acting)

v.15 = be impeccable (i.e., “holy”) in your conduct

v.17 = act reverently (respect all that God has done for us and treat others with respect)    

v.22 = love others from a pure heart

What else did you find for these two columns about HOPE?

So much of the power of our HOPE depends upon our response to what God has so abundantly provided for us.  Let’s pray that together we will increase the strength of our HOPE so it can help us face these uncertain times more confidently, displaying God’s love and mercy to others.  By doing so we will be bringing HOPE to others as we increase our own.  It is a win-win scenario!

HOPE

I Peter 1:1-9

v.3: Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

 

The Bible handbook I use for background information about each book of the Bible says that the key word for I Peter is the word “hope.”  There are some interesting, challenging, and thought-provoking lessons hidden in this passage from chapter one.

   

My hope is alive.  Did you notice that in verse 3?  It is a living hope because it is hope based on the resurrection of Jesus.  This hope is founded on the grace of God. 

What happens when you have hope that is alive?   When you read the remainder of the verses in this passage, you can find several distinguishing characteristics of that ALIVE HOPE. Here is what I found:

     v.4 = it is heaven-based and therefore does not die or fade away;

     v.5 = it is guarded by God Himself;

     v.6 = troubles and /or suffering do not destroy its power;

     v.7 = it glorifies Jesus in our lives;

     v.8 = it gives us the ability to have joy no matter what our circumstances may be.

    

What does hope do for us?       

     Hope gives us light when life is at its darkest;

     Hope gives us motivation when we become discouraged;

     Hope gives us joy when there is no joy in our circumstances;

     

How is HOPE helping you cope with the challenges in your life?  Is there someone you know who needs to be reminded of the HOPE we have as children of God?  Call them or send them a message to encourage them in that HOPE.

Anyone for sailing?

I am not a sailor, but as I thought about how to use the pad of sailing-related papers that was given to me a few months ago, a mini album is what came to mind, so a couple of weeks ago I got it out and started working on an album.  Being still isolated at home, I could not go shopping to see what I could find for embellishments, so I just used what I could to add interest and dimension.  I am pleased with the results, as I continue to learn the techniques necessary for good results in a book.  Here area couple of views of the cover:

I cut out a sailing ship and added it with foam tape .  I also added black ink to the body of each ship for some colot, and put clear glitter glue on the one above, although the glitter turned gold when I put it on the blue paper!  Go figure!  I also put pearl on the two wheels.  Some red and white ribbon and navy and white twine added a bit of color to the cover.

There is a waterfall album on the inside of the front cover that has 5 pages, so it could hold up to 9 or 10 photos.  It is held closed with a magnetic tab.  Then page 1 has a little 4-page booklet.

The rest of the pages are pretty self-explanatory.  Some have pockets with mats for photos, others have what looks like a band of different paper across the page.  Those can have memorabilia that is thicker tucked under them.  The page with the seahorse has a square of other paper in the corner that is only glued down on two sides so a photo or a paper can be tucked under the "pocket."

I have enough paper left on the same pad to make another book, which I plan to do soon.  I don't have any plans for the books at this point, but I figure one day someone will go on a cruise, or go to the lake for a vacation, and will have pictures they take that will fit into this sailing theme.  When I can, I'll give it away, or sell it!

Catching up

Oh, my!  I had no idea it had been so long since I made any posts on this blog until I looked this morning!  You would think that in these stay-at-home days I would be posting every day.  I certainly could have, given how many cards I've been making and mailing.  My biggest problem is that I am not a photo person so I miss many an opportunity to take a picture and post it.  That has always been one of my big weakesses.

In the past month I have made a mailed off about 50 cards.  When July came along I found quite a long list of friends with birthdays in this month, so I began making cards like mad this past week, many of them using new stamp sets I recently received.  But I am getting ahead of myself in a way.

I started the month off making an especially July-friendly card.

See what I mean?  Doesn't the watermelon make you think of July 4th???  I'll be mailing it this week to a friend.  I recently became acquainted with Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge and have enjoyed following it.  I am going to submit this watermelon card for that July challenge.

Another thing I think of in July cards is butterflies.  We have a bush of lantana (is that how you spell it?  Not sure) in our back yard.  It is full of bright yellow blossoms and there are huge yellow and black butterflies that come every day to drink from those blossoms.  My butterfly card is not yellow but I am very pleased with it anyway!

Several weeks ago I "happened" onto a new-to-me stamp company that has captured my heart .. Honey Bee Stamps.  They have such cute bee-inspired stamps and dies.  Just to prove to you how cute, take a look at these little bees on the two "beeday" cards I made this week!

Aren't those little bees the cutest things?  Too bad they aren't that cute in real life!  More coming from that stamp set for sure!

I also got a new stamp set from my other current "most favoritest" company (I love you, Simon Says Stamp!) that I used for another birthday card going out this coming week.

I used colored pencils to color the row of houses and the airplane with the banner (and the sun in the sky), then popped the plane and banner up on foam tape.  Even though the front of the card says "Thinking of you," the inside is a birthday message.

Washi tape catch-up

I have had a lot of washi tape in my stash for a couple of years now and use it occasionally, but I know that glue-backed things do not last forever.  The glue loses it's sticking ability eventually and I would hate to see that happen to the fun tape in my box, so last week I decided to make washi tape cards for two days straight. It was a profitable exercise and since I still have LOTS of that tape left, I may repeat that effort again in a couple of weeks.

I love how the colors and designs always seem to work together, no matter what I try!  Here's what I mean:

I had made a couple of these styles before and when I looked through my pictures I found a couple of samples.  One I made almost exactly like the one pictured here.

Here's another example from before and it's current counterpart:

One of my favorites, which I am definitely going to repeat but use different tapes is this one that is not the best photo, but I like the looks of the white banner across the front:

My other most favorite of all of them is the square card with the bow tie tape:

Productivity and Coronavirus

I know this stay-at-home time due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on people in many ways, so what I am going to say here certainly is not intended to lessen the difficulties caused by this, but I must say that these past 9 or 10 weeks have proven to be very helpful to Russ and myself for getting some projects done that we never seemed to have time to do when we had our regular schedules of activities.  In that regard, I almost hate to see this come to an end!  And I should warn you that this is a longer-than-usual and more-photos-than-usual post!

Let me see ... just what have we gotten done?

Household jobs ... new door handles on our outside doors

 and new knobs on all our kitchen and bathroom cabinets, PLUS I cleaned all those doors and drawers before we added the knobs.

Then there are all the cards I have made and mailed ... about 70 of them as of this writing.  I have tried new techniques and used up lots of my "stash" of supplies.  That is a good thing!

This next photo should actually have two of these in it ...

I got the manuscript for my book (actually it is mine and Russ' since some of his poetry is in it too).  I had been working on it for quite a while and have been able to finish it up and send it off to the publisher on April 29th, a red-letter day for us!!

The other disk is the slides I have digitized and just completed this morning!  3,107 photos spanning about 70 years!  Oh, my goodness!  I had not counted up the span of years until this very moment and I am stunned that we are old enough to have slides from that long ago!!  Yep, I guess we both were that young at one time!  As we have done those slides, Russ and I have laughed and cried and remembered all the ways God has blessed us with His blessing of peace and joy through the years, even in the hard times.

 Here is a sampling of Russ through the years...

When he was a college student, attending a summer training program with Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.

That is him, that dot near the top of the antenna he helped rebuild as a missionary with West Indies Mission (now WorldTeam) in Haiti after a devastating hurricane destroyed the other one.  He had worked in Iowa building the antenna parts, then went with the parts to Haiti.

After the antenna was completed, Russ worked as an engineer and disc jockey for the radio station.  One of the programs he did was "slow English" in which he read books and the Bible slowly so people who were learning English could follow along.  That is what he is doing in this photo:

After being in Haiti for about 4 years, he came home to the US and married Joyce, and then along came Anna Marie.  They dedicated her in church in South Carolina.

In the meantime, I was in Lebanon, working with the church in Beirut and surrounding area. 

Here I am pictured with some members of the church I worked in.  My housemate in the 3rd from the left and I am at the far left.

When the civil war in Lebanon forced me out, I went to live in Madaba, Jordan, where I taught a wonderful group of ladies.  I have such fond memories of all those years!

The bottom line is that the past couple of months of self-isolation, albeit challenging, have been most productive and I am thankful for them.