Mailbox Monday Plus...

I know it's been quite a while since I've posted regularly with any kind of schedule but since starting journaling daily again, following along with my friend, Dawn's journal prompts, I'm finally gotten the writing bug once more. Hopefully this will overflow into more regular blog posting--hopefully...I think I've relied on posting to Instagram to show what I've been up to lately, but it would be nice to blog about it all again.

So first, since I've been doing so much mail arting lately, I'm planning to post weekly Mailbox Monday updates with pictures of incoming and outgoing mail, and mail challenges like my proposed Month of Letters for February (still time to sign up and join in on the fun!) Incoming mail has been ridiculously slow. I've allowed for the holidays to be an excuse the past few weeks, but now that we are well into January I thought things would be picking up again, but they're not. I'm reconsidering the one snail mail group I've been a part of this past year and whether or not I'll continue with it for 2015. To not receive a fair response for mail sent out seems like maybe postage should be spent elsewhere for more productive responses. So, that's currently under consideration...But, first a quick peek at some postcards I'm prepping for February's Month of Letters:

One of these could be coming to your mailbox if you join the fun!

Hopefully I'll have more mail to share next week but I do have some Scripture doodles to post:

And these next two are just because I wanted to share:

Gorgeous Cooper's Hawk sitting in my dogwood tree looking for a tasty sparrow dinner...

I love a good moon shot.

Okay--that's all I have for today. Stay tuned for more later in the week. Thanks for popping by--have a great Monday!

Week Two Chapter Two-The Free Gift

Someone close to me, during a very stressful time of my life, had the audacity to say to me, “Having God is great, but sometimes it’s not enough.” As if there is anything we can humanly do that is greater than God. That was the last time I spoke to that person. If we cannot trust God to see us through our darkest hours, then when? Only when things are going well? What sort of faith is that?

 

This week’s chapter expresses where our gift of grace originates-strictly from God. How do we get it? Purely by believing. There is not a single, solitary thing we do on our own that warrants receiving God’s grace. He gives it freely from His love for us. And the glory of this gift of grace is that it’s not just for the super good folks, the radically religious sect—it is for ALL of us! And there’s more: there is nothing we can do to lose that gift. Once we are adopted as a child of God, we are His forever, no matter how bad we might mess up. Good to know, isn’t it? I mess up a lot…

 

The world would teach us that we can only rely on ourselves. We are in charge and solely responsible for the direction and success of our lives. God would have us learn differently. He would have us trust solely in Him, on Him. That’s hard at times, isn’t it? We want to be able to rely on ourselves, on the right here, right now. We want to be in control of our circumstances. I have sat in a miserable holding pattern too many times to ever think that I am the one in control. I’ve not always liked God’s timing, but I do know for certain that I love His intervention and intention in my life—where I’ve been placed by His loving hands.

 

Have you ever trusted Christ to be the Master of your fate? The Captain of your soul? If not, you can do it now. Tell Him that you want to turn from yourself and turn to Him as Captain as you accept His gift of grace. If you have already trusted Christ to be Captain of your soul, are you letting Him steer your soul completely? If not, in what areas do you need to put the wheel back into His hands?

 Don't forget to listen to Charles Swindoll's podcast for this week's chapter here.

You are welcome to share your thoughts in the comments below—I would love to hear from you! And I hope you’ll join us next week for Chapter Three-Isn’t Grace Risky?

 

In Christ,

Dawn

A Month of Letters

The Challenge

Most of you know I love snail mail. I would like to include you in that love this coming month and I have a simple challenge for you.

1. In the month of February, mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.
2. Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

All you are committing to is to mail 23 items. Why 23? There are four Sundays and one US holiday. In fact, you might send more than 23 items. You might develop a correspondence that extends beyond the month.

Write love letters, thank yous, or simply notes to say that you miss an old friend. Send a fabric swatch from your new dress. A feather you picked up while on a walk. Whatever it is, let yourself step away from the urgency of modern life and think about an audience of one. Think of it as sending 23 little gifts. And, who knows, you might enjoy going to the mail box again.

And if you message me your address, I will include you in my February mailing list! Send me your address here. Happy Mailing!!

Grace Awakening-Week One Chapter One

Grace Awakening-Week One Chapter One

 

Free in Christ. Free indeed. Free at last.

 

Happy New Year and welcome to our study of Charles Swindoll’s Grace Awakening! I am so glad to have you joining us! The plan is to post a chapter each week for the next fourteen weeks, God willing, and you are invited to join along with both the book and workbook. Feel free to share your insights and input below in the comments each week-I’d love to hear from you!

 

I came upon Grace Awakening because I have been longing for something more. I have a regular morning time routine well established over the past eight or nine years now-reading the Bible every morning, prayer journaling, and also participating in online studies with a group of friends who have graciously shared their morning time with me as well over the past few years. But lately, I just felt like I needed something more, something deeper. And then I came across this book and it completely resonated with my heart. I am so excited to start this new journey!

 

And so we begin-Grace: It’s Really Amazing!

 

Grace received but unexpressed is dead grace. Rather than spend our time debating on how we receive it or what it means to live by grace, we need to just claim it and allow it to set us free-then grace will become what it was meant to be-really amazing!

 

Grace Embraced

 

The One we could call “Grace Embodied” never tires of extending it to us. When we fully embrace His gift of grace, we will:

 

      have a greater appreciation of God’s gifts

      spend less time and energy concerned about other people’s choices

      become more tolerant and joyful (yes, please!), less prejudiced and judgmental

      take a giant step toward maturity.

 

Oh yes—sign me up!

 

Grace will bring the freedom to want the highest good for and expect the highest good from one another. It will make us want to obey and prompt us to love each other. However, when we don’t embrace grace for ourselves, we have no grace to offer others.

 

If we refuse to live by grace, our attitudes sour. We’re certain that people can’t be trusted. We waver over whether or not God fully accepts us, so we run from intimacy with Him. On our own, we drive ourselves to obsessive intensity. Our spirits harden. Our rigidity repels. Our faces shout, “No!”

 

When we choose to live by grace, our attitudes shift from negative to positive. Our relationships with people are characterized by confident acceptance rather than suspicious intolerance. With His grace, our focus expands. Our intensity is relieved. Our spirits soften. We become more winsome, affirming, contagious, and understanding. Our faces say, “Yes.”

 

As an added bonus, I found that there is also a podcast by Mr. Swindoll for each chapter you can listen to. For this week’s podcast click here. You can also download the Insights for Living app free which includes the archive of the entire series’ podcasts!

 

Thank you for joining me this week-I hope you’ll share your thoughts in the comments below and come back again next week for Chapter Two-The Free Gift.

 

 

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore,

and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

~Galatians 5:1

Random Journal Day #46

Hi and welcome back to another Random Journal Day where the first Friday of every month journal friends share over at Enthusiastically, Dawn! I am still working in the same prayer journal, a simple Daler Rowney I had picked up at Walmart:

 

Maybe two-thirds of the way through? With my Nantucket Moby Dick coffee mug

I'm already contemplating the next prayer journal and have decided I need one that will withstand water media so I can play with some color. I've signed up for the 2015 Documented Faith Project and have a mixed media journal already set aside for that-really excited to begin that for the New Year!

 

I also received this in the mail yesterday:

 

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE! I've been wanting a Lutheran Study Bible for quite a while but some are fairly expensive--and HUGE! This is a personal size, was reasonably priced, and I am head over heels in LOVE already!!

I'm about to finish up my fourth Bible, Max Lucado's Inspirational Study Bible, a gift from a friend--oh how I love Max's Bibles! But I'm definitely looking forward to this new journey through the Lutheran Study Bible--so many notes and study applications--I am a Bible nerd!!

 

So, all right--some Scripture doodles from the prayer journal this past month:

 

  

 

 

And beginning Advent inspiration:

 

 

Just a couple more quickies--I've made some bookmarks to share with participants of my New Year's journey through Charles Swindoll's Grace Awakening. So far the plan is to start January 3, working weekly through the book and accompanying workbook (oh my gosh, how I love a workbook! LOL!) If you wish to join me for the study, just shoot me an email and let me know. I will add you to my mailing list for the study and send out reminders as we get closer to starting in January! Oh! The bookmarks:

Front and back
 

And finally, a quick tile coaster I'd made for my friend, Jenny of Jenny's Sketchbook (so super talented, give the link a click to enjoy her artwork!):

Scripture coaster tiles available for purchase-email me!

And that's all I have to share this time! Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and I would be so excited to have you join me for the Grace Awakening study, so give a holler and we will share!! Do pop on over to Dawn's journal party for more journal love!

Until next time,

xoxo

A Thought from the Cross

Sometimes I can be super slow on the uptake, especially when it comes to symbolism. I have a friend, Noel, who is a voracious reader and is incredibly keen with finding and getting the symbolism in what she reads. Myself? Yeah, not so much. I let myself get lost in the beauty of the story, happy to gloss over anything deeper--but I often think how much might I really be missing if I don't press myself to dig for greater understanding? Wouldn't it bring the stories to a fuller life?

So this morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks--and don't even ask me how it came to me other than the Spirit gave me this shining tidbit of light. How many times have we heard and read the story of Christ's crucifixion? About a gazillion times since we began Sunday school and especially as Easter and Good Friday rolled around, right? It occurred to me just this morning, these two criminals hung on either side of our Lord, truly represent humanity--are we not as guilty and deserving of their death as they are? Do we not all sincerely fall short of the glory of God?

The guy on the left is insulting Christ, taunting Him to prove Himself before the crowd. He represents the world of unbelievers--doubting, accusing, hostile and angry. The guy on the right represents Christ's followers--he knows his guilt, he is full up certain he is deserving of his sentence. He is also completely sure of who Christ is: righteous, innocent, his only hope of salvation. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." -Luke 23:42

Which side of the cross are you on?

"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

~Luke 23:43

 

Thanks be to God.

Random Journal Day #45

Well, hi there! It's hard to believe two months have passed since my last post (which was September's RJD link up!) And I have a TON of pics to share since I haven't been posting, so I really hope you'll bear with me and forgive me for not keeping up with my weekly Wednesday postings....Life has just taken off on a new turn, I've been limiting my time on the computer in an effort to accomplish more...more. Some days it works. Some days, well, not so much. I have been sharing pics on Instagram and Twitter--which flows over to Facebook....but I am certainly overdue for a blog update! And! If you read on 'til the end, I will catch ya'll up to speed on what is happening next here in Dawn's world! But first--happy Random Journal Day #45! Here's what I've been doing since September:

So, back in February, I began prayer journaling in a simple Daler Rowney sketchbook that I picked up super cheap at the local Walmart (my home away from home...) and here I am in November still at it. I've maybe gotten about two thirds of the way through the journal, so I shall carry on with this praying/doodling adventure! Here are the Scripture doodles I've done these past two months (yeah, there's a LOT!):

Some of the pics aren't so great, but lighting at four in the morning is far from optimal...So! The big exciting news! My sweet friend, Alex, has been encouraging me to take all of this to the next level. I have just bought a couple coffee mugs and a small stack of ceramic of tiles to doodle Scripture and quotes on for coaster sets. I've also bought some ceramic ornaments to doodle Christmasy sayings on as well, and I'm hoping to get some lettering opportunities addressing Christmas card lists or wedding/special occasion invitations--and I've started a new blog (oh yes, here I go again....) over at The Blueberry Loft. You can click on the link to see some of what I'm doing there and I have a couple quick pics to share here (yes, more pics!)

Some addressing samples (not real addresses!) for Christmas cards--please drop me a line if you're interested in having me do your envelopes this year!

I'm still happily mail arting and this little envie was from a Halloween swap for the Postal Society

 

And finally a zentangled postcard for another mail swap...

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit! I hope you enjoyed all the pics and I look forward to seeing you over at the Loft! And do pop on over to Enthusiastically, Dawn for more happy journal love!