One benefit from living like the time is short is that it gives you an appreciation for the present.
To live more in the moment.
To see the challenges, disruptions, and setbacks in new light – grace upon grace.
Winter will surely give way to spring, and night to day. We can look toward to the goodness promised but don’t miss the joy available to us in the moment.
Our God is near! Endure patiently; expectantly. Keep praying and lean on His strength.
be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Colossians 1:9-12
Process and products used:
These pages in the NIV Journal the Word Bible features the following products by Creative Worship Stamps. These are affiliate links, please see the Privacy Policy for details.
I started by stamping the flowers from Mindful Magnolias onto mixed media paper. I coloured them using watercolour paint and, after they dried, I cut them out by hand, but there is a coordinating die set: Mindful Magnolias die set.
Next, I created the background by applying blue ink using a blending brush. I went over that using the Messy Blocks stencil and applied white acrylic paint using a sponge. Then, I stamped the flowers again over that using blue ink. And, I added the word “JOY” using the Peace Joy Love stencil.
I glued the painted flowers to the page. Then, I stamped “endure patiently” from the Mindful Magnolias set. I typed up the words following that onto sticker paper and added them to the page, outlining them using a black pen to match the black ink stamped.
I stamped the other sentiments using the Hope Blooms stamp set. Then, I finished the page by highlighting the text using a blue marker, and adding some white paint splatters.
Be encouraged
🎶 breath by breath ~ Lydia Laird
We are all waiting for something.
There is always something that is off, something short of the ideal, something desired and pursued. And, when we get that something, there will be something else to wait for. I am prone to having an idealistic nature, so I’ve been there and have learned two important lessons.
Firstly, don’t be so quick to judge yourself as a perfectionist. Maybe you’ve been called that before and it wasn’t meant as a compliment. Listen – no one goes to the dentist and says “do what you can”. No one hires an architect and is accepting of a crooked house. No – excellence is expected and that is different from perfectionism. God is excellent and, as His image bearers, we should also aspire to excellence. At the same time, we cannot expect that in a fallen world that is far from God’s ideals. And, as image-bearers, we will see all the brokenness and they should bring us to our knees.
Secondly, whatever I didn’t have and was waiting for was meant to grow my faith. To teach me to endure – undergo, remain under, and persevere. That means not wanting the discomfort to be over already. Not wanting the problem to be resolved so that I can get what I desired. But to surrender to the wait and what it held. Yet, not just endure the wait, but to do so patiently and with joy. For, He who promised is faithful.
There are many promises in the bible of what results from obedience. However, be sure that what you are waiting for is actually promised. His promises inform our prayers.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Hebrews 12:1–3
