Praise God

As I was journaling this morning I realized that stress is trying to crowd into my peaceful days again. It doesn't help that the gray days are hanging around too. They make good company for each other but not for me.

I fell asleep last night praying, trying to give it all to God. I'm still not very good at this part but I seem to get lots of practice so maybe someday I will get it figured out. Then this morning I woke up early and started journaling and decided to read the Girlfriends in God daily devotional that comes in my mailbox everyday. Guess what it was all about? You guessed it, stress and praising God during times of stress.

Here is a portion of what Mary had to say about it:

I began to understand that praise is not a feeling. Praise is a choice, a step of obedience taken without the assurance of a changed circumstance or the elimination of a trial. Praise focuses on God not the circumstances, and fixes it's gaze upon God's truth and God's character instead of the trial at hand or just ahead. That is why we can celebrate the battle before it begins. The outcome is neither our responsibility nor our goal. Praise begins and ends with faith in the very nature, personality and integrity of God...and never changes.

You can read the whole devotional here.

I may not have life all figured out or be very good at giving all my stuff to Him, but I can praise Him and thank Him for what He is doing and will do. Mary is right, it is a choice and not a feeling or emotion. I choose to praise Him today.

Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Journal case

If you have followed along this journey I have been on to find the perfect journal to work in, you know that I figured out what works for me. I make a signature each month of Stonehenge paper and when I have 6 months worth I bind it in a journal cover that I create. Quite often, I carry my signature with me in my purse and it can end up with bent pages because I toss things in on top of it as I am out and about. I decided that I needed a cover to keep the signature a little more protected and so I made this slip cover case that is just big enough for my monthly signature to fit into. It is made of drill cloth that I painted and sewed together with a zig-zag stitch.

I also added a snap closure.

Easy smeezy.

This is the inside and you can see it is just the right size for my signature.

The back

Did you notice that I changed my blog look?
I got inspired and decided to change it up a bit.

Quick journal pages

Some days I don't have any time to sit and take two hours art journaling. Some days I only have ten minutes. When that happens I use this quick exercise to get my thoughts on the page and express myself artistically. I used a 6B pencil to write as fast as possible what I was thinking about and then I used my watercolor crayons to draw an image over the top and then painted over the crayon with a water brush. It is not meant to look perfect just to express myself in the time I had.

This page I just glued down all the stuff I picked up on my birthday. I really love pages that show my days. No one else has a page like this because they didn't do those exact things on that day, at least I don't think another art journaler was stalking me :) And if you take your journal with you and a glue stick, you can stick them down as you go.

Sing a new song

As I was journaling this morning I realized something about myself. It is something I have known for a while but it keeps popping up and I act surprised every time. As I was thinking about Fall, since next Wednesday will be September 1st, I was looking forward to getting on a schedule. I always feel this way by the end of August. It is like eating too much rich food, it is fun for a short time but eventually eating regular meals becomes much more appealing. So after a summer of lazy days, I long for structure and a schedule. The problem I am having this year is that the whole year has been like summer. A lot of uncertainty and unknowns. Waiting for a door to open or a clue as to where I should be devoting my time. Since my whole being relaxes with a schedule and focused certainty I am finding this year to be very stressful over nothing. I keep telling myself to take a chill pill and enjoy this time of rest and trust that God has it all handled. Too many years of running around like a crazy person from one crisis to another makes waiting just as challenging. Haven't we all heard to not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself. The actual practice of that is a lot more challenging than you think. But I was reading in Psalm 94-96 today and was struck by something.

Psalm 94:19

When doubts filled my mind,

Your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.

Psalm 95:6-7

Come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,

for He is our God

We are the people He watches over,

the sheep under His care.

Oh, that you would listen to His voice today!

Psalm 96:1

Sing a new song to the Lord

Let the whole earth sing to the LORD!

He is there watching over me waiting for me to turn my focus on Him and give Him the glory He deserves. I need to sing a new song because the old one is ....old. He is giving me a focused certainty, it is Him. All the other stuff that I have been waiting for comes out of the focus on Him. I hear Him telling me that he does have it covered and to just focus on Him and sing.

So what song are you singing to the Lord?

Do you need to sing a new song?

Where has your focus been?

These are all good journaling prompts as we head into September and a new season.

I was away this weekend celebrating my birthday. It feels like I have been celebrating all week, life's hard,hehe. I woke up Saturday to find a Dick Blick giftcard by my phone and it was used up by the end of the day. What can I say, I have no will power when it comes to art supplies. Pitt brush tip pens, Golden fluid acrylics and Stonehenge paper called my name loudly. I was also very happy to be able to go to their store in Seattle and not have to get on-line. I have so much more to say but I am blogging from my phone while I wait for my internet to be fixed and so I will tell more when I get a full size keyboard.

50 Things - # 42

I had two lovely ladies come to my house the other day and we played in my art studio. I was able to teach art journaling to these eager students. I wish we would have had more time but I was able to steer them in the right direction and give them a good start. It was so fun that it got me thinking about having an open art journaling time at my home. Hmm, I will have to see where that idea takes me.

Just a test

I am trying out mobile blogging to see if I can blog from my phone.