30 Days Of Bible Lettering Challenge (First Five Days)

It's always fun to challenge yourself.  On Instagram I love to participate in various lettering challenges.  Last month (February) I enjoyed participating in a watercolor challenge. I did my best but  I missed most of the days due to always being busy or running out of inspiration. But I did my best and you can see the few watercolor creations I made on my Instagram: @uniquelyhis4ever.  If you haven't followed me yet on Instagram, I'd love it if you'd give me a follow, I try to post daily.  

This month I'm excited to be participating in round 4 of the 30 Days of Bible Lettering challenge.  If you haven't heard of this lettering challenge I encourage you to check out the 30 Days of Bible Lettering website.  It's never too late to join in the challenge.

Believe it or not, it's already five days into March, which means, I have five Bible verses lettered. I'm really excited to share with you all the the first five verses I lettered for this challenge.

Day one - "Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance." Romans 5:3

Day two - "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Matthew 5:4

Day Three - "As it is written, 'I have made you the father of many nations'—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." Romans 4:17

Day four - "Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Ephesians 5:1-2

Day Five - "In God, whose word I praise-- in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?" Psalm 56:4

I wish I could say I'm always on top of things but to to be honest with you, most of the time I find myself falling behind on these challenges.  All I can do is to do my best.  There is no shame in having a day dedicated to catching up on all the days I missed.

I can't wait to see what verses I will be able to letter next in this challenge.  I'll be sure to post more as continue working on the challenge. 

Here I am, Lord, Send Me

"And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?' Then I said, 'Here I am, send me.' " - Isaiah 6:8 

Hello!  I'm back.  It's a new year! I wish I could say that it's going to be a better year for my blog and that I will be posting more regularly.  I promise, I will try. But one thing I'm learning is that I have no control over each day.  I make plans, but it is God's plans that ultimately succeed.  It's already halfway through January and this week is the first week in a long time that actually feels normal.

I am beyond blessed in so may ways this new year.  This morning I had a wonderful quiet time with God as I read Isaiah 6.  Lately, I have been struggling with my morning devotions.  But God was very near to me this morning as I studied His word. Isaiah isn't the easiest book to understand but with the help of a commentary God revealed to me so many little nuggets of truth from His word. I just have to share.

It was with a humble heart Isaiah willingly cried out to God, 'Here I am, send me.' He was ready and willing to do whatever God would ask of him. But it was only after Isaiah realized how unworthy he was and after God cleansed him that he was ready to serve God in this way.

Just like Isaiah, we need to be humbled before we can be used by God.  God isn't looking for mighty men and women who are capable of everything and never fail.  God wants the willing, the humble, the weak.  He wants sinners saved by His amazing grace.  Each day I am in awe at how amazing God is and disgusted at how unworthy I am.  But God loves me even though I fail Him everyday.  And God loves you no matter how far you think you have fallen.

God doesn't look for those who are equipped.  I love the saying,  'God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called.'  God is looking for volunteers, not robots.  When we humbly cry out to God with a willing heart God hears and God answers.  God wants to use you.  He wants to use me. But we need to be willing to go wherever it is that God will take us.

 Oh, may that be my cry also, "God teach me to be humble. Thank you for saving me even though I don't deserve Your love. Fill me Lord with a willing spirit that longs to do Your will. May I cry out to you each day, here I am, Lord, send me."

DIY - Hand Lettered Ornaments

Even though I'm excited that Christmas season is finally here again, I'm sad to say that I'm little bit late in getting our Christmas decorations up this year.  Usually my family sets up everything for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  Well, I think Thanksgiving must have come early this year because it can't be Christmas season already?  

To be honest, it's really hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you don't have a tree yet. This weekend we are planning to find the perfect tree for our house but in the meantime, our house is lacking the Christmas feel.  

Well, anyway, each year I set up a small white tree in my room.  As I was setting up the tree the other day I realized that I wasn't happy anymore with the same decorations we use every year.  The tree needed something new this year. Grabbing all my lettering supplies I went to work on fixing this problem by creating my own homemade ornaments.

I decided to make these ornaments very simple.  Mainly because I didn't really want to spend all day making them. First, I simply cut out small squares and circles in thick card stock paper.

After I cut out the shapes I used my watercolor markers and wrote quotes from my  favorite Christmas songs on each cut out.  You can use any markers.  I enjoy using markers that have a brush tip so you can make your lettering look like calligraphy.  

I had fun thinking of creative ways to write out each one.  Once I finished I punched a small hole in the top and strung some cord through.

After I hung these ornaments on the tree I knew that these amazingly simple and fun ornaments were just what my tree was missing.  

Now to finish the rest of the Christmas decorating. Before long Christmas will be here and I'm already feeling overwhelmed at how fast time is flying by.  But I hope you have a blessed Christmas season, and I wish you joy as you tackle all the decorating. 

A Simple Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  The pumpkin pies are out of the oven and ready for tonight.  I'm doing my best at creating a gluten free apple pie crust. The house is beginning to smell like turkey and slowly but surely our Thanksgiving dinner is coming together.

This year's Thanksgiving for my family is simple.  No huge family reunion, it's just my family this year for Thanksgiving.  But I believe it's the simple things in life that are the most beautiful.

It's when we have little that we are able to look around and be thankful for much.  God has blessed me in so many ways this year and I can't wait to see how he will bless me even more in the year to come.

I hope this Thanksgiving you remember take the time to count your many blessings. There is always something to be thankful for each and every day.

"Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good his steadfast Love endures forever."  1 Chronicles 16:34

How To Memorize Scripture

"I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11

I have many fond memories of my family learning new bible verses to memorize each week. It's been years, but I can still remember the verses we learned.  It truly is amazing that our minds can recall all the things we learned years ago.  

It has been on my heart to memorize more scripture but I'm gonna be honest with you, I am not very good at it.  Multiple times I have started out memorizing a verse only to end up giving up about half way through.  Just this past month God has put it on my heart to memorized  Psalm 34.  This beautiful psalm has become very special to me... but to memorized the whole Psalm?  It seemed like an impossible task.  Why not just a few verses? If this was going to happen, I needed to come up with a method for memorizing scripture that actually worked.  

Well, I'm happy to say I found a way to memorize scripture that is successful!  I have not finished memorizing all of Psalm 34 yet, but I have memorized the first eight verses.  This is a huge accomplishment for me.  Here's how  I did it:

• The first step is commitment.  You have to be committed to actually taking the time out of each day to memorized and meditate on the verse(s).  

• When memorizing big scripture passages, or a whole chapter, take it small.  One verse at a time. Don't add the next verse until you are sure have the last verse down.  Sometimes I needed two days to meditate on the verse before I moved on.

• I am a very visual person.  Each night I would write out the verse I wanted to memorize in a fun creative way.  Then as I meditated on the verse the next day I had a picture in my mind to help me remember.

• Once you start putting the verses together it's no longer overwhelming.  Write out the whole scripture passage on paper a few times to help remember the order of the verses.  Repeat the verses over and over in your mind until you can say is smoothly.

And that's it!  That's my method for memorizing God's word.  Below I wanted to share with you all the lettering I created for each verse.   

"I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth, my soul makes its boast in the Lord, let the humble hear and be glad."

"Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together."

"I sought the Lord and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears."

"Those who look to Him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed."

"This poor man cried out to Him and the Lord saved him out of all his trouble."

"The angel of the Lord encamps around all those who fear Him and delivers them."

"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."

If you liked my lettering and want to see more please check out my Instagram account: @UniquelyHis4ever

Sharing Love One Leaf at a Time

I know fall officially started last month, but it really hasn't felt like fall until, well, about right now. The cooler weather has finally come!  And so has the beautiful color change in all the leaves on the trees.

Less than ten minutes away from where I live there is a neat place called Apple Hill.  If fall was a place you could go and visit it would be this place.  You can go and enjoy beautiful vista's while you munch on delicious apple pastries, and, my favorite, caramel apples!  

Since we live so close to this wonderful place I'm sad to say we hardly ever visit.  But today we packed a picnic lunch spent a lovely afternoon at one of the Apple Hill Farms.  As we were walking around looking at all the craft booths I started picking up all the pretty leaves I spotted on the ground. Soon I had a nice collection of fall leaves in many beautiful shades of yellow, red and orange.  An idea popped into my head and I took my marker and wrote little notes on each of the leaves I collected.

I wrote things like "Smile", and "you are loved", and "happy fall".  I also made a leaf pun; "I be-leaf in you".  

Next was the fun part.  As we were walking around I kept my eye's peeled for the perfect spot to place each leaf.  I looked for a spots that were out of the way enough so the leaves would not be stepped on, but I also didn't want the leaves to be hidden.  

Before long  my hands were empty and each leaf found a new home.  My sister even put one leaf inside one of the apple crates in the store.

I don't know if anyone will find these leaves, or if the wind will claim them.  Maybe they will get trampled on and forgotten.   But I hope that these leaves at least make one person smile. 

It was so much fun spreading love around in this unique way! My sister and I have decided to do this again on our next outing to Apple Hill.

Fall is Here

Fall is finally here!  I can't tell you in words how excited I am!  Oh how I missed you fall.  I'm so glad your back.  

I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte today to celebrate!  It was delicious, of course.  I need to find a good homemade recipe for  this drink.  I'll be sure to share it with you all once I find one.

I hope you all had a wonderful first day of fall.  Now I can wear my boots and scarfs and dream about pumpkin pie and everything else that comes with Fall.  

Let me know in the comments  what your favorite part about fall is, and what  your favorite fall drink is?

A Beautiful Hymn

"Come thou fount of every blessing, 

Tune my heart to sing thy Grace..."

Such beautiful words found in such a beautiful hymn. Tune my heart to sing thy grace. But a few days ago as my family was singing this hymn I asked myself, what does that mean, to have our hearts tuned?

I remember years ago when we had a piano tuner come to our house to tune our piano. He had to open up our piano and pull all of the strings until the piano sounded like it was supposed to. It took a few hours but once he was finished our piano sounded better than before. The music was pleasing to the ear because all the notes were tuned perfectly.

Just like the piano, our hearts need to be tuned. And who tunes our heart? God is the great heart tuner. Sometimes it's a long process, and sometimes the pulling of our heart strings may cause pain. But we cannot make music pleasing to God on our own accord. Our life song is just noise until we allow God to come inside and change us. 

Once we allow God to enter in and give him the okay to have his way in our life then He will get to work on tuning our hearts. In His perfect timing He makes our lives into a beautiful arrangement of his Grace.

Lord Jesus, make my life into a song that is pleasing to you. Lord, I want to live a life that brings glory and honor to your name.