Reflect Sunday | A Thankful Heart

 It's Sunday! I hope you are having a day filled with beautiful little moments (and maybe an afternoon nap!). This morning I woke up in a hotel room with my youngest daughter Addison as we are in the middle of a girls trip! I LOVE one on one time with my girls, I think it is so important to really take the time with the special people in your life.

One of the things I love the most about this journaling bible process is that it is so easy when you are on the go! Just pack up your bible, your favorite journaling pen, a couple alpha stickers,  some watercolors and your favorite stamps and you are ready to go! You could create for days with a handful of supplies.    And even though there is so much gained by attending a church, sitting on the ground next to the huge window in our hotel room, with my little one snuggled up in her blanket playing with her penguin and me with my bible... there was really no other place I would have rather been this morning.

gratitude documented stamp set

When Studio Calico asked me to design a stamp set for my next class - gratitude documented, I was keeping in mind how I might use this set with my bible, because lets face it, PERFECT MATCH! So for the next 6 weeks we will be focusing on an attitude of gratitude. In today's society it is so easy to think we need more, or our friend has this wonderful life and we are over here not living up to their standards. My friends, God doesn't call us to live up to their standards, but his. He has given us exactly what we need. That isn't to say that we can sit back and allow God to do the work, but we do need to be thankful for what we are given.

In my class we will be diving deeper into the idea of gratitude (so if you want a more in depth look please join us) but I wanted to share some samples of how we might do that here as well.

Supplies | journaling pen | thankful stamps | watercolors | date stamp | bible | thankful cards | 

This week I decided to focus on 1 Thessalonians 5:18 which reads, "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Chris Jesus for you".  I love that is says "in all circumstances' it doesn't say when you get the "right" job or meet Mr. Right, is says in ALL circumstances. Which lead me to want to create a space where I can really see how my gratitude evolves by leaving room to document that gratitude in the coming years. So imagine my surprise when I opened my bible this morning to see this lovely 1/2 page of space to work with (since it was at the end of 1 Thessalonians). So if you are working in the same ESV journaling bible you will find that space as well, but if you are working in a difference format this is still do-able! Just take the column you normally journal in and create a space that you can document a couple sentiments for 2014-2016 (or longer if you wish). 

So what do you say, will you join me in documented your gratitude in this very important season of your life? Let's celebrate the little things while focusing on the word together. 

go.be.inspired. 

Shanna

Illustrated Faith | A Mother's Prayer Journal

Guys. Seriously. I am floored. I can't believe the response, stories, testimonies I am hearing on a daily basis about how you are using your creativity in a way that is drawing you closer to your relationship to God. Thank you so much for sharing, in exchange I wanted to open the door on this recent discovery of mine, something I started as a branch of my journaling bible.

I bought this traveler's notebook thinking that I would use it as a art journal sort of thing, but I suppose that never inspired me enough to get started because it just sat there. Then as I was exploring the idea of a journaling bible the thought of being creative in my prayer life really sparked something. I wanted to have one place to document the prayers that I pray over my children on a daily basis. My intentions aren't to document every single prayer obviously, but to have a book I could hand off to each one of my children when they are adults. 

My mother in law is a prayer warrior, I know that wherever I go her prayers have already been. In fact she was praying for me before I ever met Jonathan as she would pray for his future wife when he was only a child.  Prayer doesn't come as easily to me, my prayers are often short and sweet are rarely shared with others. Even though I pray with my children, I want them to know that they are on my mind constantly. When I walk by their messy rooms in the morning I pray for their day at school when I pack their lunches I pray for their friends, when I give them that final kiss at night after they are fast asleep I pray for their uniqueness and how I hope they hold on to that. 

Now that we have touched on the why, let's talk a little about the how; 

The reason I decided to use this journal is because I can use ONE notebook for each girl. You see these journals allow you to insert different notebooks within the same cover. My thought was as this project contrinues and books fill up I could set aside each notebook, one for Jaden and one for Addison and give them their very own journal filled with prayers. 

For the photos to include in the journal, I didn't want to put pressure on myself to take a new photo for the journal. I don't know about you but I have this little container filled with all the different photos I have from other projects that are either extras (I will often print more than one) or the wrong size etc. I decided just to use photos from this container for this instead. 

I decided to start the journal with two photos of the girls doing something that makes them happy, that is uniquely them.  I find that is what I pray the post about that they continue to SHINE in the way God made them. I want them to know I SEE THEM, I see their unique characters that make them so special. I then selected the "love this" stamp from Ali Edwards. 

I kept it very simple from there, just adding a bit of washi tape at the top to hold it down. I then used my journaling pen to jot down some lines and journaled my prayers out on top of them. I made sure to use a date stamp at the top so as the girls look back at these they will have some context as to when it was. 

What I love about this idea is that it was very easy to duplicate for Jaden's notebook. I did all the same steps only adding a unique prayer for each child. This workflow would work for any number of children. I have some ideas on a marriage prayer journal as well, but there are some different ideas I wanted to share there, so that will be saved for a different day! 

Supplies: versafine ink | acrylic block | washi tape | stamp | notebook | journaling pen | date stamp 

Thank you so much for joining me today, I hope you have an wonderful day!

go.be.inspired.

Shanna