Scripture Journaling!

Okay, I love it!!

Scripture Journaling is soooo fun. You have got to try it! I seriously want to teach classes in this. There are so many techniques and it is so individual. It has given me new insights and a renewed desire to read my scriptures every single day!! I just can't wait to see what I will learn and thereby imagine into my scripture pages. It is super fun and I find myself thinking about my scriptures all the time. It really works!

Here is a page I journaled:

I truly love this story from 3rd Nephi! WHen Christ visits the Americas and blesses the children. How amazing would it have been to see this? It really inspires me to want to live so that when He comes again, I can be there, I can see and feel and witness such miraculous moments!

Your journal wo n't look like mine. That's the fun of it. You will find different things and depict them in different ways. Some I  just use words and quotes. Others, pictures.  I am inspired to find conference talks to go along with what I am reading and I use things from those. I LOVE IT!!

I want to start a scripture journaling class...what do you think?

Life

I have not had much time to journal this week, but I have taken some time to sketch and play with color. It is simply my lifeline and my sanity! But as I was contemplating what to add, this is the thought that came to me. I hope it is inspiring and can help anyone else who may be 'enduring'.

I am in Utah helping my sister who just lost her husband of 36 years. Loss is hard, and especially hard for her. My sister is in a wheelchair. She has had so many challenges in her life, many I cannot even imagine facing, let alone making it through them in tact. But she does.

I remember when she met her husband and when they married. She was ecstatic and scared. I think she didn't feel anyone would want someone that was 'broken'. But he saw her spirit and beauty and he cherished her.

Through all the trials she has faced, she has a stronger testimony and understanding of the gospel than just about anyone I know. She is firm in that.

I remember her getting after me to go to church when I didn't want to, or to pray when I had a problem. On one occasion, I didn't feel my prayers were being heard. She taught me to imagine that I was with my very dearest friend, sitting beside him with my head in his lap and he may be stroking my hair or holding me as I pour out my feelings to him. This advice has never left me. My prayers changed. I felt 'heard'.

At death we stop and honor the one we love and lost. But I wanted to take a moment to honor the one that has lost and is taking the loss with such testimony, and with such a knowledge that they will be together again, and they will both be whole. She faces this with such joy.

Wow.

Life is still very difficult for her. Every day is a struggle. But she has the Lord with her every step of the way. She will be alright.

I am thankful for sisters...

 

Live Creative,

Amy

 

Being Accepted

I was on a trip with a friend. we were talking about life things and worries. I realized in our conversation how much we try to please people in our lives. We worry about how we are dressed because we want to create a good impression. We try to do a good job at work so our boss will like us. We create art that is trendy or what people will want. It is our nature.

I always try to read before I go to bed, and that night I was reading scripture when I came across a talk (not in the scriptures but in my notes) about being acceptable to God. We run around trying to please people in all parts of our lives, which is a good thing, but we forget to put God in the equation. Are we doing things that would be acceptable to Him?

I have found in my own life, if I am doing the things that make me acceptable to God, then everything else seems to work out, the friends, the job, the art, the kids...all of it. Of course it is not problem free, and many times I wondered if it was really working, but there is a confidence inside me that is not there otherwise. And there are promises from God if we are doing those things that make us acceptable. And God always keeps His word. He really does.

So I will try to do what is acceptable to God and let him take care of the rest.

Here is a link to that talk. https://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/05/being-accepted-of-the-lord?lang=eng

Here is my journey today...

Youth Conference 2015

We had such a great Youth Conference this year and I wanted to send thank yous out to all our wonderful Youth Council who took time out of very busy schedules to help plan this. Thank you to leaders who who worked so hard planning and preparing and making this happen behind the scenes! Thank you to ward leaders who came with such enthusiasm and really made the stations fun!

Testimony meeting was great! You are all so incredible! I am the luckiest person on earth to get to work with such amazing women (thanks, girls!) and youth! And I am so fortunate to belong to a church where the men are so honorable and fun and a credit to what being a true example of a man is all about. You guys are great!

So, I quickly sketched a little thank you. Let's all emabark and make things happen! Thanks, all!!

A Good Life

I love my life! Just how it is. That doesn't mean I have the perfect life or that everything is working out the way I want it to. But I have such a good life! And I know everyday that God is involved. I really love that part!

Now, I don't know about you, but there is no way I could navigate all this on my own! I am so happy to have help, a backup, some advice. And if I listen closely I can actually feel the direction that comes. That makes my life happy. Knowing someone is there watching and helping...and believe me do I ever need help!

Isn't is such a comfort to know you really aren't in all this alone? It makes it easier somehow. Not that the problems get easier, but the worry and the sadness and the stress that comes with those problems is so much easier, lighter. It just makes life good....

Here is today's journey...

A New Journey

Hi all!
Welcome to my new journey! Well, actually an old journey with new techniques and better than ever designs! I am so excited to take on this new venture.

I don't know how it is for you, but for years I had this little voice in my head and a yearning in my spirit calling to me. No matter what I did to try to avoid the voice, it would not leave me. It was the voice calling me to the world of art.

Now, in my younger days I dreamed of being an artist. Of doing all those artisty things like drawing,  painting, writing, and had been encouraged by many teachers to do so. But something in my inner being made me deny it.  you've heard the term 'starving artist'? But lately I have had to make some tough choices in considering what to do for employment and what I wanted the rest of my tomorrows to look like. It may be empty nester syndrome, but I think not. I think it is something better, something undeniable.

So, I want you to join me, literally join me! I want to share ideas and adventures as we soar into tomorrow together. Come play with me! Whether we share online or in a class, come and play. I think we can have enormous fun together!

Here is my journey for today...