Yesterday I shared that the seminar I attended back in the fall I feel was God's prerequisite to the finding of Mary's journal for this year. I feel He further confirmed that when I went through the pages Mary sent me to go along with the journal. She sent me some of the pages that actually came from the book that she altered for the journal and one of the pages was the title page for the book which had a apple tree scene on it! When I saw that page, the hair on the back of my neck just stood on end!! I believe I shared with you how we went to an apple orchard, which was all a part of the healing process in this seminar. I KNEW I was going to use that on the inside cover of my journal!!
The seminar I took was by an amazing woman of God, Heidi Finar! Heidi is a devout Christian who is also a personal trainer, exercise class instructor and behavior change consultant. Not to mention she is a dynamic speaker and beautiful woman inside and out! I am coupling her book "God is in Your Full-Length Mirror" with my Take Me Deeper Journal for a complete transformation not just for 2015 but for a lifetime! I encourage you to go to Heidi's website here and learn more about her and I can't impress upon you enough to read her FABULOUS book! It will challenge you to go deeper in your relationship with the Lord to experience lasting victory not just over food and fitness, but ANY obstacle in your life!
In her book, Heidi uses a Life Tree model to explain the dynamics in human behavior. She states, "The fruit of the tree are behavior that we see evident in our lives. Galatians 5 lists the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. The trunk of the tree represents our lifestyles and habits and the roots of the tree represent values, attitudes and beliefs." She further says, "If I see bad fruit at the top of my tree (negative behavior, sadness, fear, anger disappointment), cutting the bad fruit off will not solve my problem. With the same roots, trunk and branches remaining, I will yield the same fruit again during the 'next harvest'" The fruit of your tree is an outward sign of an inward problem!!! So that means, the solution to your bad behavior (assuming you have any) is "root deep!" That's why the Take Me Deeper journal this year is so poignant and meaningful! I want to go deeper with the Lord to get to the root of my problems and cut them off at the root!! So, hence the apple orchard excursion we went on! It was awesome revelation to me!!!
I simply cut out that tree and used some gelatos to give a little color to the photo and then cut out the saying "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold!" How awesome is that! God's Word says in Luke 6:45 that "the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." If you have a right relationship with the Father, your fruit will be apples of gold! So I used gold Stickles on the apples for color and then I loved that the picker she was using looked like a heart at the end, so I used red Stickles on that apple to represent the apple of the Lord!! I used watered down Sundown Magenta Daler-Rowney Pearlescent Ink for the background and then just took a couple of my Crafters Workshop stencils, branches and ferns and applied Distress Ink in Walnut Stain and Peeled Paint through them. I then stamped "Hope" on as well as applied the "Be Free" sticker that sweet Mary included in my package. I had a old Goodwill find to punch out some of the words that I want to be a result of going deeper with the Lord this year!
The first page that Mary put in the journal was a ledger page with "365" at the top! Coincidence? I don't think so! How awesome is that? So I applied some Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Chartreuse through the Tim Holtz Harlequin Layering Stencil for the background and then along the bottom I stamped using an old Prima floral stamp that I have in my stash with various colors. Along the right side stamped a number stamp (thinking of the days of the year) in Archival black ink and then fussy cut out the word Liberty and a beautiful steeple that was in the papers Mary sent me along with the word Freedom that I stamped on book page. My sister sent me that cute cross stamp for Christmas so I also stamped it on book page, cut it out and applied.
My heart for you this year is that you will take the time to go deeper in your relationship with our Father in Heaven! Even if you don't participate in the journal challenge, search yourself for where you would like God to take you this year! He loves you and wants you to know Him more! As Heidi points out in her book, getting to the root of the matters in your life can bring about the process for LASTING CHANGE! I want that, how about you?
Blessings upon you as you make your lifestyle declarations today!
Felicia, I love the inside, the word hope and all the others are great, they are so promising, like only good things can happen during 2015. And freedom, artistically freedom is so important, to be able to create and to grow!
ReplyDeleteOhhhh Ruth, you are SO right! You hit the nail on the head! I have learned so much through my art creativity about myself and where I want to go! We are deep people "us art folk!" LOL! Thanks for the love! :) Blessings
DeleteFelicia, how cool that some of the random papers I stuck in your pack and in your journal have significance for you! I love what you are doing with your pages!
ReplyDeleteRandom, but lead by the Lord! Thank you SO much Mary! It's so AWESOME to see God at work! Thank you again and blessings! :)
DeleteGreat analogy with the tree - so true! Love your freedom page - I've featured 365 in a recent project too! I will be fascinating to see you fill that journal with creativity and wisdom!
ReplyDeleteZsuzsa, my friend, you are just the sweetest! I hope my creativity does bring about a spot of inspiration or wisdom that leads someone right back to my Father in Heaven! If not for Him, I'd be lost! How cool that you featured a 365 in your project as well! The atmosphere is sparking! :) Blessings to you dear friend! :)
DeleteIts just so true that we have to have to cut off the wrong roots and grow right ones, or rather be rooted deeply in the Lord. Going Deeper is going to be a really amazing journey for us this year. Love your journal and page.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Susan! I look forward to the journey this year! What's so cool about it, is that I have spoken to several, several people about just that thing and we all seem to be hearing the same thing from the Lord! I love when that happens! God is good! :) Blessings to you!
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