Love Yourself!

Good Thursday, all my crafty friends!! Well yesterday, here in the south, was just glorious!! We saw sunny skies and I was able to put the sunroof back and take in all that beautiful sunshine and "spring time-ish" air! But alas, today it is back to the gloomy and looking like rain! I think we need the gloom days to remind us of the awesomeness of the glorious days!! I won't complain of the rainy days leading up to spring and summer here in the south! We see hot, dry summers, A LOT, so rain is so welcome to the land so as to bring in a magnificent spring and summer! Hope all is well in your part of the country....and enjoy the gloomy days because that only means a glorious day is around the corner!!! :)

Well, as of today.....I AM CAUGHT UP!!!!! YAY ME!!!!!! I feel so good knowing my journal challenges and my tag challenges are finally caught up and now I just have to get back on board with my ATC challenges that I have opted out of for a few months!  I love all the challenges I am involved in because they stretch me on so many levels. Only problem is, if that was ALL that I had to do in my life, that would be fine!! LOLOLOL!!! Unfortunately, my employers want me to work and my husband and kids want me to feed them, wash their clothes and clean their home!!! Hmmmmmmm......what's a girl to do??? LOL

I am sharing today, Week 4 of His Kingdom Come's February's Take Me Deeper Journal challenge. If you will recall, I had noted that February's theme was love and each week was a different kind of "love." This week was "Love Yourself!" Wow, that's a hard one for sooooooo many people! A lot of people have a hard time "speaking" about loving themselves because they don't want to seem haughty or conceited. But that, my friend, is not a spirit that comes from the Lord! That's the flesh! If we are "in Christ," then we ought to love ourselves as Christ did on the cross and does daily!! The magnitude of the work on the cross is SO that God the Father could see us "through" the eyes of His Son, Jesus, through the blood, making us pure, holy and righteous!! As such, we are to CLAIM those things and who we are because of Christ!! When you see yourself as God the Father does, then you can truly love yourself!

I started this page with gesso, because quite honestly, I wasn't sure at first where I was going with this page. Initially, I had an idea, but God took me a whole other way! How many times has that Happened to you? If it does, heed to it because in the end, you will be blessed! I am on the Praise & Worship Team at church so I'm always singing something, but I also ALWAYS have a song in my heart because the Lord is in my heart. So I decided to cut up some sheet music and lay it down in various spots. Then I took a stencil, I think from Heidi Swapp, and sprayed some Lindy's Stamp Gang in Autumn Maple Crimson through it. I put Finnabair's Heavy Gesso mixed with some Perfect Pearls from Ranger's Aged Patina Kit through Rhonda Palazzari's Well Rounded stencil. I used the green pearls powder, not sure what it is called, but it just turned grey.....you live and learn.....but I liked it ok in the end! 

It was then that the Lord began to speak to me about what He wanted me to do. So, I found this AWESOME picture on the internet of someones depiction of Jesus's eyes. So I cut it out and mod podged it on my journal page. I then brought out my Faber-Castell Gelatos and tried to paint over the photo to bring it onto the page and make the colors pop. I then mixed together some liquitex inks to get the blood drippage look I wanted for the photo and dripped it down exactly where the fabulous artist who did this page did it. Then I gave the photo some shadow with my charcoal pencil.

I brought out my favorite Tim Holtz Worn Text alpha stamps and stamped my sentiment, "I am In Christ." And then I stamped some of the things "I am" around the page with my cheapo set of alpha stamps. Obviously these aren't "exclusive," there are SO MANY things I am in Christ, but I just didn't have enough room!!! LOL I doodled here and there and then highlighted the main sentiment with my white gel pen. I also spelled "freedom" with some alpha stickers down the side of the picture, which is also my Logos365 word for the year. Voila!

When you KNOW who you are in Christ, there is a powerful "freedom" that you live in!! You can also LOVE YOURSELF when you KNOW who you are in Christ! I am always ministering to my daughter about the fact that it is key to know and walk in who you are in Christ to combat the enemies tactics that he tries to throw at you on a daily basis! The enemy knows who you are in Christ, DO YOU???

My friends, there is a spirit of pride attached to not seeing others or yourself as God the Father does! Pride divides and excludes....Love provides and includes!  God accepts ALL of us...the bad, the good and the ugly and sees us through the blood of Jesus!! So should you! :))))

Be blessed!