Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge 63 . . . Whatever is Pure

Happy Sunday stampers! Today's hostess for the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge is the lovely Linda from down under, with this verse from Php 4:8 "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

This comes across the bow like a breath of fresh air! The national news is nothing if not depressing and personally the news on the home front reads like a soap opera. It is impossible to ignore when you have sick relatives or friends, your husband comes home to report that it was his turn to be downsized, the bills pile up and new ones appear like magic but not the income . . . and on and on and on.

Are we supposed to ignore those things? No, problems don't just disappear if you hide under a rock. But when you run to the rock and cling to the rock and build your hope, your foundation upon that rock, that's when these news reports take their proper place in the shuffle of your life. And in the midst of planning and doing what you can to help and to solve life's problems, it helps to turn your perspective to the refreshing thoughts that emerge from a verse like the one above.

What is true? God loves me. I know this because the entire bible is his love song to me and to the rest of the world about his great gift of salvation. The truth is He created me and has a purpose for my life even on those dark days when you feel like you're slogging through the mud.

What is honest? God is always honest, He cannot lie, whereas satan is the father of lies. Shoo him away!!! That's the voice inside of you telling you to give up hope. Never listen to that voice, listen instead to the voice that is true and honest and gives you eternal hope.

What is pure, what is lovely? God fits both of those descriptions and if you look around you can find in almost any environment those things that He created that are pure and lovely. Look at a seashell, a snowflake, a determined flower growing through the cracks of an urban sidewalk . . . a sunset glowing with color, the smile on a baby's face in the grocery store checkout line just ahead of you. It helps immensely to take a break, to spend time in prayer contemplating those aspects of God's character that fit that verse and those things that he created that refresh and renew our minds. The verses preceding and just following verse 8 talk about experiencing God's peace. Refreshing our mind in the Lord will help us find that peace in the midst of the turmoil of this world.

So this week's challenge is for you to create an all white or all cream card, a monochrome in pure tones. As you can see I had a bit of difficulty making mine completely pure. I tossed in cream with my white and then added some metallics and pink. A little bit of color is okay {I think, this isn't my turn to be challenge hostess so Linda has the final word on this}.

But I do know that we are greatly looking forward to seeing your lovely creations in our gallery, you can link up your card on the home page. And our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp which carries tons of things for papercrafting and a wide variety of the Magnolia Tildas, one of which I used on my card. Thanks for looking and have a great week.

I also am posting this card to the challenge this week at North Ridge Media's Create blog challenge for this week to put ruffles on your creations. I took a piece of pink ribbon for the background, threaded a needle and just made large basting stitches and gathered it all in. Then to emphasize it a bit more I added a ruffly sort of edge punch on swirled vellum on either side of the ribbon.