Challenge #10 Mustard Seed Faith

Good morning and welcome to another challenge from Mustard Seed Faith. Diane Noble has written our devotional for this challenge and her writing is always inspiring and biblically centered. Please go there to read her thoughts on the virtue of planning and what the bible has to say about that.

Her challenge was to create anything to do with summer so I chose a beachy theme and did a layout of swimsuits. I made a background using some of the new distress oxide inks from Ranger and chose yellow and blue which also, when spritzed with water, created a green shade as well. When I was little we had a backyard pool and the main colors I associated with it were the blue of the sky and water, the green grass we would run on to get to the pool and the bright yellow sun in the sky.

I know it took a lot of planning on my parents' part to put up that pool. It was an above ground pool and my dad would have to level the ground first, then put up the pool and each year check for and patch any leaks in the liner. He would have to fill it with water and use chlorine to keep the water clean, skim out bugs and leaves. He put in a lot of planning and a lot of work so we could enjoy our summers.

There are a lot of things we have to plan way in advance to try to ensure life will run smoothly. And there are times those plans fly out the window because God pulls us in a different direction. I recall a summer exactly five years ago, almost to the day, when our plans took a radical turn. My husband was hospitalized and had three stents put in his heart. The summer changed, eventually our residence changed, relationships changed and his habits changed. My husband had always been very focused on trying to discern God's will for his life but after that event it became an even higher priority. He spent a lot of time in prayer before but even more now. Because as Diane says in her devotional, our ultimate goal in all of our planning should be to try to give God the glory. That is our hope with our blog. We would love it if you would stop by and participate in our challenge. Wishing you a blessed week.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink. Ink: Ranger distress oxide inks, archival black; Paper: Neenah solar white, PTI white linen, watercolor; Other: patterned paper scraps, copic markers, glitter, MFT pierced rectangle dies, glossy accents.