Blessed.

We are blessed.

Over the past month I have been bombarded with stories about people who have a much harder life than I have. Here are a few examples:

-Watched "Hotel Rwanda" and saw all the lives of those people being torn apart.
-21 year old boy: mother and brother were shot in his presence when he was 5.
-21 year old girl: had a gun stuck in her mouth at the age of 4 and threatened to be shot.
-21 year old girl: husband of 1 year is filing for separation and kicking her out.
-Started reading Kate's Kisses which explains the lives of children in Uganda and the trials of living there.
-Read my cousin's blog about living in Africa and the daily struggles that brings.

And those are just a few examples. Yet I continue to complain at times. God has blessed me in so many ways. I have never seen anyone be killed, I have never been abused, I have never been 'hungry', I have never had to worry about money or where I was going to sleep at night. I have a WONDERFUL life.

Yet... I am distracted in this world of "comfort" and "easy". In Kate's Kisses the author talks about how going through all the trials without any 'comforts' caused her to fall on her knees before the Lord. It MADE her depend on Him. In this world where I have a 'wonderful' life I am never MADE to fall down. I am never without help from a worldly thing.

So yes I am blessed, yet at times I see those 6 year old children in Uganda as more blessed than me. They understand what it means to fully drop before the Lord and praise Him for ALL that He is since they have nothing else in their lives.

Burlap Wall Hanging

Burlap Wall Hanging
(just inspired)

I was going to do another craft from Pinterest which required a frame so I bought a cheap one from good will. I ended up getting inspired in another way and that original craft never happened. Maybe another day. But here is what came out instead!

Bought a cheap frame, felt, burlap, and wooden letters to spell whatever I wished, in this case...Family.

Painted the letters red (to match the felt) and the frame brown.

Lined the backing of the frame with burlap.
(I had never thought of burlap before as an option for decorating but am starting to love it more lately... and it's decently cheap!)

Made some more felt roses which you can see a tutorial on my previous post.

Hot glued everything on! DONE!

Twine Letters

Twine Letters

(inspired by Pinterest)

This craft was a bit time consuming but ended up really cute! I am very excited about it.

I started by outlining the letter with twine.

Then I wrapped the letter completely, hot gluing the twine on the back as I went.
It was kind of hard determining which was the twine should go and how to get it there.

The finished wrapped up letter.

Next... felt roses. Here's a quick tutorial.

Cut a 'wiggly' circle like below.
(I had started the next step when I took this picture)

Cut around the edge going towards the center so it becomes one long 'snake'.
Leave the end as a little circle. (See below)

Start rolling up the fabric starting at the end you started cutting.
You can change the look of the flower depending on how tightly you roll it.
Hot glue the bottom of the flower to hold it all in place.
Take the circle piece at the end and glue it to the bottom to make a finished look.

I made 2 flowers for this. The size of the flowers depends on the size of the original circle.

Then I cut a strip of the fleece and glued it on the back. SIMPLE!

FINISHED PRODUCT:

Reusable Makeup Removers

Reusable Makeup Removers

(inspired by LisaGrace Alsbury)

-----------------------------------------------------
Craft #3-- If you didn't see the other two crafts I've posted look below. There's one more to come as well...
-----------------------------------------------------
I go through around 1 tube of cotton rounds a month. They are about $2.00 a tube ($24.00 a year) and I just throw them away... not a way to save the planet!

So I saw this on another blog and decided to try it out! Nothing crazy and they aren't well made (because I made them so fast) but they will work.

Bought a 1/4 yard of FLANNEL.
Sewed right sides together into a long strip.

Turned it right side out.
Cut into small squares.

Did a quick seam down each side of the square and viola!

A completed square (don't judge me by the horrible side seams/cuts... I am a bit embarrassed by them)

I am simply putting them in a 'delicates' bag when I wash them. Hopefully these work.

Total cost: $0.68 for 30 pieces
Saved: $23.32 and a bit of the world :)

Easy Canvas Design

Canvas Design

(inspired by Pinterest)

I simply put drywall mud into a plastic bag, snipped the end off and squeezed it onto the canvas. Then once it dried I painted it all.


I did draw out the design before so I knew where to put the mud. It was also hard getting the mud to come out evenly so I may experiment with new types of pastes or something. The people I got the idea from said elmer's glue but I tried this and it did not work out.

The Reliability of the Bible

Steve Riggs, a doctor in the Cedar Falls area came and talked at Navigators the other night. He spoke about the reliability of the Bible and how we can trust that what we have today is what was originally written in the Bible. Here are a few things he stated.

Do Christians REALLY believe the Bible is the Word of God?

82% said "God helps those who help themselves" is the most widely quoted verse in America (NOT EVEN A VERSE)

42% of the congregation read the Bible less than 5 minutes a day

58% could not name more than 5 of the 10 commandments.

63% could not Name the Four Gospels.

DEUTERONOMY 32:47- "They are not just idle words for you- they are your life."

New Testament Manuscript Evidence

I hope you can read this... Ultimately the Bible has less time between when it was written and the earliest copy we have than plenty of other books we call 'fact' or study intensely. It also has thousands more copies than any of the other books on the list.

These copies are 98.33-99.5% pure and without doubt as to textual accuracy.

Because of the small amount of years between the original writing the date of the copy we have today, there is no time for a legend to have occurred.

Old Testament Manuscript Evidence

The Old Testament was completed around 400 BC and we have copies dating from 100-200 BC. (Dead Sea Scrolls). All of the copies of the Old Testament are 95% accurate in comparison to each other. The other 5% of variate are basically made up of obvious slips of the pen and variations of spelling.

We have a LIVING GOD who spoke these words into being... and we have a RELIABLE source from which we can learn about this Incredible God!