Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!

Are you participating in our Mixed Media Monthly Challenge?

We just began a new month, on June 1st!  It's not too late to come over and play!!!

Come on!!  The only rules are to have fun and release control!

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Heart Reflections

This Proverb has dropped me to my knees and demanded my full attention:

27:19 Just as you can see your own face reflected in water, so your heart reflects the kind of person you are.

What is the heart reflection that I am sending out into the world?  At any given moment, am I reflecting His grace and mercy---or my impatience and frustration?

I will stay here on my knees for a few more minutes and issue a prayer for my heart. <3

How did you all stand by and let it happen?

My Dad came to this country after WW II, from Germany.  He survived a Russian Concentration Camp through the sheer willpower and perseverance of his mother and through a father that bargained a way out on a supply truck, in exchange for cigarettes.  He arrived at our golden shores with his Lederhosen at the age of 13, learning how to fight as he learned the English language. As a German, his family was not trusted and they were met with discrimination and hardships. As so many immigrants do, they found a community where other Germans took up residence, and they thrived in the freedoms of the United States. I am the first generation daughter of an immigrant that arrived here from hostile shores.

My Dad never spoke of the war. We know glimpses and snapshots into the hardships. Rape, lost children, the horror of Hitler’s youth, begging for potatoes -and getting them -because the blond haired boy learned to speak Russian. When I was homeschooling my oldest daughter,  she called my Dad for the “inside scoop” into WW II.  I told her all I knew and didn’t think he would tell anymore.   Her burning question to him was, “How did you all stand by and let it happen? How did you, as a nation, allow the Jews to be carted off on cattle trains and not stop it??” His response was chilling, “We didn’t know. We weren’t told. We just weren’t aware.”  

On an aside, and stick with me here for a minute, my son got to participate in an opera called “Terezin”, a concentration camp that was set up for propaganda purposes to fool the Red Cross.  I bring this up because the Third Reich presented alternate facts to the world, to his country, to the Red Cross, and the world turned the other cheek.

I would offer today, that we all knew.  We were all aware and we allowed it. We all saw the stars being handed out and the branding of a religious group of people. We allowed it, and one atrocity led to another and then it was easier to believe the propaganda than to face the truth and what we allowed into our existence.  People were made into lampshades and we allowed it because we didn’t stop it and rise up and demand human rights. We allowed it then and we are allowing it now as we close our shores to the broken and we allow a ban on one religious group of people. You can call it what you will, but when our president welcomes Christians from hostile countries, but denies Muslims, we are allowing a star to be placed on the lapel of another’s jacket as we watch the first steps in history repeating itself. This is not hysteria, this is discrimination. Will we allow one atrocity to lead to another? Will we allow history to repeat itself?  Will we allow our shores to be closed to the tired and poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free? Will we close our borders to women and children from Syria while we enter into agreements with Russia? The world is watching and we must choose what we allow and what we accept as truth. 

Consolidating Social Media!

Want to continue the "Chasing Wisdom" study with us?   Join us on the FB community- the nicest, sweetest, most encouraging little corner on he internet!!
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Interested in joining in our "Mixed Media Monthly Challenge?
Get your creative mojo on with us!!
Each month we will work together on a monthly challenge.

----->This commitment is for two pages a month.

Seems easy enough, right? What's the catch? I will pick random things each Thursday to teach you how to draw/paint, and they must be incorporated into your monthly spread.
1st Prompt: Random Background
2nd Prompt: Random Noun
3rd Prompt: Random Journaling Prompt
4th Prompt: Random Noun

Random creativity loosed upon your pages, with no planning or forethought. Truly, you will have to create in the moment and let go of all control and planning. Scary for all of us, I know, even me creating it- but....what a sense of freedom from just having FUN!!!

Blow out the cobwebs of control and release a new day of creativity -let's just see what happens!!!
Join us on the Praise Heart page on FB, search under the "Events" tab for each months challenges!
https://www.facebook.com/PraiseHeART/

Screeeeeeeech!!

Brakes. That's what I saw when I percolated on today's Proverb....great big brakes.
Brakes can stop escalating emotions and escalating conversations. Brakes offer me a space to allow the Holy Spirit to show me higher ground.
Lord, help me to get this....You have me, You are my vindicator. With that I will hush while applying my brakes!!

Getting There Slowly

There is an old Greek saying that says, "No righteous man ever grew rich suddenly".
Today I am thinking about the journey and the wonders that accompany us on our walk. To grow "rich" suddenly would be to miss the gifts along the way. What about if I were to reach sudden spiritual "richness"---my crown would be empty, vacant of the experiences and the trials that grew me and matured me. My heart wouldn't house a faith in God, that saw me through the toughest of days, and grew in the wilderness.
I know that I get impatient in the journey, looking for the finish line, or , simply, getting there. Thank you Lord, that you continue to slow me down and draw me closer to you as we walk. Thank you for each pebble I step on and each victory in You!

Walking Slowly With Love

Today's Proverb has me quiet and repentant. I am impatient and I expect everyone around me to be able to read my mind and know where my thoughts are going.

Meanwhile, my mom is getting older. I lost my Dad in 2015.

I find myself getting frustrated with my mom when she forgets some things or doesn't connect the dots as quickly as I need. When she looks at me and says, "Why are you so frustrated with me? You will get old one day.", I can feel my light being snuffed out. I can feel joy dissipate into the ethers as I look at the women who I adore.

Oh Lord, why do I rush through my day without love? What is the sense in it? Why do anything if it is served in impatience and rushing?

The Lord slowed me down when my ankle shattered. I entered into my mother's world of walkers and scooters and handicap parking. I got to experience a little bit of life through her eyes. Wasn't it just yesterday that I proclaimed, "Just because I can walk, doesn't mean I am called to?"

I am a thick soul in constant need of a Savior, as He teaches me day in and day out through these Proverbs. I know this today, I am not released to run, to run over people or over circumstances. I am called to walk slowly and with great intentionality. Thank you Lord for continuing to teach me...and Mom ----> I adore you, I am sorry. <3