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!!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/chasingwisdom/

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

Stolen Time

Yesterday I didn't get to my visual for my Proverbs 20:17. Instead, I took my mom out and we enjoyed a house filled with 9,000 Santa's and decorated her apartment for Christmas.
Sometimes life and relationships take us away from our desks and our "to-do" lists. That's ok. The time spent laughing with my Mom was priceless. To deny her the times of my heart would be to steal time for myself- time that I would surely regret later.
So - if you don't get to the picture in your head, or to the journaling you had anticipated, thats ok. Give your loved ones a hug for me and soak in every aspect of their laughter and their smiles. Lavish in the freckles and the sunlight in their hair. Time is short, let our love be generous and reckless!

I CAN Say "NO"!

I had to come back to this scripture a few times today. At first glance, my thoughts went to a place - of..."But we are called to be generous, I don't get it Solomon!"
So often with Scripture the Holy Spirit provides the answers that my heart needed on this day. As a recovering people pleaser, I heard today that I can say NO. As a Christian, I don't have to respond to every hand that is outstretched, unless the Lord calls me to it. I don't have to become a door mat in the name of "love".
The Lord works in mysterious ways, get out of His Will and I can be obstructing something that He is doing in anothers life. Am I offering a blessing, or a band aid? A blessing will point it's way back to Him through which all blessings flow. A band aid fixes a problem for a heartbeat, causing our eyes to fall to our surroundings---rather than trusting on God.

This was a big one today for me. A t first pass the language was uncomfortable and thorny. I didnt like it. I got no "picture" in my head. But, I prayed and I pressed in and I feel like the Lord whispered a precious jewel to me today.
I pray that all of us will quicken our ears and our hearts so that we hear His will above our own.