Welcome to Word Art Wednesday!  I'm on time with my post and somewhat caught up with life!  This week's scripture blesses me because it's yet another reminder that God is in control of the vast universe, this world, the next world and all the tiny details of my life.  We do hope you take the verse, use it in a creation of your very own and share it with us on our challenge blog.  You may also save it for later and just enjoy the blessing of it.  Thanks to our ever talented Karen Murray for creating it.

My DT sample:

I used the Daydream Designs sets below and recolored the scripture to match the darkest blue in the image and digi paper.

Shine Like Stars

13 color images / JPEG and PNG / 300 dpi / resizable

$3.00

Shine Like Stars Digi Paper

16 Sheets / 12x12 / JPEG only / 300 dpi / resizable

$3.50

I do hope you'll join us at Word Art Wednesday to share your creation(s) to earn chances to win fabulous prizes from our great sponsors.  You will be inspired by Karen's devotion and the other DT designs there.  Come see us!

Thank you for blessing my day with you!

Diane

Welcome to my late Word Art Wednesday post!  I know the challenge for this week is well underway on our home blog and I hope if you haven't already been there you will make your way there from this blog.  We'd love to have your samples linked there for our inspirational/encouraging challenge. 

Our scripture passage this week, but our talented Karen Murray, is so beautiful.  I love the fonts she chose for a vertical block design.  It fit perfectly into the frame I was hoping to use. 

This would be a fabulous passage for recoloring.  I decided to go with white for a chalkboard creation, but I can see each of the lines in different colors, or alternating colors.  Regardless of how it's styled this verse is powerful. 

I always seem to gravitate toward relatively simple cards for my WAW samples because I want the focus on the scripture verse.  One of the biggest blessings about being a part of WAW and using the verses Karen creates each week is knowing that some very special sisters in Christ are exalting God by featuring God's Word on their creations.  I love declaring God's Word and just letting it speak as God Spirit leads and instructs.  Indeed these "counsels of old" are faithful and true...alive and fresh for today.  God's Word is not out of date or irrelevant as some in our culture ascribe.  God's Word becomes more and more relevant, in fact, as every detail of prophecy unfolds. 

This verse is truly a testimony to how God has interacted with my family this year.  We praise His name daily for the way He shows His compassion, faithfulness and truth to us.  We continue to pray that the power of His truth will break through some strongholds where the enemy continues to battle against us.  We know He is for us, we believe with confidence He is trustworthy and able to shatter the impossible and bring miracles from the throne room of heaven into our lives.

The simplicity of this card is actually symbolic really of the simplicity of God's truth.  We can stake our lives and our futures on His Word.  God never changes, never fails, is always perfect, just and holy.  We are placing all our faith in that immutable truth. 

Please come by our blog and join in the fun of our challenge.  It's not too late for my to post my sample and it's not too late for you to link your project to our blog. 

Sets Used:

 Java Me Embellies

12 images / JPEG and PNG / 300 dpi / resizable

$3.00

The Perfect Blend Digi Papers

16 sheets / 12x12 / 300 resolution / resizable

$4.00

Other Sets Available at Daydream Designs:

 The Perfect Blend Color

 The Perfect Blend Outline

Coffee Bingo Cards (Color)

Coffee Bingo Cards Black

Coffee with Friends

Deja Brew

Welcome to Word Art Wednesday and our challenge to create something encouraging and uplifting for your craft project.  We hope you'll link your project to our home page where you'll find inspirations from our DT and wonderful sponsors.  Participate to win!

Night and day our God watches over His children-- those who make Him God of their lives.  Every day is a blessing in His presence and His comfort and watch care are ours at night.  God's presence is a tangible reality for those who love Him.  We can bask in His loving kindness like soaking up the sun on a gorgeous summer day.

For my sample I used Helen's wonderful Today journal cards and just added the recolored sentiment and some flowers/bee from Doodle Garden. How easy is that!?

My family and I have been investing in prayer this year...and our God has proven Himself again and again to be faithful, to touch us with His loving kindness, to sing over us when we have dark days or nights of worry.  We have seen miracle after miracle of provision and protection.  Sometimes we just sit in utter amazement as we finally see where His hand has moved on our behalf.  Those glorious celebrations help us remain faithful when we can't see His hand and have no idea where our circumstances are leading us. 

We do hope you'll pop over to the Word Art Wednesday blog and join our challenge.  Karen will have a powerful devotion waiting for you there and the other DT members have some fabulous inspiration for you. 

Sets Used:  (Available at Daydream Designs Store)

Today Journal / Card Kit

Doodle Garden Color

Word Art Wednesday: Enduring Temptation

Welcome to Word Art Wednesday and another week of amazing inspiration from our DT and loyal participants.  We hope you will consider linking your "anything goes / encouraging/ uplifting" creation to our challenge blog home.  Karen Murray our graphic artist has produced another beautiful scripture for you to take and use for the challenge or on another creation in the future.  It's optional.  We have some amazing sponsors this week too, so I encourage you to join in the fun.

We are bombarded by our culture with all sorts of temptations. Aside from temptations to immorality, there are more hidden and insidious temptations for the devoted follower of Christ. We are inundated with the lure to be materialistic, or pre-occupied with secular and distracting activities...things that don't build up the kingdom of God.  Life can pull us in so many directions.  Circumstances can drag us down and tempt us to be discouraged or defeated. 

But our God never allows temptations to come our way without giving us an exit route, a way to flee those temptations.  I find that God's Word is the anchor that holds my faith and focus and directs me to purify my heart and mind.  Scripture always challenges me to cast aside the things of this world and focus on that which is pure and noble and right and true. Sometimes I literally have to run to the Bible to be able to soak up a refreshing breath of what is good again. 

I'm sure it's not a coincidence that I've been called by God this week to pray more earnestly for my husband.  He is so busy and works so hard.  He is pulled in so many directions with three very draining jobs.  He is diligent in providing for his family.  And somewhere in the midst of all is business he still must find the time, quiet, focus and energy to prepare sermons and serve people in need.  He pours out so much of himself.  I know the enemy wants to rob him of that focus and drain him of the energy required to hold it all together and proclaim God's Word each week.  So I've been more intentional about praying throughout the day for him. 

I've watched in our family and our church how Satan loves to tempt the heads of households, our men.  If he can topple the top, the spiritual leaders of the home, the rest is likely to crumble too.  So we should be diligent as Christian wives and mothers to pray over the headship of our husbands and sons.  Both of my sons desire with all their heart to emulate my husband and be godly heads of their little families.  But life and the enemy work hard against that. 

Intercessory prayer is a powerful antidote against the temptations our men face.  We can do little that is more effective in helping to guard our men against the temptations that Satan is sure to bring their way.  Even if our godly men are not tempted to sin through immorality, you can be sure they will be tempted on other fronts.  Our prayers become fortresses around their hearts. 

So I encourage you to pray for your husbands and your sons as they assume important roles as the heads of homes throughout our country.  Families and marriage are under attack as never before...and prayer is our greatest weapon to tear down the onslaught. 

Set(s) used for my sample this week:

Man of Mine Digi Paper Pack

10 sheets / 6 x 6 / 300 ppi / resizable

designed by Kris Breach for Daydream Designs

$3.00

See our full line of digi papers, many with coordinating digi image sets, at:

Daydream Designs

Word Art Wednesday: God is Your Refuge

Welcome to Word Art Wednesday challenge, where every week we invite you to share your "anything goes" encouraging and creative inspiration. This week's wordart reminds us to run to God as our refuge, for He is our only true shelter.  I hope you'll visit our home page, be inspired by our fabulous design team and join the fun for the chance to win some fabulous prizes from our sponsors.

Everyone needs a little encouragement.  How often do we live our lives all wrapped up in our own struggles and disappoints only to encounter someone that puts your troubles into perspective.  That happened to me this week.  I had lunch with a friend who has some really hard challenges with her health...and it won't get better.  The best she can hope for is sustaining where she is.  I can't get her off my mind and I pray that God will ease her constant pain and will give relief from her physical impairments.

God wants to be a refuge for us.  He loves sheltering His children when they hurt.  His peace and comfort are real, and they defy our circumstances.  He will never let us fall from the security of His embrace once we become His children.  He hovers over us to deflect the destruction the enemy wants us to experience.

I'm so grateful my God is my shelter.  Because God is eternal, His provision and protection will not wane or wear out.  We can rest assured He will always be waiting for us to run to Him and He will spread His wings of protection over us.  That makes me feel so safe!

My card is simple in design, but I really hope it will be an encouragement, to let a friend know they are not alone and that God will guide and guard.  I used a simple card base of Melon Mambo with a Basic Black layer.  The designer paper comes from the Daydream Designs paper pack, Country in the Girl.  

Country in the Girl Digi Papers

10 sheets / 12x12 / 300 ppi / resizable

$3.00

Word Art Wednesday: Be Still!

Can't believe I'm posting my Word Art Wednesday post so late (Monday AM) with only two days before we turn to another weekly challenge, but I had so much fun making this card I wanted to post it anyway.  The wordart for this week is from the set Dream Team Scripture Set 2 available at Daydream Designs.  So if you like this graphic there are more like it available.   We hope you'll join our challenge and add your inspiration to our blog.  We have some fabulous artwork there for you to see and amazing sponsors for this week.  If it's not too late for me to post this, it's not too late for you to join us!!

This entire past year has been a very hectic and stressful one for my entire family.  So many changes and challenges.  But we are all held together and stand firmly on the presence and promises of God.  That combination strengthens our faith.  I've gone through several bouts of trying to fix it all on my own, carry the burdens of others and nearing physical, emotional and spiritual exhaustion.  But God's Spirit is always there to calm and refresh, so we are all pressing on.

Several days ago, I had the opportunity to sit out on my back patio when the day was perfect.  The temperature was just right, the air felt cleaner and it was early enough in the day that it wasn't humid quite yet.  The dogs contently nosed around all over the yard, and I was alone with God.  Much was on my mind when I went out to sip on coffee, but as I sat in the dappled shade of the tree listening to a score of birds singing, I felt my spirit calming and quieting.  God's presence is the perfect antidote for worry and stress.

The real challenge is to practice His presence.  I once read a book...the title I think was, Practicing the Presence of God.  It was about intentionally sensing God's presence in every moment of the day, remaining in a constant state of prayer.  I don't remember how theologically sound it was, but I remember how the concept of abiding in God's presence riveted me.  And I quickly realized the discipline required to be so intentional in focusing on God's presence.  Life is very distracting!

This tiny verse in the Psalms says so much.  God is God whether or not we acknowledge Him.  He exists already as sovereign of the universe regardless of the place we give Him in our lives.  But to be still enough in our spirit to recognize His presence and power, His providence and provision in every minute....that brings new perspective to our awareness of God Himself.

I want to be able to shut out the distractions of this life and find that calm, quiet reassurance in every moment of the day.  Maybe today is the perfect day for you to be still and step into the presence of God is a fresh and powerful way.  Perhaps your heart needs to be calm before Him so He can take control of your life again.

My sample uses the sets below, all available at Daydream Designs.  Hope to see you over at Word Art Wednesday!

Country Morning Digi Papers

12 sheets / 12 x 12 / 300 ppi / resizable

$3.00

Dream Team Scripture Set 2

10 scripture graphics / JPEG and PNG / 300 ppi / resizable

$4.00

Other Scripture Sets are available HERE

Thanks for stopping by today!

Diane