Hero Arts weekly challenge - one layer cards

It is Hero Arts blog birthday - they are one year old. The challenge this week is a one layer card and I am amazed at the creative entries so far! The one layer refers to paper not to embellishments.. I have been amazed to see how dimension is created through colour, machine stitching and shading with pencils!! Some cards look layered and yet they are not, so so clever!

I chose to make a grid card, not the easiest of cards, but I cannot make effective simple cards.I used distress inks and Hero art stamps.

Meditation Monday - the third 'A' - ADAPT

Apologies for not being here last Monday. I was in the North of France with my DH to speak on this very subject of a christian marriage.

It is never easy to adapt and especially the concept male/female can be particularly trying!
Carrying on with the book 'The Total Woman' by Marabel Morgen on this subject, I will highlight what she has to say because I couldn't say it any better. Bear in mind we are dealing with the general biblical principles for everyday life.
Adapting to our husbands does bear fruit - although maybe not always visible short term. When I chose to live sacrificially I chose for the long term commitment - and it pays. We have already handled ACCEPT and ADMIRE. So if we accept our husbands as they are (trusting that God does the changing..) how do we ADAPT...Without further ado:

Quote:
Diana was feeling lonely, neglected and unloved. Should she put her foot down? Insist that he quit football? Demand that he spend more time at home? Threaten him? She had already tried that for two years, but of course nothing had changed. Should she withhold her love? Make him come begging to her? Play the martyr? She had tried that too... no change! The advice I gave her was to ADAPT as that was the only thing I knew would work. Adapt to his way of life wholeheartedly, even if nothing changed. When he is home, make life so attractive he won't want to leave. Don't make him feel guilty and don't complain. Instead, treat him like a king and cater to his needs.

What causes most of the problems in your marriage? I find that conflict between two separate egos is usually the culprit - your viewpoint versus his viewpoint. If they happen to be the same, fine. If not, as so often is the case, conflict results.
For instance, your weary man comes home from the office longing for a quiet evening; You have been cooped up in the house all day and want to get out. There's instant conflict with two egos, each shouting, "Me, me, me." So how can two different egos fuse their two different opinions into one? Some don't. It often results in two people going their separate little ways.

The biblical remedy for marital conflict is "You wifes must submit to your husbands' leadership in the same way you submit to the Lord". Ef.5:22
Before you scream, hear me out.... No one says you have to get married. If you do not wish to adapt to a man stay single. If you are married but not adapting, you probably already know that marriage is not the glorious experience you anticipated.
You may think, "that's not fair, I have my rights. why shouldn't he adapt to my ways first and then maybe I'll consider doing something to please him?". I have seen many couples try this unsuccessfully! Unless the wife adapts to his way of life, conflict is certain to occur.

God originally ordained marriage. He gave certain ground rules and if they are applied a marriage will work...
Man and woman, although equal in status, are different in function. God ordained man to be the head of the family, its president and his wife to be the executive vice-president. When the order is turned around, the system breaks down... there is enough evidence of this in the world today!

We don't have to nag or be a doormat - we have our dignity, opinions and spunk, but we leave the final decisions over to our Head!

Unquote

We all can find creative ways to adapt and see what a relief it brings to our husbands. I have found that the times I have adapted and followed René (instead of thinking that 'my' way was better) and kept my mouth shut have been the times that I was refreshingly surprised how things worked out - I usually would think things would
only go well if they went how I thought they should - WRONG!! We can be such control freaks! Thank God I am learning! On the other hand if I suggest something in the right attitude, I notice that my DH really thinks it over and actually alot of times he has said, yeah I think you are right this time!! It's just the way we say things sometimes! For me the key is: my relationship with René is also a mirror of my relationship to the Lord - that helps me stay in the right attitude.

I'm stopping here, not to make it too long. It might be helpful too to make this practical with some real issues - I will be back.
God bless! Jacqueline

Hero Arts Challenge - window cards

The challenge at Hero Arts this week was to make a window card. I thought that this was a super idea of Lisa's as I've never made one of these before and it's yet another way of stretching one's stamps.
These are the cards I made.


(Sorry Louise, I lost your comment..)

Vintage eggs...

This beautiful blog of Elizabeth Golden is a jewel! I found it via Dymphie who shared that Elizabeth had beautiful French postcards free to download and I've been a fan ever since. Here, is where I found egg templates. Thank you Elizabeth.
I put them against a miniture Eiffel Tower I have to show how small they are, but they are still a nice size to work with.



I am not a fan of decorating eggs for Easter as I believe that Easter has another meaning, but I loved the shape as a change to ATC rectangles. So I thought I would just give it a try and see how it went with collage.


The size is 7.5 x 5.5cm.

My favorite colours

Thought I would share a vintage card I made a while back with my favorite colours.

Arrived home Sunday evening after a very satisfying three day trip to the North. We are always so blessed to have been able to speak into people's lives, provide teaching and prayer on the very delicate subject of a 'marriage made in heaven'. We are so happy that we decided a long time ago to trust God and perservere in our calling. It pays to trust and obey the Bible! It pays to listen to God's voice and seek after Him.
I have not done a Meditation Monday this week as I needed to get alot of work done and get a time of rest. I am relaxing of course in my craft room, playing with paper, ink and stamps! I am not very inspired though!

Spring in Paris..

I will be away until next week as I will be travelling with DH to share what God has done in our lifes in our marriage with quite a big church in Mulhouse (North of France). That costs me alot of preparation!


Just wanted to share before I left and also to say thanks to those who leave a little comment on Meditation Monday. It blesses me to know that it's a blessing!
The theme on Hero Arts is Spring. I haven't been too inspired so Sue came to my rescue when she sent me a lovely bag of her scraps! I used a background panel that she gave me to make this card - it's got everything you would find on a French flea market, including the little vintage button at the bottom.

This is the lovely ATC SUE sent - it's gorgeous and the dragon fly glitters in the light! Thanks once again dear Sue!

To finish, this card is on it's way to somebody - I hope she doesn't look here. It's a quick card made with scraps I had laying on my desk. Love playing like that.

See you all next week!

Meditation Monday - the second 'A' - ADMIRE

I sincerely hope that these meditations are a blessing for you! This week is all about admiring your husband. There is so much more to say but I have to reduce a chapter into a smaller meditation.

I am founding this with a quote from Scripture: Eph. 5:33 (Amplified version): ''and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband (that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him and loves and admires him exceedingly)."

Once again I am quoting from the book 'The Total Woman' by Marabel Morgan:

Quote:

It was Friday afternoon and Mr. Feelin’ Low glanced at the clock with mixed emotions. After a long, hard week he was glad that Friday had finally come. He looked forward to a hot shower and a hot dinner, but he dreaded facing the cold wife.
Friday afternoon meant a long weekend at home, just trading one headache for another. Something’s missing, he thought. Is this all there is? Loneliness rolled over him in waves. Somewhere, someone must admire him, even if his own wife didn’t.

Starting from earliest childhood and continuing all through life, a man is recognized and applauded for his accomplishments and who doesn’t love that type of admiration? Women do, too. If your husband was a Big Man on Campus he probably has all sorts of trophies, stars and other special memorabilia. Have you noticed how a person will do almost anything for a star? Imagine that, grown men with stick-on-stars on their helmets!

A man’s most basic needs, outside of warm sexual love, are approval and admiration. A man tries to fill those crying needs in many ways. But a man longs for respect and personal admiration from his wife more than any other person. You can transform your husband by a few genuine words of encouragement. Your man, like many men all over the world, may be like an empty cup emotionally, unable to properly express his feelings to you. If you want to help him express himself, try filling up his cup with admiration. And when his cup runs over, guess who lives in the overflow!

For some men your attitude of indifference is the worst pain of all; We have to care about what they do and think! It is your hightest privilege to assure him he is as special as he thinks he is! Your husband needs you to see him as he sees himself. For example, take a good look at him. As he grows older, his need for admiration grows stronger. With a balding head and protruding paunch comes the question, “Does she think I’m handsome?” He happens to love his body. It’s the only one he has and he lives in there. He wants you to love it too – so tell him! We can be honest and still meet his needs – there will always be something we can make a nice comment about and you will be surprised at the results!

UNQUOTE

Look how we creative ladies act when we see beautiful artwork – we run over with praise and admiration, and with all the commenting we do, it shouldn’t be too difficult to just continue off the blog towards our husbands and children! Say to DH for example, wow, you look gorgeous, that colour tie so matches the colour of your eyes! It’s just an example!

Even stronger, I believe the we women have to be on our guard to keep this alive in our marriages because the devil will always try and drive a wedge in a relationship because he knows if he gets that out of harmony, he steals the power out of families which results in a weakened Church. Let’s be on our guard and not allow the evil one to take away the praise from our mouths towards our husbands and children.