Time for reflection...

My sister-in-laws wedding was yesterday. It was beautiful, the weather was perfect and everything went smashingly according to plan! It takes a long time to plan...and then in 1 hour or less, everything you've planned has come to fruition--she was stunned that after waiting for 29 years to find her Prince Charming, she's now MRS. Charming and moving into a new stage in her life...

But as you can see from this picture...she's eager to do so!

Photo courtesy of Julie Lamm

I love weddings...it's a time for reflection. I like to ask myself if I still am doing my part of the commitment I made to my husband. Do I still love him even in his moments of weakness or frailty? Do I still submit to him even when asked to make sacrifice? How am I doing in regards to Proverbs 31:12 (my verse for the GMG study says this morning) which says  "She does him good and not evil All the days of her life."

Am I finding ways to do him good? Even when I'm feeling bad? Or cranky? Or just "not in the mood"? I came home from the wedding determined to show my husband AGAIN that I DO mean every word I agreed to at our wedding ceremony nearly 10 years ago. This week I'm going to try to go out of my way to find ways to INTENTIONALLY "do good"...even when I don't feel like it or want to.

This means I have to "knuckle down, buckle down, do it...do it...do it.."
(yeah, I was a cheerleader in my former days...)

So I'm taking it to God and asking for His help...because He's going to have to help me make some changes...and we all know how much we each like to change...LOL!

Quiet Time...

I decided a couple weeks ago that I wanted to put together a study group with friends and sisters in Christ to explore the Good Morning Girls Summer Session--Proverbs 31: One Virtue at a Time. I had a fantastic response and we are now finishing out week #1 with a group of about 30 women and girls. I just wanted to share where I go for my quiet time--every morning from 7am-8am before my boys get up.

I like to sit at the kitchen table to that I have room to spread out with my "stuff". I use my laptop for my commentaries and word history...but I love my New King James wide margin Bible because of all the notes I have in the margins. I use it to go on rabbit trails so I can make notes for connecting topics and scriptures.

And I have altered another notebook for my study notes. You can see the one I used for my Ephesians study HERE. For me, there is just something special about having a special thing to record all your thoughts in. Here is what it looks like:

I love untying that bow every morning...It's like a study diary. When I was altering this notebook (it's just a plain old black composition notebook) I knew what stamp I was going to feature on the front...

One from Proverbs 31 of course! My goal is that by the end of the study I will be closer to fulfilling this verse!

Thanks for popping by today...my parents will be here tomorrow, so I'm hoping to have some good pictures of the boys to share with you next week! We started our summer break tomorrow afternoon!

But you O Lord, are a shield about me...

Today was the first day of a new Bible Study group I'm participating in called Good Morning Girls. A group of fellow homeschooling moms and I are corresponding thru a 12 week study on the book of Ephesians and each of us has a journal of sorts that we use to record our daily thoughts. Some just printed the provided binder pages...but I like lines to write on, so I am using a composition notebook. I gleefully decorated my notebook today pulling out all sorts of stash that I've been "saving" and just going whole hog since it's mine...all mine! LOL!

(click on the picture for a larger shot)
I made the bow wrap all the way around so that I could tie it up after each study session...
I think it adds a fun element to getting ready for study each time.

Here is a closeup of the quote panel (it's 4" x 6") so you can see the bling I added as well as the faux stitching...pictures don't do this notebook justice of all the sparkles I added!

I decided on this wonderful scripture stamp Psalm 3:3--one of favorites!

I wish I had a bigger photo booth for taking a decent picture of this...but sadly I don't and it's a rainy winter day so the natural light stinks right now...trust me when I say, that pictures REALLY don't do this baby justice and I'm just tickled to death with it!

Are you interested in seeing some more of the paper crafting that I do?
Come check out my Etsy Shop and see if something strikes your fancy!
I also do custom orders if you have something special in mind! Just send me an email regarding your request to lisabeestampin (at) yahoo (dot) com and I'll be work with you to create something perfect!