May the Heart of Christmas....

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Hope that your week is going well so far!  Did you know that if you don't buy gluten-free soy sauce, it is 40-60% wheat?!  We are having Asian cuisine for group tonight, and we are bringing beef & broccoli with pad Thai noodles.  We have people in our group who are completely gluten-free, and I am allergic to wheat...so I am glad that I looked at that before we used it.  I seriously had NO idea that normal soy sauce had wheat in it...so weird.  I made a trip to the Good Food Store and picked up a couple GF things that I needed today...so I should be set for a bit!  Yay!! :)

I told you I would have a card full of product and layers to share with you, and today is the day!  I know I have done quite a few clean & simple cards lately...I just happen to like both styles!  I get the best of both worlds, since I feel like I can do both fairly well.  Today's card uses the Prima Marketing "Tea Thyme" collection, and some stamps & dies from the latest WPlus9 release.  Check it out!

 Instructions:
1. Make a 5-inch square card from vintage cream cardstock.
2. Distress ink a floral paper block, and adhere to the front.
3. Distress ink a polka dot paper strip, and adhere to the left side.
4. Distress ink a doily, and adhere to the middle.
5. Wrap pink trim & ribbon around the seam.  Tie a bow at the top, then layer with a twine double bow & pink button.
6. Diecut a tree from vintage cream cardstock, distress ink and then add Stickles & chunky glitter to it.
7. Wrap twine around it as garland, accent with pearls & adhere to the front.
8. Add three fabric flowers to the card front.
9. Diecut the banner, "love" & the snowflake, then distress ink the edges of them all.
10. Stamp the sentiment to the banner, and adhere to the front.
11. Add the diecut word directly below the sentiment banner.
12. Top the snowflake with a heart jewel, and adhere to the banner corner to finish.

Challenges:
-Flourishes challenge - Be Progressive
-The Shabby Tea Room #140 - Sweet Shabby Christmas
-There She Goes #181 - Let It Snow
-Papertake Weekly - Flowers
-Crafts & Me #110 - Non-Traditional Christmas Colors
-Totally Gorjuss #158 - Pastel Christmas
-Crafty Ann's #78 - Bingo Card (gems, glitter, lace)
-Fussy & Fancy Friday #75 - Pearls & Flowers
-PaperPlay #45 - Snowflakes

This pink Christmas card just warms my heart a little bit...loving the glittery tree with pearl accents SO much.  The flowers are pretty fabulous too....  Sigh- I love Prima!!  Well, I have some Bible study notes to share with you today.  So, let's get to it!

1 Peter 2:18-25
"He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in His mouth.
When they hurled their insults at Him,
he did not retaliate;
when he suffered,
he made no threats.
Instead, he entrusted himself to Him who judges justly."
Jesus is our ultimate example of grace in suffering.  An innocent man, he died a horrible, painful death on the cross.  I can't think of anything more awful.  Yet, He did it willingly, prayerfully....knowing the reason it had to be done.
God has never said we won't suffer.  It is just a part of life.  He has said he won't ever leave us or forsake us...and He offered up His son so we might have a path to Him.
I have gone through some hard things in the past year and a half.  Things that drudged up a lot of hurts from my past.  They aren't things I plan on sharing publicly, but during the hardest moments...God was there.  Comforting me as I cried out to him.  Being the person that I needed Him to be, when others weren't.
I didn't act with the grace that Jesus had during those times though....not in any way, shape or form.  I did retaliate verbally to the hurts.  I did threaten....not with violence, but with the only things I felt like I had control over.  I'm not proud of my reactions.  But, God knows that.  And He continually, gently reminds me that I need to be more like Jesus.  And I'm working on that...every single day.  I'm working on that.

Until later,
~L.