Grungy Card 2

Good evening Y'all!     I hope you are enjoying this fine evening.    In my neck of the woods right now it is a very pleasant 71* outside as of 8:39 pm tonight.    I love it!    Up to 100* over the weekend, I'll take the lower temps any day!!    I still have humidity hair, and I guess that's not gonna change any time soon.    I know you know what humidity hair is.  

It's when you spend all morning with every hair appliance known to women to straighten your hair.   You get it straightened just perfectly and add a few perfectly placed little rats to give you that perfect height.   You take that one final look at your perfect masterpiece, just after you have sprayed a little hair spray on to keep in place.    You hit the door for that trip out town, just knowing you have this great looking head of hair.    You make stop after stop, just hoping everyone that you come in contact with notices your finely coiffed head of hair.    You have on your nicest smile, and you quickly smile at everyone you meet, but some of the ones you are smiling at are looking a little strangely at you.    Oh well, they must be having a bad day.    You sure hope their day gets better, you pray.    On you go, errand after errand and you are still stylin' and profilin' that snazzy head of hair.    Upon arriving at home, you walk by a mirror and catch a glimpse of someone.   You wheel around and run back to the mirror for a closer look, only to find that someone has replaced that beautiful head of hair that you was sporting so proudly, with a bad fake wig that looks like Bozo's head of hair!     That my friends, is humidity hair!    Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, don't ya'!    hahahaha

This is Grungy Card # 2.   I mentioned it when I put up # 1 the other day.

So, this is my Iris, from Crafters Companion, that I have shared a few times already.   But, I love this stamp and I never get tired of using it.    I stamped it on a background that I cut out on my Silhouette.    The image was created by Penny Duncan.    You can find her blog on the right side of my blog.    I love her designs.    I am trying to use her backgrounds more in my card making.    I loved the loops on this file and used them to run my 1/8th in grosgrain ribbon thru and I really liked the look.   You can also see that I added flat back pearls in the top and bottom corners.

After I colored the  Iris,  with my Spectrum Noir markers, I used my Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star pen on the image to add a little bit of blingy goodness.   It's not real flashy, just very subtle.   It looks really nice in the hand.

I just used it more as a highlight than anything else, but it definitely looks nice.

I had it finished, I thought.   Then I took my liquid pearls and put a few dots of it around the loopy border and I think it really set it off.    The grungy part of this card is the edge of the bottom layer of the card.    I grunged up the edge with a shimmery mauve ink pad.    It doesn't show up as much as I wish it did in the pic.   Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this peek at grungy card # 2.    Three is on it's way shortly.

As I leave you this evening, I leave you with this scripture: Matthew 5:44  "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

In the setting here, Jesus had just called Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, to be fishers of men.   And a bit later he called James and John.   Jesus was going throughout Galilee teaching, preaching and healing the sick and diseased among the people.  Word spread all throughout Syria and people started bringing all their sick, hurting, afflicted, hopeless, demon possessed, paralyzed, and seizure ridden people to Jesus and He healed them.   Where ever He went, crowds followed.   So He seen the crowds and went up on a mountainside and sat down.   His disciples came to Him and He began teaching them.    This is where the Beatitudes are.   Jesus taught them many different things.  

Can you imaging being in that class, with the Master Teacher of all time teaching with "authority" of the Kingdom of God!    That is one class I would sign up for in a heart beat!    Of all the things He taught them, He also taught them to "love your enemies."    Can you imagine such a teaching?    Well, that's what He taught them.

Oh, let me tell you, it is so easy for us to love those who love us.   It is easy to pray for those who pray for us.   It is easy, isn't it.   Jesus asked them what was the reward in loving "only" people who love them?    The reward comes from loving those who persecute you and who are your enemies.   Jesus was asking them to not treat them as enemies, but to treat them as people God created, and as "potential" followers of Christ.

Fast forward to today.    He is still asking the same thing of us today.    I have to confess right here, right now, and just be very real with y'all about this.   I have not arrived yet at the place where I can love those who hate me, and pray for those who would persecute me, in the manner that is pleasing to my Lord and Savior.   It is a definite struggle for me.    But...I keep on trying!     I keep asking the Lord to help me with this.    I keep humbling myself in prayer and asking for help.   I struggle every day with this, and you know what, I know I am not the only one with this struggle.    It goes against every thing that we as human beings "feel".   How is it possible to get past the "feelings"?    Well, I won't get past the "feelings" on my own.    As Christians, we are called to live, based on what we know, not based on what we "feel".    Our feelings change, from one minute to another, one day to another.    What we know, never changes.    We know that Jesus Christ gave His life's blood for us to have a right relationship with God.    God never changes!!!    We do!    Our "feelings" change.    In essence, we should treat people based on God's feelings and not ours.    Jesus taught His disciples that all people are created by God, His own special treasure, His own peculiar treasure.    With that knowledge, we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.    Easy?     No!    Possible?    Yes!!!     God never asks us to do anything we can't do.    God never sets us up for failure.    When we fail, it is because we haven't called on God for help.    So, if you are like me, keep on crying out to God for help!     That's where the reward is.    When we are calling on God, we are growing closer to our Creator, becoming more Christlike.    Therein is the reward.    Becoming more Christlike.    All Praises to God!!

I hope y'all have a great night of rest and a wonderful day tomorrow.   Good night y'all!  Till we meet again, take care.

Ladybug, sweetpea loves you with her heart and looks forward to seeing you soon!

God Bless Y'all and remember God loves y'all and so do I.   hugs, Patty