July Card Ministry and I'm Home again

Good evening Y'all!!!!    I hope and pray that y'all are enjoying the slightly cooler temps today.    It is just a bit cooler in my neck of the woods than it has been in the last week or so, so I am so thankful for that.    I do not do well at all in the sweltering heat.    When my "petunia" (me) wilts, it ain't "purty"!    And my petunia has been wilted for so long, that it will take more than one little cool day to help me perk up.    gggg

I have been away for a few days and finally got back home and it feels good to be home.    One of the first things I have done is get my hair cut.    Oh my, I needed a cut so bad.    Does anyone remember the mops that looked like stringy hair, well, that's what my hair had began to look like.    Thick, hot, and stringy!    No more!!!!    It is now off my shoulders!!   Yay!!

Before I went to Kentucky, I had went to Card Making Ministry night at church and we made three beautiful cards.    I did not get them posted before I left, so I thought I would post them today.    I am always in awe of my friend that gets all the cards together.    She always comes up with fun and fresh cards.    There was five of us that was at card making and as usual, we all had a ball.    It is always fun to get together with friends and have a good time while serving the Lord.   For people who say Christians don't have fun, they just haven't been to one of our card making evenings.

We made three cards again, that is the usual number.   I took pics and wanted to share them with you.    I hope you enjoy them and can get ideas and inspirations from them.

I really like the freshness of this first card.    The first layer of the card front was embossed with an embossing folder and then the end was cut with a matching die.   I love the flowers.   We cut them with the big shot and Stampin Up die and and then stamped them with the matching stamps.   Then we put some pearl halves in the center of the flowers.   The leaves was punched with a Stampin Up punch.    We used a 1/8 th inch wide piece of grosgrain ribbon and taped it to the back side of the first layer of the card front.   Then attached that layer to the teal layer of cardstock and then attached that to the card.

I think this is my favorite card.    It reminds me of a hula skirt.   I just think it is the cutest thing.    The lady in charge of the card ministry had gotten a new toy and she is always ready to share with us.    She had gotten a pair of scissors from Stampin Up that cuts several strips at one time.   So these little strips was soooo easy to cut.    I'm pretty sure the yellow band across the top layer of fringe is also a Stampin Up die, as well as the little flower and the button.    The little salmon colored spots just make me happy.   I love this card, and hope you do too.

This was the more elegant of the three cards.    Red, black and white.    It really doesn't get any more elegant than that.   I love the little blinged up bird in the birdcage.   The red ribbon was originally supposed to be wrapped to the back side of the black layer, just underneath the patterned paper, but I forgot it and did not want to redo my card.    So, when I got home, I dug around and found my red ribbon and cut a couple of pieces and knotted them together and trimmed the ends pretty close to the knot.   I then used one of my home-made glubbers and stuck it to the corner of the white layer.   I love that we can make them all personalized in some way.    There is no such thing as a mistake, just creative license.    ggggg     I hope you enjoyed seeing the cards we made.

As I leave you this evening, I leave you with this scripture:  Habakkuk 2:4  "Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith."

Habakkuk, the prophet was asking God some hard questions and one of those questions was, how God could use such a wicked people as the Chaldeans to bring about His purpose.    And in the dialog between God and Habakkuk, God showed him that the righteous shall live by his faith.    His faith in God.    What is the distinguishing mark of  a righteous person?    Their faith.    When all goes wrong, they persist in their faith.    The righteous will "not" be puffed up in pride.    The righteous will "not" be oppressing anyone.  

Does anyone ever try to make you feel like you are less than they are, in your service to the Lord or in your worship or in your relationship with the Lord?   If they do, guess who the one is, with the not so great relationship with the Lord?  Not you!!!   It has been my experience, that when someone is doing that, they are trying to make themselves feel better about themselves, (puffed up with pride)  by trying to use me and my relationship with the Lord as their measuring stick.   Never compare yourself or let yourself be compared to anyone or by anyone.  The only measure we are to use is God.    And according to God's measure, we ALL fall way short of His Glory.    Don't justify your behavior based on mine and I should never justify my behavior based on yours.    Both of us will come up way way short of what God expects from us.

Those who are "puffed up" with pride will try to force their attitudes on you.    It has nothing to do with righteousness.    A friend of mine told me that some of her friends had told her that she was "settling for mediocre" in her relationship with the Lord.    I told her to brush that conversation off her shoulders and to not let that settle on her.    A lot of people build them selves up by trying to making someone else feel bad.    I told her to let God be the One to speak to her in regards to her relationship with Him.    I have been around people like that my whole life and all they have succeeded in helping me see, is that I don't need what they have.    Puffed up pride always tries to belittle other people or hold them captive to envy and jealousy.    God is the One in whom you and I have placed our faith!    Wait on the Lord to reveal to you what He wants you to know, He will!    If, while speaking with someone who claims to be a friend, you end up feeling bad about your relationship with the Lord, or you feel like your relationship does not measure up to theirs, don't feel bad and don't fall for their evil intentions.   A true friend will "help" you have a better relationship with the Lord, without making you feel bad about the relationship you do have.   We are either a stepping stone or a stumbling block.   My prayer is that we will always be found being stepping stones.    We never want to be a stumbling block for anyone.    My faith is in God, alone.     Not in the words, actions or deeds of any other.    I pray that your faith, too, is in God alone.

I pray for you to have a wonderful night of rest.    May tomorrow be a great day for each of you.    Thank you for visiting tonight.   I hope and pray that you can take something good away with you tonight.

Ladybug, I pray you are doing good and enjoying the cooler temps.    Have a great night.    Sweetpea loves you!

Goodnight, Y'all.    God loves you, and so do I.     hugs, Patty