Good Thursday morning Folks ~ Well, we’ve had even ‘more’ rain, this is our 5th week of liquid sunshine. I will post photos of flowers and waterlogged driveway in another post.
Today’s post is about a new Bible I ordered from Amazon, The Inspire Lg. Edition Bible for Creative Journaling.
Those who have been following me for any amount of time know that I lost my dear husband 9 Dec. 2012. After being married to my best friend for 43 years, being alone has been rough at times. It was much worse in the beginning than it is now, but there is still a huge ‘void’ that his leaving has left in my life.
God has sustained me, He is with me constantly, He has blessed me over and over, in many ways, large and small. My KJV large print Bible has been a huge source of encouragement and it has all sorts of underlinings and notes, dates, etc. written in it through many years of reading it, even before God took my DH home.
In the past couple of years I’ve seen blogs and you tube videos about journaling in your Bibles. Well, I can tell you that I was NOT impressed by some of it, and still don’t like covering total pages of scripture so that you can’t even read what it says anymore. What good is that? Just my personal opinion. I was turned off by the whole concept.
Recently, I saw some videos again, and one had this Inspire Bible which really caught my attention. It spoke to ‘FlowerLady’s’ heart. From the box it came in, to the page edges and all of the wonderful drawings just waiting to be colored. It is a wonderful way to sit quietly and meditate on whatever portion of scripture happens to be featured in the drawings. I ordered the large print edition, for my aging eyes to be able to read and color comfortably.
Page edges
As you open the Bible.
Right off, I went to 1 Peter 5:7 and wrote a note. This is the scripture that my DH called out to me one day as I came in the door from work. He was bedridden, and it was a little less than a month before God called him home. This verse is very encouraging to me and I am thankful for those words from the ‘love-of-my-life’.
I then started going page by page and found two pages, maybe 4 chapters missing, only pieces left in the middle. I thought ‘oh no!’ I didn’t feel I could send it back to Amazon with my personal notes written in it, and was bummed out. I later decided it couldn’t hurt to email a note to the publishers telling them my story. I heard back and they asked for a photo, the ISBN # and my address. I did what she asked and they sent me a new Bible. Thank you Tyndale Publishing for your kindness. If I had found the missing pages ‘before’ I wrote anything in it, I would have sent it back through Amazon. (The box hadn’t been tampered with, it was all fresh and tight, so it must have happened when it was being put together.)
I traced a flower drawing into my Bible and colored it in with crayons since that is what I had. Not very nice to work with at all. But it got my creative juices going.
I watched some videos of different ladies who are into Bible journaling and saw their reviews of different colored pencils, etc. Oh my. I did googling and read reviews also, and decided to get a set of 36 Faber-Castell colored pencils. They are made in Germany, and are made of oil, not wax. I would have loved to have gotten the complete set, but that is way out of my budget. I have picked out 15 individual colors I’d like to add to my collection which to me will round out the color selection nicely, but can’t afford that right now. (Before I ordered these, I looked out in the workshop to see if DH had any colored pencils in his stash of artist supplies. He had oils, acrylics, and pastels, but no colored pencils. Not to say there positively aren’t any, but I didn’t come across them right then.)
These Faber-Castell pencils are a joy to work with. I’ve much to learn in using them and in becoming a better artist. I’ve painted in oils and watercolors before, but that was many, many years ago. DH was the artist and I could always get pointers and tips from him.
I picked this little set below up at Target the other day, Prismacolor Premier Botanical Garden set of 12, for $9.99. Prismacolor was another brand with high reviews. They are made of wax though, and some have said the lead breaks easily when you sharpen the pencils. So far, I’ve not had any problem with sharpening them. These colors are so delicate and pretty.
Here are some of my colorings.
This verse really speaks to me
and reminds me of another verse that isn’t featured in this Bible as a drawing, but I will quote it here.
Philippians 4:13 ~ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
With that, I will close this post. I look forward to many hours of creatively meditating on God’s words.
Love, hugs & prayers ~ FlowerLady
