Crafting with Jesus

This verse is my life verse. I know a lot of people may think it's strange that my life verse is such a seemingly sad verse. Who wants to talk about suffering? But I came upon this verse when I was going through a trial in my life. I couldn't comprehend why God would let what was happening happen. I was desperate for an answer. And He gave me this beautiful verse. You will be overjoyed when His glory is revealed in you. Overjoyed, I have to say, is not often a word people say in the same sentence as suffering. God showed me in this verse that I can rejoice in sufferings not just because I will be overjoyed when His glory is revealed in me, but I can rejoice because I'm participating int he sufferings of Christ. What an incredible gift it is that we get to follow Jesus even in His suffering. And so we're called to rejoice. I would love to say that I read this verse during the trial and said to myself, oh well now that you said that, I'm not sad any more. It didn't happen like that; trials, suffering, is hard. But God showed me during that trial how to rejoice. He showed me to rejoice in friendship, He showed me to rejoice in family, He showed me to rejoice in the time I have with friends and family because I never know when that time will end. However, God also has shown me over the past couple of years His glory in the situation. He's shown me how it brought me closer to Him, and so much more. And that's why I made this crayon art. It's a long time coming since this verse has been on my heart for five years. But the beauty of it is that God breathed into my life through this verse, and He similarly breathed into my life now five years later through this crayon art. So, friends, remember that God has not left you. That even when it feels like it's raining all around you, His glory is right around the corner. Even if you can't see it now. He has a plan.

I have to be honest. This one is probably my least favorite I've done. I mean, for real, the feet are gigantic. Why did I make them so incredibly deformed? Anyway, although I don't like the final product that much, I think God used it to teach me quite a few lessons. 

Lesson 1: Not everything I try to do will turn out the way I want it to. Case in point: giant red feet. But that's ok. My roommates are wonderful. When we were deciding which crayon arts to hang downstairs, they chose this one as one of them. And I don't think they'll ever know how much that meant to me. And what this says to me is that although it didn't turn out how I wanted it to, it still made an impact in someone's life. And that's what mattered. This shows me that even through my imperfect hands, God spoke. 

Lesson 2: I can't fix everything. This week has been rough, not for me, but for many of my friends. And all I want to do is fix it. I want to fix what's going wrong in their lives so they can feel joy and happiness in their lives once more. But just as I can't fix the giant red feet in this crayon art, I can't fix their problems. I can just be there for them if they need to talk, and pray that Jesus would bring them closer to Him. 

Original motivation: My original motivation for this crayon art was to show that God is with me always. In the days surrounded in joy where I can feel His face shining on me, and in the days I feel like I'm walking alone in the oceans. You might recognize the whole 'footprints in the sand' motif. And I did use that as a template because I needed to be reminded that God doesn't leave. That God doesn't let go when I'm struggling, and that even though I may feel like I'm incredibly far away from God, He is right there holding me, telling me that He loves me dearly, and asking me to come back to Him. Asking me to follow Him once more, and leave all of the sin in my life behind. 

This crayon art was a difficult one for me to make because it was so personal, and so deep and so true. This verse is comforting. To know that God sees the pain we go through and how it affects us. It paints a picture that we do not go through our pain alone. We do not suffer alone, because Jesus knows what suffering is in life. And I've definitely had my share of tears. I'm sure there are quite a few bottles of my tears up in heaven. But God is comforting. God has given me peace. My tossings are in His book, and He has used each one to help me grow closer to Him. What the devil may have intended as evil in my life, God has used for my good and His glory. 

So I'm back!! I went on a vacation to the beautiful state of Alaska for a couple of weeks with my family, but now I'm back home :). I'm really excited to share the inspiration behind this crayon art. I know you've probably read this verse a thousand times and thought to yourself that it doesn't really apply to you because you don't partake in any kind of sexual immorality. But that's not the entire instruction from this verse. Recently, God has shown me just how unhealthy my eating habits had become. It's not something new, I've had unhealthy eating habits from middle school, but I started realizing how it was affecting every part of my life. I would drive instead of bike to places I used to bike to, I wouldn't play more physical games with the Navs because I was embarrassed by my body size. And more than that, I could feel the effects that my unhealthy eating habits had garnered and it was draining me. Then recently my dad, who recently lost 100 lbs on nutrisystem, offered to pay for me to be on nutrisystem to lose weight. At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to give up the foods like chocolate and pizza and other unhealthy foods. Then I prayed about it and asked God if this was something He wanted me to do. And I didn't get an answer, instead I got this verse. And that's when I realized what this verse means. I meditated on the fact that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit is within me. And that is when I realized what I was doing to the Holy Spirit by eating unhealthily. And that eating unhealthy foods wasn't just hurting me, it was hurting God. I was being gluttonous with my eating habits, and that wasn't honoring God or the Holy Spirit. I wasn't glorifying God by eating pizza and other unhealthy foods. And that's when I got my answer. God showed me that I didn't need to lose weight to be pretty or beautiful, He made me beautiful whatever shape I'm in. However, I do need to develop healthier eating habits because I can no longer justify treating my body, or the Holy Spirit this way. So I am starting nutrisystem this week. And I'm extremely excited. Not because I want to be skinny, but because I want to be healthy. It's going to be difficult. And I know that I'm going to have to rely on God a lot of times when all I really want to do is eat a chocolate bar instead of eating a healthier snack. I am so thankful that God has added to my adventures this year with nutrisystem. And I'm so thankful for my father for supporting me, and for my roommates for the encouragement they've provided. I probably won't be blogging about how I'm feeling on NS, but if God does inspire me to do another crayon art involving it, I will post that. 

So a few days ago I moved in with new roommates. And before I moved, God really put it on my heart to make crayon arts for them. After asking them what verse was on their heart, I got to work. I know I've said this before, but making crayon art for someone often gives me an even greater intimacy with God as I trust that He will show me what He wants to say to the person I'm making it for. I am so excited for the next year living with these wonderful women in Christ. Just in the past few days, Jesus has used them to further the change He started in me this summer. For most of my adult life, I have watched a lot of tv shows. To the point that it was a large part of my life. And over the summer, I realized that my priority in life had become TV and not God. And so I asked God to transform that. And He did. He showed me that I needed to start my day in Him and not in TV, so I didn't watch tv before noon. And then I moved in with my new roommates, and I realized that yesterday was the first time I watched tv in four days. And not only that, I didn't miss it. I didn't feel like there was something missing from my life. I am so excited to see how God furthers this change in the rest of this year. 

To the crayon arts. To be honest, even though these verses were on someone else's heart, they touched my heart as well. I love hearing what verses are on people's hearts because I get to meditate on verses that I might not have noticed otherwise. The first one is my favorite out of the three (the fourth one in this picture is one I made for myself, which I will have a whole different blog post about it another time). It's special because the friend of mine who I made it for actually asked me to make it. I wanted to make one for her, but I have to admit that it made me feel special that someone liked my crayon arts so much that they wanted one. Not that I don't enjoy surprising people with crayon arts. Anyway, I now love this verse. Before she told me about it, I had no idea what it meant or what it was about, and to be honest I have probably read over it multiple times without taking notice. But, now it has a special place in my heart. I think my favorite thing in a commentary about this verse is this: Those whom God has mercy in store for he first brings into a wilderness —into solitude and retirement, that they may the more freely converse with him out of the noise of this world,—into distress of mind, through sense of guilt and dread of wrath, which brings a soul to be quite at a loss in itself and bewildered, and by those convictions he prepares for consolations,—and sometimes into outward distress and trouble, thereby to open the ear to discipline. That right there touched my heart in ways I can't describe. And it was one reason I knew God was speaking to me to choose this verse to do a crayon art on for her.  The other reason was that when she was looking through her favorite verses, this one jumped out at her. And I knew right at that moment that it would be the one I would do because that’s how God shows me the verses that He wants me to make into crayon art. I love this verse. I will speak tenderly (and) to her heart. This verse is such a picture of intimacy with God. I cannot think of a more intimate thing than being spoken to tenderly by my God. And when I realize this, I saw the deeper meaning of this verse. That God brings us into the wilderness in our lives in order to speak tenderly to our hearts; in order to bring us away from every day distractions and bring us closer to Him. This is such encouragement. And I am so thankful for the person who I made this crayon art for, for introducing me to this verse, and for introducing me to this deeper comfort.

The second one: I have to be honest; this was not a verse that meant a whole lot to me in my life. But in a way that was good, because it meant that I had to rely even more on God to speak to me about this verse and the person I was making it for. That being said, there’s something about this verse that gives me such hope. Call to me and I will answer you. Just meditate on that for a minute. Call to God and He WILL answer you. Let me just point out what this verse does not say: it does not say He will say yes to your prayers. It does not say that He will give you what you are praying for right when you pray for it. But it does, however, say that He will answer you. Whether it’s a yes, no, or wait, that’s up to God. Sometimes when we don’t get the answer we want, or when we get the answer ‘wait’, we seem to think that God isn’t answering our prayers. But we don’t see the bigger picture. We don’t see how God is going to use the situation, or even the waiting, to bring us closer to Him. Sometimes, God uses waiting to bring us into a deeper relationship with Him that we might not have experienced otherwise.

The third one: when I read this verse, I immediately knew the words that stood out to me. The Lord delights in you. Isn’t that such a weird concept? That my God not only loves me, but He delights in me as well. That He finds great joy in me. Wow. I am so unworthy, and yet this. Wow. Just take a minute right where you are and sit in that thought. And I have to say that the person I gave this to’s response was one that gave me such joy and happiness. Earlier, I was talking to a group of friends, and one of them revealed how much they hate getting gifts. They said how quite a lot of gifts tend to be more about the person doing the giving than the person the gift was intended for. And although I don’t share this opinion, I was definitely convicted about that thought, and reminded that I need to make sure that the crayon arts I made were not for me. That even in giving them, that the joy I felt from the person’s feelings about the crayon art could not be my main purpose in creating these crayon arts. Not that it has been, I constantly am asking God whether I want to make the crayon art because I want the person to like me more, or whether it truly is Him putting them on my heart.

I love this verse. It speaks of contentment, and guidance, and restoration. And that's one of the reasons I felt God calling me to make this crayon art.  I found myself deeply concerned with my future. I was starting to worry about the next year, and where I would get a job, and if I would be able to save up a good amount of money for when I go to grad school. Then I started worrying, what if I didn't have enough money. And it went on. And then I revisited this verse. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Such beauty in this verse. Such comfort. The Lord is my Shepherd, I SHALL NOT WANT. Here, God is telling me that when I let Him be my Shepherd, when I let Him guide me, I shall not want. And oh how I want that feeling of contentment. 

Contentment, to me, is so beautiful. It is a true picture of having the peace of Jesus in you so full that the rest of the world cannot touch it. I've met people with this kind of peace, and it's amazing. It's inspiring. When we let this peace in our lives, the troubles of this world will pale in comparison to the glory of God. Contentment doesn't just mean being ok with everything around you, in my opinion. Because contentment without Jesus is just not caring. Contentment should be filled with Jesus' love. So that you look at everything through His eyes, and see that it is going to be ok. 

This verse convicts my heart so much. And that's one of the reasons that God put this crayon art idea on my heart. It was at a time when God had made it clear that He had something different planned for my life than I had. And after I gave up what I thought was my dream, God didn't tell me right away what career He wanted me to have, or where He wanted me to go after college. In fact, I didn't even hear a tiny whisper of any kind of direction in my life for probably four or five months. And I began to wonder if God even had a plan for my life. And I started worrying about what I would do after college, and well... God placed this verse straight in front of my eyes and said: stop it Amanda. Stop worrying. Because if God clothes the grass of the field that is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, HOW MUCH MORE will He clothe you? How much more. This verse isn't saying that God will clothe you like He clothes the grass of the field. It's saying how much more God will clothe you. How much more God will provide for you, and how much MORE God will always be there for you no matter what you go through. How. Much. More.

And although the design on this crayon art was a true blessing from God in how it came out, it is the verse that grips my heart every time I see it. Because every time I see this verse hanging on my wall I am reminded how much more my God wants to love me, if only I would have a little more faith and trust in Him. 

Today I want to talk about a crayon art that I made for my father this year. My father recently lost a lot of weight, and that gave me such inspiration to start eating healthier, exercise more and just live a life more glorifying to the Lord in the body that He gave me. Seeing my dad commit to nutrisystem for a whole year was such a great example for my brother and I, and that's why I chose this verse for him. Because he showed us what it meant to not lose heart in the day to day. You may see the dramatic weight loss now, and see how incredible he looks, but it wasn't something he did over night. It was something he battled and chose to pursue daily. He chose to pursue healthier living every day. And sometimes it wasn't easy for him. I know that at first, I didn't understand just how hard it was for him, and I didn't support him through my eating habits. I think back to the earlier days, and I regret that I did not join him in eating healthy out of support and love for him. The point I'm trying to make is that this is something we all should be doing. Not just in eating healthy and exercising, but in pursuing Christ. Our relationship with Christ should not be one that is visited every once in a while. Our relationship with Christ should be one that we pursue daily, and one that we pursue even in the face of people who don't support us. 

And that's one part of what this verse means to me. We need to pursue Christ daily, and not lose heart at the battle that might entail. A few weeks ago in bible study we talked about what it looked like to not pursue a relationship with Christ daily. And we talked about withering away until you die, like a tree that does not receive water. But I think I know another analogy. Not pursuing a relationship with Christ daily is like not pursuing healthy eating and exercising daily. You gain wait little by little, adjusting to each new size, and then before you know it, you are over-weight. Not pursuing Christ, you get a little further away until before you know it, you're in a crisis and you realize that you don't feel close to Christ any more. Any way, that's just a little bit of a rambling thought that might've gotten away from me. Back to the crayon art...

The second part of this verse that I love is that we are renewed day by day. God doesn't just tell us to not lose heart, He tells us that we will be renewed daily. And that's one of the reason I chose the lay out of this crayon art. Like a sunrise, God renews a beauty in us every day if we let Him. 

I think some of the most difficult crayon arts are the ones I make for others. When someone has a verse on their heart, and it's not one that speaks to my life, it forces me to rely on God even more. Because when I'm not using how this verse applies to my life in the colors and the shapes in the crayon art, I have to rely on God that He will show me how a verse is impacting the life of the person I'm making the crayon art for. And trusting that however it turns out, that God made it how the person wanted to see it. 

I made this crayon art because I often found myself forgetting the cost of this grace God has blessed me with. I found myself saying that Jesus died for me on the cross without truly feeling in my core what that meant. And I felt really convicted of the fact that I've become desensitized to the cost of the cross. And that's when Jesus inspired me to create this. I used dripping red crayon to represent what the cost of my salvation was, and whenever I see this hanging on my wall I am reminded that Jesus didn't just die on the cross to save me from my sins, He died the death that I deserved. Whatever it takes for you to remember, remember. Write it on your hand, your wall, your forehead. So that every time you see it you are reminded of the cost of the grace you are blessed with every day. 

This crayon art was difficult for me to make. But I really felt like God was placing this verse on my heart, and I had to get it out. To reconcile what this verse truly meant. Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice! What this verse isn't saying: rejoice only when things are going well, or when God gives you good things. What this verse is emphatically saying: Rejoice always. And just incase you may have missed the message of the verse, it's stated twice. This is not an easy concept to think about. We should be rejoicing when we're suffering, when we're being prosecuted, even when we're in pain. And that's why I used the colors that I chose. As you can see, I put rejoice in yellows and greens, and always in dark blues. To me, this means that we should rejoice in the Lord when we're walking in the green pastures, and feeling God's love shining on our faces. But we should also rejoice in the Lord when we're in the ocean feeling overwhelmed by the situation we're going through. 

This crayon art is very special to me as it is the first crayon art that I made for someone who is not related to me. After we talked that day, I immediately knew that God was calling me to make this wonderful Christian woman a crayon art that would show her exactly how wonderful God made her. 

This crayon art is very dear to my heart. I had just started the book Mended by Angie Smith, and I was enjoying it so much. The first chapter absolutely touched my heart, and I knew that God was telling me to make this crayon art. The quote I have on here is; "There is no brokenness that God cannot make whole". And oh how true that is. God is a Healer, and  He heals our brokenness. 

When I first began crayon art, I hadn't yet discovered using bible verses. I did these three pieces for christmas. 

The first piece on the far left is the crayon art I made for my father. He took a picture of our dock at sunset, and it looked similar to this. I loved that picture he took so much, as did he, that I decided to make a crayon art interpretation of it. Below this, you can see the beautiful picture he took.

This picture, to me, represents how beautiful a painter God is. Just look at the sky, pink, yellow, orange, purple. Wow. And that's another reason I wanted to do this crayon art for him. So he could look at it and remember that the God who created this masterpiece in the sky loves him more than anything. 

I made the middle painting for my brother. It's a kangaroo with a bow tie (bow ties are cool) jumping on a trampoline while it's raining. Just a little weird :) In a way, this painting describes a part of my brother. He's a little strange in quite a few ways. But in only good ways. This painting is a little weird, but in a good way. 

The last painting, I made for my mom. My mom has a sort of beach themed bedroom, and I wanted to make her a crayon art that would fit into her decor.  I became fascinated with the idea of a crayon art wave. So after taping the edges of where I wanted the wave (so it wouldn't go out of the border area), I began using darker crayons, to lighter crayons. Each new crayon I used, I began a little in the darker area, and carried it out. Of the art pieces I've done, it's my absolute favorite. 

"Relations must in a special manner be careful and tender of one another in affliction: A brother is born to succour ( give assistance and support to) a brother or sister in distress, to whom he is joined so closely by nature that he may the more sensibly feel from their burdens, and be the more strongly inclined and engaged, as it were by instinct, to help them. We must often consider what we were born for, not only as men, but as in such a station and relation. Who knows but we came into such a family for such a time as this? We do not answer the end of our relations if we do not do the duty of them. Some take it thus: A friend that loves at all times is born (that is, becomes) a brother in adversity, and is so to be valued." - Matthew Henry Commentary on Proverbs 17:17

My brother is a great man. A month or so ago he traveled with a bunch of other Navigators to Tennessee for STP (Summer Training Program) (he's still there ). During this program, he has been working at Dollywood, and training in evangelism and other disciplines of following Christ. I am so proud of him and who he is becoming by following Christ. 

My brother and I didn't always get along. In fact, there was almost nothing that we agreed on. Yes, we even had an argument about the color of the sky. I think what really changed our relationship was when I went to college. We became less like siblings, and more like friends. We found tv shows that we loved, and watched together. We spent time together, and we really got to know who we had each become. And I began to realize what Proverbs 17:17 really meant. It didn't mean that my brother was born to give me adversity, but that he was born to help me through my adversity. 

Now I come to my next crayon art. I made this one for his birthday when he turned 20 (ahhh!). My idea with this was to sort of reinvent the birthday card. On the back of this canvas, I wrote my message to him. This way, whenever he doesn't have a good day, he can look at this and know that his sister loves him. 

The design was not only to represent what tv shows we love, but also to represent how far we have come. That is what God showed me through this piece. How much of a friend I have in my brother, and how much of a blessing he is in my life. 

The pineapple is from one of our favorite shows, Psych. We started watching this when we were both in high school. Watching it with him makes it funnier. I've watched it on my own before, and it's just not the same. It's like a part of the show is missing when I watch it without him. 

The stapler in the jello is from The Office. I started watching this show my freshman year in college on a recommendation from my roommate at the time. I quickly fell in love with the show, and watched the entire thing. That summer I went home, and introduced Nick to the show. I re-watched all 4 or 5 seasons (can't remember how many at the time), and then we began watching the new seasons together. I'm so sad this show is over. It was truly one of our favorites. Mostly because of the pranks between Dwight and Jim. That was our favorite part of this show.

The TARDIS is, of course, from Doctor Who. We haven't been watching the show from it's start. In fact, we began watching the show on a recommendation from my best friend. The first episode we watched barely even had the Doctor in it! But we were hooked. We loved the Sci-fi, the acting, and the writing. We also loved that they relied on the good acting, and writing rather then on any kind of foul language or such. Since then, we have probably seen all of the episodes two or three times. 

The last picture on there is of the ducky tie from How I Met Your Mother. I really enjoyed that this show was a lot like friends, and it was really fast paced and goofy. My brother actually watched this show before me, and I caught up over one winter break. 

So crayon art is one of my passions in life. I've only been doing it for a little under a year, but it has quickly become one of my favorite things to do. And not because it looks pretty to hang on my wall, or because it makes me feel accomplished. But because every piece of crayon art is a project that I feel like I'm working on with Jesus. It's an expression of my love for Him, and when I see it at the end, I see how much it is an expression of His love for me. 

This is one of the first pieces I did. It was supposed to be a map with a couple of crayon dots. It quickly became an epic mess. But I decided to keep it because it reminded me that I'm not perfect, and that not everything I try will succeed. Despite it not looking like I wanted it to, I still like it. In that way, it reminds me that even when we think a situation didn't end up like we wanted it to, sometimes it's for the best. Sometimes God knows what is best for us when we don't.