Do you know the song?
It’s a song from my childhood.
“He’s got the sun and the rain in his hands.
He’s got the moon and the stars in his hands.
He’s got the wind and clouds in his hands
He’s got the whole world in his hands.”
I hear it in my head, and if I could sing worth anything I would sing it for you all.
One of the last lines is “He’s got everybody, everywhere in his hands.” It’s a child like song, and the message can get lost in the repetitiveness, but when I sit and think about it, I am amazed. I can’t even keep my house in order, but God has the whole world in his hands.
It’s the hard moments, when life isn’t going as planned, when we are forced to sit…maybe be patient…or find contentment in our circumstances that we just don’t like…that trusting this little phrase to be true can seem massively hard. It can feel like you are falling through the gaps in his hands.
I have found myself relearning a hard lesson again. I am not in control. I did my part to prep this house to sell and although I said it is now in God’s hands….I have not been living that in my heart. I thought my beautiful creations and staging could pull them in by now (its been just over two weeks).
Pride and disappointment built a lot of anger. This week was hard. I was annoyed at every showing. It was in my way. It messed with our school day. I was tired of cleaning this house.
I still am.
But my eyes are open. I am not in control. Although I do wish this house would sell, so this phase of waiting is over….it is out of my control.
I sit and wait. Maybe God is not finished with us here or maybe a dream home in IN is not available for us yet. I do not know his plans. I wish I did, but I need to trust that HE does have the whole world in his hands and that includes me and my little world.
No matter what, I want God’s will to reign over our lives. I believe his plan is best. With his plan, is his timing. So, I hang my head, ask my family to forgive my angry, prideful heart, put my trust back in Jesus hands…again. It’s a daily thing. Praise Jesus for Amazing Grace!
I might not be happy to vacuum my house for what seems like the 100th time in a week, but I will smile and be kinder knowing that I have a heavenly father watching over me and he has not forgotten me.
This is a season, I may feel like I can’t do it, but HE can do it through me.
So, friends if you too find yourself in circumstances you don’t like. Drink a cup of something you enjoy, breath, get outside and play, do something you love (like painting a pillowcase), eat some Skittles, buy yourself some flowers, and wait.
We don’t know why we are in these circumstances, we may never know, but we can find peace in knowing God sees the whole story and he still has us in his mighty hands.
As an inward processor, journaling has always been an important part of me working through my thoughts and emotions. I’m finding it’s much harder these days to capture the time I would like to journal well. Rather than just giving up, I’ve decided to try and capture key words and phrases on my art that can help me to process, refocus, and remind me of the things I want my life to be about. These past few weeks I’ve been using my embroidery hoops as a way to create an Embroidery Journal of sorts.
I am still so far from “nailing it” and I know I will never be perfect. I need re-centering on what seems like an hourly basis. But, it was the moment that I was raw, admitted that I cannot do anything on my own, and gave God full control of my life, he said “now I am ready to use you”. I’d like to believe that I’ve “landed the plane” on this one, but I’m guessing this is a lesson I will continually need to relearn.
I have a peace. I am relying on a strength that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I am praying for perspective and love that surpasses all the tired, draining moments. We are adjusting to being new foster parents and shepherding our three littles plus our new foster son’s heart as all of their worlds have been flipped upside down.
Thank you for caring about our journey through this life.
I pray you are able to use your life to SHINE today! Happy weekend friends.
I browsed my scrapbook collection and found a piece that I wanted to use. One 12″ x 12″ piece was enough paper for all four 4″ x 6″ frames. I used the glass from the frame to cut the paper the right size. Once I had four sheets of paper for my frames, I set them aside and started on the letters.
I used just plain brown wrapping paper and stenciled my letters on to it. The brown paper was to act as my guide to cut my burlap latter, since it’s hard to write on burlap. See below.
I picked up my brown paper and placed a small square of burlap behind it. As I cut my letter out, I made sure to cut the burlap layer as well. This gave me a burlap letter without having sharpie markings on it (as sharpie might be the only thing that would have shown a stencil traced on burlap).
After all the letters were in frames, my new wall art was complete! It was such a simple craft. I love that I can easily switch this art out to use the frames for something else, but for now I have some fun, cheap wall art. I want to try this same idea, but with animal silhouettes instead of letters.
I started by folding one of my big pieces of scrapbook paper in half and measuring how much needed to be cut off, so it fit perfectly in my envelope. For other cards I used my cardboard cardstock. The main idea here is to use a thick piece of paper to give it a real greeting card feel while also providing a sturdy pallet for all the embellishments.
Once I had the size of my card, it was my blank canvas to decorate. I started on my first card by ripping the edge around one of my graphics to add a fun textured look.
I cut a piece of burlap slightly bigger than my ripped graphic. I pulled a few strands off the ends of the burlap to create a more fringed look, and used a mini round brad to attach both the graphic and the burlap to my folded card.
I love the layer look and the mix of frayed edges with the clean straight lines of the card’s background. I started playing with my paper and came up with a few other designs. This next one, I cut the graphic out with straight lines (rather than the ripped technique) and glued it to the card. I then ripped a decorative piece of paper to border it. and glued it on top. Lastly, I cut out small burlap circles, pulled out a few strands again (to create a fringe), and used a mini round brad to attach the burlap flower to my card.
I made these so quick. I love the textured look with the burlap, but you can keep your design even simpler. The following two I created with just scrap paper and glued them on the card with my graphic.
These cards are all 5″ x 7″, but I then made some easy smaller ones as well. There are so many possibilities and designs when creating cards with just a few supplies.
These were so easy to make. You could of course create your own printout with a special saying, quote, or picture and that opens the door for even more possibilities. You could also do the same techniques but put it in a frame rather than on a card like I did for my sister 
