3.23.2015

Bible and Art Journaling

My lovely brain twin, kindred spirit, cousin-friend Mandy introduced me to Bible Journaling! Awesome! Then through my searches on Pinterest for Bible journaling inspiration, I noticed this thing called Art Journaling, particularly the idea to use old books for same.
My six year old daughter Cali is going through a very artistic stage and so this has become something fun we can do together. The possibilities are really endless... I have posted a few pictures of a couple of entries in my art journal and as you can tell, I LOVE color and playing with color. In my art journal, I can practice doodling letters, etc. and even preserve samples and ideas for future projects, wishes etc. Also, via Pinterest, I have discovered Zentangles. I have doodled for years and actually made some Zentangles and did not even know it was a thing! Other people do what I do... I never realized how validating that would be to find a whole creative community lol... weird but true...

Be aware, that if you delve in to the Zentangle world too much, some of the blogs and info out there can get very Eastern Religion-y... however you can take the whole meditation and clearing your mind while you Zentangle and apply it to clearing your mind and meditating on scripture or prayer. For me, when I am doodling or really creating any art, I tend to sponge whatever is going on in the background. Like the other night when I was working in my art journal, HGTV's House Hunters was on in the background. The next day when I went to re-work the project because it had fallen apart, I immediately remembered the House Hunters episode and all the details...

So anyway my artistic spirit is taking on a whole new life and I am very excited about where it's taking me.

Bible journaling... there is a community on Facebook, of mostly women, who use scripture as art prompts and are illustrating what various passages speak to them. It's kind of beautiful to look at... it also can be very intimidating because there are some uber talented artist whose doodles look like fine art, but the trick is to not compare yourself to others, be content and be inspired by your own work.

Matthew has gotten a lot of those kind of lectures from me lately. He is constantly comparing himself to others and finding ways that he comes up short or may be being slighted by others. It's for sure a lesson he is going to have to learn but all I can do is continue to reiterate to be happy with what he has and not to compare himself to others. It's a dangerous thing, comparing yourself to others, because you can always find someone that is better than you at something... you can also always find someone who is worse than you. Keep your eyes on your own paper, is what I always say.

1 comment:

Mandalynn said...

I love everything Bible and art journaling. I didn't know it was a "thing" either!! :) But LOVE that it is!! And, I love the inspiration from those facebook groups, but I can struggle with the comparison game, too. Sometimes more than others.

We're doing this Bible study right now (Abbey, and a few of her friends & their moms) called "Lies Young Women Believe: And the Truth that Sets Them Free". There's a book for *just* women, but they're pretty much the same. I believe there's value in continually speaking truth over our children. Even when it looks like it may not quite be penetrating quite yet :) That's the frustrating part for me!! LOL This book is pretty good so far!

You're doing great! Keep speaking Truth over Him, praying for him, building him up. I've also found (wow, not to highjack your post or anything) that I can dwell too much on what's going wrong/what they're doing wrong, that I forget to mention what they do right, to build them up with pointing out the good in their character :) I am working on that. LOL It's not easy to remember when there are paper shredder papers all over your bedroom floor because someone was playing Spiderman & needed something as his "web." Ugh...