Hebrews 10:36
Hi Friends,
Today let’s take a few
moments to venture into the concept of perseverance. What exactly is
perseverance? The dictionary defines
perseverance this way:
Perseverance (noun)
steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state,
etc.,
especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
Wow, hard right? Ugh, who
wants to persevere? That takes work, discipline, and tireless effort.
“There’s so much going on,” you say, “I can’t possible spend copious
amounts of time on something, I already don’t have enough time in my day.”
If you are thinking this, you are not the only one. But how, sad.
This thought process only hinders us from achieving huge accomplishment
and satisfaction.
I like to think of
accomplishment and satisfaction as exercise for the inner self. I don’t
have any scientific proof of this, but I like to think that accomplishment and
satisfaction produce endorphins. Endorphins make us feel good, just like
when we exercise. Endorphins change our
mental state from blah, to awe!
I find myself easily sucked
into the “do the minimum, get it done, get all the items on my list check off,
move on, accomplish more” mind set. But when we do this we are robbing
ourselves of awesomeness.
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| Artwork by Honali Marin |
One of the things I came
away with from this workshop was hand lettering. We had many tools at our
disposal during our Bible journaling time.
There were these awesome markers; the Tombow dual brush tip pens.
Who knew there were special markers for hand lettering! (I certainly
didn’t). During the next few weeks I started doing research, watching YouTube
tutorials, amassing supplies and practicing. I won’t go into details
about paper quality, brush tip sizes etc. as that is not the point of writing
this, but I want to allude to the fact that there is a lot of information that
goes into any endeavor.
I found that hand
lettering, for me, is therapeutic. It’s something I can do while my
family is in the living room playing games or reading books out loud.
It’s something that I can do to keep my hands and mind busy but still be
a part of what’s going on around me. In short, a relaxing multitasking
effort.
Hand lettering is not
something that I was good at when I started… the middle of April… but over the
past couple months I have improved. I’ve kept my scratch paper practice
sheets, and it’s very rewarding to see the progress and improvement. It makes me feel good about my effort and
motivates me to keep practicing to get even better. I cannot say I have
mastered hand lettering but I’m enjoying the process.
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| Artwork by Honali Marin |
In the process of watching
tutorials, I found yet another fun, creative way to organize myself. Bullet
journaling. One of the YouTube videos
mentioned their bullet journal and explained how they use hand lettering in
that creative process. I thought, “what is bullet journaling?” That question led to more research and more
awesome discovery. I do not bullet
journal my whole month, but I’ve found that there are certain aspects I love.
Getting thoughts on paper in a creative way, helps me clear the
overflowing boxes in my head. When I
write it down I tend to remember it.
When I write it down it’s concrete and holds me more accountable. When I
write it down in color and use creativity doing it I unwind and have a place to
look back on whatever I want to remember.
Watching bullet journaling
tutorials and ideas led to another discovery. Traveler’s notebooks. Again, I asked myself, “What in the world is
a traveler’s notebook (TN)?”. Wow! Mind blown. Now I have a place to keep all my
creativity. I couldn’t find papers I
wanted for different processes, so I bought paper that would suit my purposes,
cut them down to size, folded the paper in half, created a cardstock cover and
sewed it all together and voila, I had a custom-made place to keep my birthday
lists, motivational sayings, Exercise logs, food logs, and much more. I know all the information and ideas I’ve
taken out of my head are not bouncing around on scratch paper, or post-its, I
can find them easily and my mind is not swimming in so much “noise”. I
can put my finger on whatever it is I need easily.
Why did I go into all this
detail about my newest hobby? To illustrate that perseverance makes your life
better. Back to the beginning, Bible journaling, the whole activity that
started this journey. I find myself
excited to spend time in the Word. My devotional time has become fun “I
want to” time, instead of “I should” time.
Instead of just glazing over words, most of which I’ve heard or ready
many times in my life, I use the process to bring the Bible to life.
1.
Pray - Ask the Holy Spirit to be present in your time in God’s Word.
2.
3.
Read - Read a portion of scripture.
4.
5.
Ask - What stands out in
the passage?
6.
- What does this passage say about God?
- How does this passage
inform how I live?
4.
Respond - Use the margin of your Bible to create an image as a response
to what you learned through these three questions:
5.
a.
What images come to mind?
b.
c.
What phrase or verse will you highlight?
d.
e.
What colors come to mind?
f.
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| Artwork by Honali Marin |
From finding your
inspiration, getting into shape, or finding peace in the chaos, your journey
awaits. And remember to persevere, it will take you from blah to awe
and ahhh!
- Honali Marin