Marbelized paper heart craft

Making marbelized paper is so easy and so much fun! And as a bonus - it leaves the whole house smelling great :)

Instructions:
Spray a wallop of shaving cream onto a tray. Add food coloring. Stir colors with a stick into whatever pattern you please. Have fun with it.
Push a piece of white paper into the shaving cream. Pull out. Wipe off all the shaving cream (it comes off really easily) and be amazed by the lovely marbelized colors.
Add some more food coloring if you're going to do more (otherwise colors dull and you lose that marbelized effect).

Now, what to do with all the marbelized paper?
You could
-use it as gift wrapping paper
-cut it into shapes (easter eggs, hearts, animal silhouettes)
-use it to make lovely gift boxes

Here's another idea: make a julehjert: a woven paper heart. Why woven? Because you can use woven hearts as gift 'boxes' - by which I mean, you can put something in the hearts.

I used the marbelized paper and a piece of matching colored paper to make this heart. Fold your paper dubbel and cut out template. Do this again with the colored paper. Now start weaving.
For detailed instructions, check out Gingerbreadsnowflakes.com.

I added a paper flower made from crepe paper. Simply cut a couple of layers crepe paper squares. Lay them on top of each other. Fold harmonica style. Staple in the center. Now carefully (crepe tears easily) pull the layers apart. Finally, cut into whatever shape you want the flower to have.
For detailed instructions, check out piecedgoods.workpress.com.

Final result:
Now all I have to do is put a small gift inside and give to someone special as a gift.

Reading the bible with kids

For some time now I've been looking for ways to deepen our bible reading times. For several years now I've been reading to them during breakfast - different children's bibles have crossed our table, stories getting more detailed as the kids grow older. It's been good but now I want more. I am finding that my children know the stories all too well. What they are lacking is how these stories pertain to their lives. Why did God include these stories in the bible? What can we learn from them? About God? About the human race? About ourselves?

I started looking around on the internet for ideas. What do other parents do? And I came across a book called: Together. Growing Appetites for God by Carrie Ward, an everyday mama. Carrie felt God calling her to read the entire bible with her children (3 at the time, all under the age of 4). And she did. Not a children's bible. She actually read the real bible. And her kids were younger than mine are now. So I wondered - would my kids understand the sometimes really hard-to-understand language of the bible? Would their attention drift as mine frequently does when someone else reads out loud from the bible to me? Or would they become rivited as Carrie's children had been?

I decided to do a test drive. In order to have more time I started postphoning my own breakfast so that I could spend that time reading to the kids instead. First I read a story from the children's bible. And then I read that same story from the real bible. I leave the children's bible open so they can look at the amazing artwork while they listen to the same story again. And it's interesting!
The eldest (who is 7yrs) can't wait to hear more. At lunch he will ask if we can continue where we left off in the mornings! The second (6yrs) doesn't seem to be paying much attention but sometimes he'll suddenly say something profound or touch back on something we read later in the afternoons when he's back from school.
Reading from the real bible is sparking discussion. About what certain words mean. About cultural differences: bible times vs. this day and age and middel-eastern ways vs. our ways here. The stories are coming alive!

I'm not sure I'm ready to read the entire bible through from Genesis to Revelation but I am delighted at the positive way the children are responding to being read to from God's Word, just as it is, tough words and all. Since I am half way through a new children's bible at the moment I've decided to finish reading that bible, with parallel readings from God's Word. And I pray that God will reach out and touch their hearts and lives. After all, God promises: "so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11) And that's my prayer: that it may reach our hearts and do God's great work in us.

Religion or Relationship?

When we pray, read the bible, celebrate our faith - are we being religious or working on a relationship?

The difference between Religion and Relationship is the must.
What freedom is ours through Jezus Christ who fulfilled the law - we no longer must, we may.
(The Delta course has an excellent study on The Law and Grace - very interesting!)

Religion says:
I must go to church every Sunday.
I must read my bible every day.
I must pray every day.
I must be active in Christian celebrations and activities.

Relationship says:
I want to know God better and that's why I want to read my bible as much as possible. Because in the bible God tells me about Himself so that I can get to know Him and hear what He has to say to me. I don't have to feel guilty if a day goes by and I haven't managed to find the time to read His Word. I am commiting no sin.
God desires and longs to be in a relationship with me. But His invitations to get to know Him better and to let Him get to know me better are just that: invitations. Invitations I can either choose to accept, or ignore.
God wants to give me His wisdom and love so that I can become more like Him. But in His Love he lets me be free. He doesn't give me unsollicited advise. He doesn't push His way on me. He just waits patiently until I ask Him for advise and He lets me choose to follow Him... or not.

A friend of mine is concert pianist. I once told her that I wished I could play as well as she did. I've never forgotten her surprising answer: 'You can... IF you're willing to practice at it as much as I have'.
It's no different in relationships. I need to ask myself what kind of relationship I want to have with my heavenly Father. And then invest in that relationship accordingly. It's not realistic to expect to be best friends with someone if I never see them or speak to them or even think about them.

There's a difference between disciplining myself to read my bible even though I really don't feel like it because my deepest desire is to be in a very real relationship with my heavenly Father and making 'Daily Bible Reading' a law that may not be broken on penalty of being a bad christian if I do.
The difference is that with discipline I am focussed on the end, on my goal, which is a personal relationship with my Lord. While laws are me focussing on the means, on the daily bible reading and losing sight of the end, of my desire to be in a relationship with God.

So, to recap.
It's good to remain focussed on the end: my desire to be in a personal relationship with the Lord.
It's also good to practice discipline in working to achieve that end (2 Peter 1:6-7).

The pitfall is making the means the end. Reducing the end (relationship with God) to a means (reading the bible every day).

In a sense, religion is the means to the end: relationship.
And the easiest way to tell whether I'm working at religion or relationship is asking myself: must I or may I?

Important note: Must is not the same as 'I don't feel like it right now'. If we only ever did what we felt like doing we'd get nowhere in a hurry. Feelings should be taken into consideration always, but not given the final say.
Important note2: Discipline is not a must, it is a choice. It's a character quality that we can develop by practicing. Practice makes perfect... if we keep practicing. Failing doesn't make us bad christians. God looks at our hearts and sees the longing for relationship there. And He'll meet us where we are if our longing for Him is sincere. And He'll help us develop what we need to become the men and women of God that He created us to be.