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Image Bearer - Creative Life - by Wendy

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The easy answer to this question is that I am a quilter. I love colour, texture and fabric. I am a toucher, a feeler of beautiful (to me)things. I love how cutting and piecing merge the skills of precision and creative art. The process of unfolding from thoughts to vision to substance is magical to me. And healing. Soul satisfying. Quilting has been on my ‘wish’ list for some time, and 2 years ago I was invited to join a women’s quilting group at a local Baptist church. It has been a beautiful fit for me - a safe ‘coming home’. I have had a rough and rocky history with the formal church. Much to my surprise, and delight, I have found true friendship, open hearts and minds, and a sister-welcome into their group. If there has ever been a time that I would consider ‘church’ attendance, it is because of this group of women, who range in ages from early 40s, to 90. Such rich experiences, and profound wisdom. Commonalities and differences. Open hearts. It surprised me, honestly....
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A Creative Life to Honour a Creative God - by Margaret

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In the beginning God created.  To work, build, make beautiful things, brings us joy as we have been wonderfully made in God’s image as creators.   I am a carpenters daughter.  I remember the joy my father had in building, creating, doing.  He loved to serve with his hands.  My mother grew up during WWII so she was a master at making beautiful things with limited resources.  She could sew, knit, cook and make laundry folding look like an art form.  She too felt that she served God, her family and her community through her varied gifts.  They lived generous, joyful, purposeful, God honouring lives, and we as children were blessed by their example.   As a child I loved the library. I loved the colourful books filled with crafts that I could make. I remember the Christmas my parents gave me a large box jam-packed with craft supplies. The rainbow of craft paper, scissors, glue, tape, markers, and paint kept me creatively blissful for a l...
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Creativity - by Anna

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I do not think of myself as a creative person so this was a hard topic for me to write on. I am not naturally artistic – I do not paint, sew, draw, quilt, dance, play any musical instrument (other than the stereo) or even know how to apply makeup on myself – other than a smear of lipstick every now and then. But I do love looking at art, listening to music, seeing the love, work and effort someone has put into a dress, quilt, painting and so forth. And I love the colours and patterns and beauty that God shows to me in his creation. The sunrises I get to enjoy each morning that I drive the bus. The calming motions of the waves against the shore. The beauty of so many birds, creatures and animals in all their colours, shapes and the sounds that they make. The sound of the wind in the trees and how they bend so gracefully like they are dancing with each other. The majesty of the mountains – that I have only seen in pictures – but how I imagine they must be – so large and permanent...
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onward - by Heather

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I. I have been working in retail for a long time.  I mean, it’s alright. I like a lot of the people I work with, and sometimes the job is actually fun. And even, once in a while, fulfilling. But it’s time to move on. II. I have dreamed of going back to school for a long time. But, for what?? What do I want to do with my life? And, most importantly, How can I afford it?? I’m not exactly wealthy. And I have three kids. Three amazing kids. Kids who like things like eating and wearing clothes and seeing in the dark and waking up warm and going places. So I can’t just quit my job, can I? Or… can I? III. So, as it happens, I stumbled onto a path that I would never have found any other way. And this path has brought me to school. Getting to school was challenging. From finding my SIN card to getting OSAP to talking to my boss to getting everything I needed for school, this path has been… Bumpy. One hurdle after another, for ...
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Peace - by Anna

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My word – PEACE So for this year I have chosen the word PEACE. I picked this word for a number of reasons. Last year my sister gave me a necklace with the word PEACE written on it. That was the start – the little seed. I will admit though I didn't think much of it until around Christmas when I was feeling uncertain about how “Christmas” was going to go this year. So I started searching for answers and that is when I once again found the necklace my sister had given to me. My life has been a little topsy turvey over the last couple years and I want peace in my life. That gentle assurance that all is going to be okay. I want peace with myself and the choices and decisions I have made. I want peace with my children as I try to raise them in the ways of the LORD. I want peace with my prodigal when we discuss how to raise our children. I want peace with my family and with my husbands family. I want peace with my friends and with my children's friends. I want my home to be a plac...
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Trust - by Shelley

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I had not had a Crohn’s flare in eleven years.  Not through all the stresses and changes of bowel surgery, nearly losing my Mom to septic shock, stillbirth, c-section and funeral, job change, town move, new school, brand new house, new work.  Not once.  I have been bowel-perfect as proven by no symptoms, clear bloodwork and normal biennial colonoscopies and biopsies.  Prior to this, I was in flare for three years.  New parent, no strength, no stamina, continuous gut and joint pain, exhaustion, hunger, weight loss, constant diarrhea.  A Crohn’s flare garners little sympathy and understanding from others partly because the sufferer learns to deny or hide it well.  Three years of this, despite proper medication.  “A thorn was given to me in the flesh… Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness”.  2 Cor 12:7-9 Then God ...
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Focus Words - by Margaret

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I have had a longterm relationship with annual practice of New Years goal setting.  I still get excited by the act of putting to paper my ordinary and optimistic ideas and goals as I look to the year ahead. And better yet, to review the previous years goals to see what was achieved, or not, but more so to see if I was still in the same place- or how I have grown or changed. I have never used an annual theme word or verse, but I know others who have.  That said, I have recently been using a focus word to mark seasons I have been working through.  Not intentionally- but they came and felt right. Simplicity was the first word I adopted with intention.  When everything in life seemed a bit too much - I embraced this word.  I found word art- placed it on my fireplace mantel to keep it front and centre. Years ago I had worked through Richard Foster's 'Celebration of Discipline’ ( a book I highly recommend-BTW).  I revisited the chapter on Simplicity and mad...
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My word - by Wendy

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I get bored really easily. My mind wanders quickly to a deeper, related thought. Or a completely different one. Or planet. I have very low tolerance for (my own description) of nonsense. For example, jokes that target particular groups, superficial chit chat (glad you can’t read my mind, lol!), gossip. Large parties are a nightmare for me. You would find me in the kitchen, finding a useful task, or, worse case scenario, plotting my ‘socially appropriate’ escape plan. I am happy to be at a life stage now where saying ‘no, not for me’ is easy. My 2018 experiment is to listen better when I really don’t want to. At least longer, working at staying in the conversation at hand. Resisting my well developed and ingrained habit of moving on. I have observed, and maybe even learned some things in this short experimental time frame. How people start conversations is rarely where the conversation goes. People do want to engage in interesting topics, perhaps not quite knowing how to get the dan...
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What makes my heart sing - by Brooke

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“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” ~Ephesians 5:1 Our family likes to go for walks in the evening. Often, our son will fall in step directly behind my husband and will do his best to take the exact big steps that his father is taking in front of him. It’s a stretch and sometimes not so pretty to watch, but as time has goes by, he is able imitate this pace. What a sweet picture of how we ought to imitate our Father in heaven. The Bible tells me that God loves me as a father loves his child. I am cherished and adored by my Maker, and He wants only for me love others and shine a light for Him to the world. As an image-bearer, I am given the ability to seek God’s will for my life by imitating the life of Christ. I can learn to follow in His footsteps by reading the Bible daily to find the basic principles on how to serve and seek God. It is...
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What makes my heart sing - by Sharon

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I recently lost part of my ability to sing. For weeks, even speaking or holding a note was not possible. I used to be able to go above a high G, but now I can comfortably sing up to A — almost an octave lower — before I feel a choke in my throat. My range has shrunk and my volume has diminished. It happened as part of a surgery to remove thyroid cancer from the neck — the laryngeal nerve connected to my left vocal cord was severed, and now only my right vocal cord works. For weeks, I was simply in awe that removing multiple parts from a body resulted in so little net loss. Besides the laryngeal nerve, my vagus nerve, left jugular vein, parts of my esophagus, left lymph nodes, left parathyroids, and whole thyroid were cut out. I hadn’t expected so much to be taken out, and yet I was just glad the surgery was done and that they had appeared to successfully resect the cancer. I was busy rejoicing. I was still alive. I would recover. I would speak again and sing again eventually. Once...
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