Bold as a Lion

Oil pastels have quickly become my favorite medium for Bible journaling. The richness of the color makes the images come to life. It's taken me a few entries to get my groove on the best tool to use for blending, and quite honestly I think I favor the good ole fashioned Q-tip the most.

For today's entry, I used Proverbs 28:1 as the basis for my drawing: "The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion." I've known since I got my journal Bible that I wanted to do an entry with a lion. There are so many wonderful passages that talk about lions, but this one was a favorite of mine for this image.

Rest.

For Mother's Day, we had a guest speaker at church. She talked about something that I struggle with a LOT: the busyness of life, and how we are constantly on call and never take time to rest. Rest is a word that has been ingrained in our lives as a dirty word--a curse word, if you will...so much so that if we try to do it, we are made to feel guilty. Our society has turned us into 24/7/365 working machines, never shutting off for a break. Even when we are taking a break, we are thinking of all of the things we should be doing and before you know it you are going at it again 90 to nothing.

Rest is something we all need. It's okay to rest and not feel guilty....there, I said it. I don't have to feel bad about not replying to your email at 11:00 at night, or answering your phone call when I'm trying to have dinner with my family. All of those things will still be there tomorrow. Taking a Sabbath, or a rest, is not only necessary for your body to stay healthy, but it's also scriptural.

It's okay, mother-of-three, to leave the dishes in the sink long enough for you to play with your children 30 minutes before tucking them in at night. It's okay, businessman, to enjoy dinner with your wife without checking in with the office. It's okay, teenager, to actually watch the entire movie without picking up your phone to see how many comments you have on Instagram. It's okay for you to rest. God will balance you out. If you don't take time to rest, He will force you to.

He is Risen!

I knew I wanted to do an Easter journal entry and I went several directions before I finally landed here--focusing on the cross and the fact that Christ arose rather than the crucifixion itself. I used my pastel oil chalks for this design. I'm starting to get comfortable with them, though the blending of the sunrise took me a while before I was happy with it. It's hard to cover up mistakes (or opportunities as I call them!) using this medium, but I managed. :)

I'm so thankful for what this journal entry represents in my life! Happy Easter everyone!

East to the West

Pastor Steve used Psalm 103:12 in his message Sunday and when I originally heard the scripture, I thought about doing a journal entry using a compass ("As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.") My mind wandered over the past couple of days, and when I finally sat down to journal the scripture I changed my mind and decided to use a globe instead of the compass.

This was my first experience with oil pastels. It was quite fun and I really enjoyed using this medium instead of the colored pencils for this entry. I always start my entry with a pencil outline, which was no different for this one.

I then started with my lightest green oil pastel and made marks over the images and used an applicator to blend the color into the image. After the lightest green, I added a darker green and blended, and continued doing this until I was happy with the coloring. Then I moved to the blues for the water. I outlined the globe and the continents with a black colored pencil, and used my trusty Micron 08 for the lettering.