Building a nest on the rocks of faith and family
Stefanie over at A Blog Called His penned a post today of different ways that women study scripture – and I’m blessed to be a part of it! If you’re looking for ways to dig into the Bible, to make your time there happen more consistently, or you’re just straight-up nosy ;-), hop over here to see what we all had to say.
(She even posted pictures of our Bibles, notebooks, and other supplies! How cool is that?)
The entries are all in for the Nature Photography Contest for kids, and it’s time to vote! Click here to see the amazing photos entered by our young photographers all over the world – and then click on the ‘vote’ symbol below your favorites! You get ten votes … ready, set, GO!
I’ve been super excited for the past few days, and that’s because I made a new discovery: Bible journaling!
I’ve been writing in my Bibles for years. Well, not the super special copy that my grandparents gave me, but my daily and my study and most other versions that are hanging out in the house. Sometimes I make notes, sometimes I underline things. A few months ago I began to sketch out pictures that I think about as I’m reading scripture. A while ago I shared some ways that I have turned scripture into art.
Sometimes I’ll take those sketches and draw them out later.
I’m not quite ready to break out the paints and totally colorize my Bible, but I do like working on other paper, so when our scripture for art class talked about Jesus being the light of the world, I decided to try out some Zentangles I saw on Pinterest.
This is the result. I played with it more than any of the Zentangle patterns dictated, but it meant more to me this way, and since color blending is my very favorite aspect of art, I had to color it. The candle is purple because Jesus is my King, and the flame is white because He’s holy and pure. His light flares out warm and inviting.
I’m not sure Zentangling is in my future, but I do like the journaling a lot. There are even special Bibles that have super-duper wide margins so that you can create art right there with the scripture.
The best part? There’s a whole Facebook community of people, sharing their best resources, ideas, and encouragement. If you want to know more, hop over there and check it out!
Do you write or draw in your Bible?
I’ve always loved those pictures that you see in the Christian bookstores – and that are now all over Facebook and Pinterest. You know the ones – the beautiful scenery or poignant babies with scripture added beautifully into it. I admired them and wished I knew how to do that.
Then a few months ago a friend started using different handwriting styles to write scripture into her journal, and she posted pictures on Facebook. I can do that, I thought, and so I began writing scripture in bigger letters and different kinds of letters in my journal.
I’ve always gotten pictures in my head while reading, and one day a certain picture wouldn’t leave – so I sketched it out and then grabbed some paper and drew it. Ever since, I’ve played around with drawing or painting scripture – and my kids, as well as the kids in an art class I help to teach, are doing the same.
We’ve found that it’s a great way to think more deeply and specifically about what a verse means. About what’s happening in it, and about what God might be telling us through the words. It also helps me to remember the words – because as much as I want to memorize lots of scripture, memorizing is really hard for me, and making the words colorful helps.
So while I’m definitely no artist, and these usually just stay hidden away in a sketch book, I want to share with you six ways to turn scripture into art. These are all easy, colorful, and fun ways to make connecting with scripture even more fun.
Remember the kids’ stories that have pictures inserted into the story instead of words? This would be a great way for a beginning reader to learn scripture. It could even be a family project.
I don’t like to waste paint, so one day I dry-brushed the last little bit of paint left over from another project onto a clean sheet of paper. When the paint dried, I wrote a scripture verse on top using different handwriting styles. Designing, layout, and centering are skills that I don’t have, but it was fun to play around with, and My Big Helper is now starting to do this, too.
This scripture really jumped out at me when I first read it. The imagery is awesome and just begged to be turned into something visual – so I drew each major element of the verse and then wrote the words pertinent to each picture inside it. Then I colored the whole thing with water-color pencils and painted over it later.
I saw something like this on Pinterest and had to try it for myself. This requires absolutely no drawing skills whatsoever, but it was fun to plan out the colors and to block it all out! Simply write out the verse you are focusing on any way you’d like. Choose a few colors, perhaps ones that are meaningful for the words, and use the lines of each letter as an image to color. I chose to color ‘Lord’ in purple since that’s a royal color and to make ‘good,’ future,’ and ‘hope’ yellow because they are positive words. The rest I filled in with blue and green at will, and I gave it an indigo background, which really makes those bright words stand out.
I love this verse. The three parts of it stood out to me visually, so I broke it down into those three pieces, each one with a single word and a single symbol. It’s simple and bright, but it helps me remember the three things that stand out to me about this verse.
This is another that someone of any age could do. Write out the verse, and then extend some of the lines out to the end of the paper, creating big blocks of space. I chose to write in cursive so I’d have a few smaller spaces blocked out automatically, and then I added teardrops because it fit the words. Then I colored each block, being careful not to put any one color next to itself.
Do you ever combine scripture and art? I’d love to hear about it!
One thing that I love about homeschooling is the flexibility to go with the flow when inspiration strikes, and sometimes that springs from the scripture I read during my own early morning quiet time.
A few months ago, when I was reading the Psalms, I was struck by the repetition in Psalm 103. I liked the detail, the way that David listed what he was thankful for, and it reminded me of parts of the New Testament and how we are to give thanks always. I decided that this would be a great way for us to recognize just how many blessings God showers upon us, and so the Psalm 103-Bradsher-style began.
We started with a roll of easel paper and our favorite smelly markers. We chose to keep the first and last stanza of the psalm but to make our own list in between. We also kept the sentence “May we never forget the good things He does for us.” I acted as scribe so that the kids could think creatively and not worry about spelling or grammar.
They soon were shouting out things they were grateful for, and as their list grew longer, their sentences became more poetic. After writing a full door-length worth of blessings, we ended our psalm as David did.
Then the kids took the smelly markers and drew small pictures near the nouns in their psalm. They made it colorful, and by the time they were done, it was a great visual reminder of God’s provision.
We’re definitely going to do this again.
Want to see the real Psalm 103? Here it is – the parts in bold are what we kept in ours.
1 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
2 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.3 He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
4 He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
5 He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
6 The Lord gives righteousness
and justice to all who are treated unfairly.
7 He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 He will not constantly accuse us,
nor remain angry forever.
10 He does not punish us for all our sins;
he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
12 He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
13 The Lord is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
14 For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
15 Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
16 The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
17 But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
18 of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!
19 The Lord has made the heavens his throne;
from there he rules over everything.
20 Praise the Lord, you angels,
you mighty ones who carry out his plans,
listening for each of his commands.
21 Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels
who serve him and do his will!
22 Praise the Lord, everything he has created,
everything in all his kingdom.
Let all that I am praise the Lord.
Have you ever written your own psalm?
I recently saw a picture in passing of fluffy cupcakes decorated as lambs for Easter, and since My Little Man loves to bake, I knew this project would be right up his alley. I don’t remember where we saw the picture, so we decided to make up our own ‘recipe.’
These cupcakes are not exactly a low-sugar treat, but they’re definitely fun to make – and to share. We took them to our weekly playgroup meeting and shared with our friends, and then shared more with several neighbors. Spread out like that, it makes a much more reasonable treat – and it’s a great way to spread the Good News, too.
During our school time, we read about how Jesus is the Lamb of the World, taken from John 1:29. We talked about how that means that Jesus paid for all of our sins when He died on the cross, just like the Israelites used lambs to pay for their sins before this. For his daily writing practice, My Little Man wrote, “Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away our sins.”
To create your own flock of Godly lambs, simply:
I love the end of the book of Job. I realize that might sound a bit strange, but I love the way that Job, Elihu, and God talk about just how amazing God really is.
One of those sections talks about how He controls the weather. It says in Job 37:6-7 that “He directs the snow to fall on the earth and tells the rain to pour down. Then everyone stops working so they can watch his power.”
I happened to see a random Pin about how some noodles look like snowflakes, and this project was born. Our church’s elementary-aged youth group made these one night, and we all had fun. Some kids painted snowmen, others painted buildings or trees or entire scenes, but My Big Helper decided to go for symmetry.
Here’s what you need:
– snowflake-shaped pasta
– white paint, two parts
– rubbing alcohol
– blue paper
– paint brushes
– a printable of the verses above (optional)
Directions:
1. Mix your pasta, a few tablespoons of white paint, and 2 T. of rubbing alcohol in a zip-top bag. Shake and squish carefully until the pasta is covered.
2. Spread out the pasta on old newspapers until dry.
3. When you’re ready to be creative, pass out the painted pasta, paper, brushes, and glue. Paint a snowy scene on blue paper.
4. Embellish with painted pasta.
5. Add scripture verses or write on by hand.
How do you connect scripture and art?
