Think on These Things Mixed Media Journal Page

My Take Me Deeper journal page for August week 3, focused on Philippians 4:4-9, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

I never quite understood how to train my mind to stay focused on these things, it wanders!  But Mary Brack shared a very insightful devotion on why thinking these things helps guard our minds from thoughts that destroy.  The end of the verse promises that the God of peace will be with you if you as your thoughts are aligned with these good things.  Mary shared that the path to cultivating such thoughts begins with thankfulness.  Recognizing God's work in and around us helps us to stay focused on the real truth, and as we give God credit for His work, He fills our hearts and minds with peace - WOW!  Today's verse over at Bible Gateway is "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."  Isaiah 26:3  Man, did this ever hit home with me, during such a rough week!  Thank you, Mary!  My Grandma always said, "Count your blessings every day and all your troubles will fly away."  I practiced thanksgiving this week to help me get out of a slump, and it has!  PTL!

For my journal page, I used some layered stencils, including some DIY stencils I cut from file folders.  I've been playing around with finger painting a lot lately.  I scribed into the wet paint layers here.  The bee stamp is by Stampers Anonymous.  The white flower is embossed and by Penny Black.  It really changed up the texture on the flat paint.

This is one of my favorite pages so far.  I stamped the butterfly by Penny Black onto tissue paper and mod podged it to the page, so I could get a clean stamped image.  I love adding strips of washi tape to my pages...  You can see I also sanded some of the paint in a crosshatch pattern.  

Here is a look at the pile of completed pages from this year.  All are front and back.  Slow, but steady progress.  Gives me plenty of time to decide on my binding method.

I'm linking up to Take Me Deeper, A Vintage Journey for their Things With Wings Challenge, Craft Stamper UK for their Pencils and Pens Challenge, WOW! Embossing Powder for their monthly Embossing Challenge, and Penny Black for their Summer Flowers challenge.  Thanks for looking!  I challenge you to put the practice of thanksgiving to the test today.  <3