New Cutable and a Message from God

Have you ever received a really clear message from God before?  Like without a doubt, you knew He was trying to tell you something?  This happened to me a few weeks ago.

You might have noticed things around Creative Faith went silent for a few weeks.  Hardly any blog posts, no email newsletters, no Youtube videos.  Would you like to know why?

I began to show symptoms of carpal tunnel.

Monday, September 18th I spent 12 hours working at the church and then went home and spend 3 hours working on stuff for Creative Faith (new cutables, blog posts, email newsletters!).  The next day I woke up, and my hands decided not to work anymore.  They were protesting and rebelling after many months of being overworked and under cared for.  They were extremely weak and sore.  I had a hard time picking things up and doing anything and experienced a great deal of pain.  Other crafters I know struggle with carpal tunnel, and after looking it up online, I assumed that’s what had happened to me.

At the beginning of each year, I pick a word or phrase to focus on.  My phrase for 2017 is to rest and be still.  (Read more about that here on the blog.)  Over the summer I worked harder that I ever have before both at the church and on Creative Faith.  God kept putting it on my heart that I needed to slow down.  People in my life kept telling me I needed to slow down.  But did I listen?  No.  We serve a God who has given us free will to do as we please, and we suffer the consequences of our actions, just like I began to suffer.

I’ve been doing some occupational therapy and purchased new keyboards for my work space at home and at the church.  The therapist gave me some exercises to complete multiple times each day.  She told me that every 30 minutes I need to rest from whatever I am working on, and that I shouldn’t spend 15 hours in a row working.  Hearing it come from someone else, I realized how silly I was being.

Of course my body was screaming out for rest.

I recently released the Creative Faith Cutable, Take it Slow.  (Ironic, I know!)  The past few weeks I have needed to do exactly that – be still, not use my hands, and know that God is in control.  Here are a few pages using this new resource that is available in the Creative Faith Etsy store.  I have several YouTube process videos showing how I created each page, which are listed below.

Watch the Luke 10 Bible journaling process video here.

Watch the Little Psalms Book Bible journaling process video here.

Check out these adorable sloth Bible journaling stamps from By the Well 4 God here.

The Take it Slow printable kit was inspired by my time studying abroad in Costa Rica back in 2012.  I lived there for four months while i learned Spanish my junior year of college.  It was such a fun adventure.  God did a lot in and through me during those four months.  Each piece of the kit was inspired by a certain part of my time there.

We took an ecology class while we were there, and we spent a great deal of time walking through forests.  We got to see beautiful vegetation, including flowers and leaves.  This inspired a flower tab, leafy journaling card and flowers to adhere to your Bible or journal pages.

One day we went to Sarchi, the home of the world’s biggest ox cart.  These beautiful carts are hand painted and full of amazing details.  These inspired some washi strips, tip-ins and the background for the devotion questions.

Of course the highlight of the kit and of my time in Costa Rica was getting to see sloths in the wild.  Sloths remind me to be slow and still and stop rushing.  They are a visible symbol of what I need to work on being.  A few summers ago, one of my friends and I went to a sloth sanctuary in Washington where I got the opportunity to feed sloths.

To read more about my time in Costa Rica, check out my old blog posts here.

Do you need a reminder from the Lord to slow down?  Click the link here and check out the latest Creative Faith Cutable kit.  Would love to see what you are creating!  Tag us on Instagram @creativefaithco