Scripture Sunday ~ 1 Corinthians

Quite some time ago, Pastor Jarrod spoke on 1 Corinthians. We all know it, or at least have heard it, but this time it hit me with a new, quiet awakening. I'll jot down my notes and then at the end, I'll jot down my conclusion.

Sermon Notes: "Family Glue" (click the link, go to Nov. 18 to download the podcast.)

     The only hope for a family to survive and thrive through any relational challenge, sudden trauma, and/or chronic pain is through unconditional love. 1 Cor. 13:4-7
                                   agape = sacrificial love

Piece #2 (in the Under Construction, Piecing Together a Healthy Family series):

unconditional love

"patience" long-tempered

"kindness" patience in public/in action, useful

"does not envy/jealous" James 4:2

"is not arrogant"

** "is not rude" give vent to feelings, no restraint, family bully ---> love is sensitive to other

** "does not insist on its own way" gives, serves, John 3:16, doesn't pout Phil 2:2-3

** "is not irritable" (no provoked)

"is not resentful" does not keep a record of wrongs

forgives and lets go

"does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the Truth"

elephant in the room

never compromises

vv ACTIVITY vv

"love bears" covering, concealing, protecting, supports, believes faithfulness, trustworthy

no giving up, hopes, choose to believe, joy, optimism, confidence

A wrong done against love is like a spark quenched in the ocean. -Chrysotom  

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^[a] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

⁸ Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19

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My conclusion:

GOD IS LOVE.

You can substitute "God" in every place that "Love" is written in 1 Corinthians. 

God is patient and kind

God does not envy or boast.

God is not arrogant or rude.

God does not insist on His own way. (I'm thinking human will.)

God is not irritable or resentful. (Sad at sin, maybe, but not these things.)

God does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but God rejoiced in the Truth.

God bears all things, God believes all things, God hopes all things, God endures all things.

Love that. 

Tuesday Special - my new wall!

Although I still have trouble saying thank you and feeling proud, I indeed am - mostly because I thought up the project and carried it through 100% on my own! What a pleasant sight when I got to the top of the stairs Sunday morning before church - made me smile!

Here is the finished project (with frames to fill and room to grow)

Want steps? Beginning to end:

1. Find frames. I had the project in my head for months but got very lucky with an amazing sub job with a very nice gal. She happened to bring in two bags of frames she was giving away and I unashamedly scavenged them. She saved me a fortune! 

2. Research. I was pretty sure this wouldn't only be about frames, so I spend a day or two on Pinterest gathering ideas. More to come on that in a bit.

3. Paint frames. Clean glass. I'm pretty sure I used the wrong paint and the wrong brush and that Windex wouldn't work in the long run, but so far, so good. And it's all fixable; more on that also in a bit.

First I used regular old paint I had the scrapbook room (Making Memories); it was a bit old and a little gloppy, which was actually better on the frames. Some of these are wooden, some are metal. I ran out of that paint, so I got a plain black acrylic from Hobby Lobby. Already I can see one frame that will have to be repainted and probably sealed. 

I also gathered up some other frames pieces we had lying around that were given as gifts and never mounted. I painted their frames black and rematted them to match. There is a Mom & Dad poem and a Policeman's Prayer and picture worked in there.

4. I filled those frames! I was fortunate enough to have enough printer paper and ink at home, and a decent photo printer. This kept the cost of this project way down for me. I chose some of our classic pics, some funny, some of our favs, and I even have a few blank ones to fill with those pics "I can't believe I didn't think of!", which should happen sometime next week.

Here is what very little planning I did for this part:

I used white cardstock and posterboard to mat the photos, which are all in black and white. Again, it's probably not the material professional framers would have used, but I'm happy with it so far.

I also have a list of glass that needs to be replaced and am hoping my local glass place will help me out with that.

My table looked like this for a week (I have a very patient family):

5. I bought an over-sized wooden letter "K" and small wooden letters on sale (yay!) at Hobby Lobby as well. Painted those. Tip for painting small spaces: I used one of the kid's watercolor paint brushes, they're a dime a dozen and I wouldn't feel bad if I had to throw them out).

6. Next I took a picture of the space I was filling, measured and taped off sides and angles on the floor in my foyer. It looked like this for 24 hours (I had a surprisingly accident-free family, too):

7. We had monkey hooks and I found the 3M Command wall hangers in WalMart and Hobby Lobby. I wasn't sure I'd trust the Command on the sandy-textured wall, but 2 days later, none of those frames have fallen!

8. I had to take the backs off of most of the frames. I wasn't worried about ruining them because I knew I'd never take them down to use as standing frames ever again. Taking the stands off helped keep the pictures flush to the wall.

9. Ready! Here I go!

Some tools of the trade: monkey hooks, thumbtacks, a level, painter's tape, a flashlight (to see behind the frames when mounting, screwdriver, scissors, Command hooks (up to 2lb, 12lb and 16lb), double-stick mounting tape (some of the backs of the frames were sunken and I used a few layers of double stick to pop the Command strips up), duct tape (reverse rolled up for the small letters); not pictured: a tall chair and a 6 foot ladder. 

Here's a tour of our new wall. :) You'll have to visit in person for the real effect, it does look better in person. :)

Disclaimer: I promise to take new pictures in the morning light and from a ladder as soon as I can. I was too impatient to find a filter for the flash, wait till a free morning, and gain proper height to take these.

small wooden letters from Hobby Lobby, painted black, mounted with reverse
rolled up duct tape (which I think you can see here, but not in reality).

A few of our fav pictures.

bride & groom

family pic from last fall

Pinterest-inspired K; painted black, with a simple
rhinestone cluster trimmed and fit.

Babies in police hats.

Babies in police hats.

This is a Making Memories sticker that I recolored. It fit the tiny frame
perfectly and ended up matching the wall as well. I'm still considering adding
a patterned background for it.

So I just now noticed that the two small frames are opposite -
when the God frame is on top and the verse on the bottom,
the hearts make an hourglass shape. Again, this will be fixed and retaken.
-------------------------
This is a dollar store frame!
This is one of the readings from our wedding - 1 Corinthians.
I just recently realized that it can be literally translated to God is Love
thanks to our Pastor's sermon a few weeks ago.
I'm working on that post for Sunday.

the newborns.
label added with their names and birthdates.

Another Pinterest inspiration. These are the lyrics to
our wedding song written out as a poem. I printed those
out and added our wedding date on top of the glass.
Still searching for the perfect heart embellishment. 

the brothers

the parents
(yes, both of our parents are still together 4+
years later, we're proud!)

one of our newer favorites:
Matthew pinning Doug as his Sergeant's promotion.

Here's how the Command process works, once mounted,
so I can easily edit and fix frames for years to come.

like a super tight velcro, it snaps back in place but pulls off easily.
holding nicely so far!

So there you have it. If I can do it, anyone can!

Wednesday Weigh-in ~ 2 weeks

This turned out to be a light week but a good one. I've only lost 1 more pound, but it was that elusive 11th that I haven't seen gone in over 6 years. I remembered the other day that on The Biggest Loser, week 2 is always the hardest week, so that gave me a little patience with such a small loss.

Unfortunately, I was also light on the exercise, too, so I didn't have that on my side. Today is literally the first day I can walk without pain in my calves from jump roping last week. I really couldn't tell if my muscles are just that out of shape or if I had somehow injured myself, so I didn't push it. I left last week to diet alone.

My Fitness Pal

For those of you wondering how I'm doing it, it's the combination of the following things:

• 1,200 calorie diet (for now), adjusted if exercise was included that day
• low sugar, low fat, low cholesterol
• 4 meals a day
• 1c Cheerios, 1/2 c oatmeal, and 1 serving of almonds, pistachios or walnuts (for the cholesterol lowering) included in daily diet
• whole grains only, no white carbs at all
• at least 6 cups of water a day, usually 8+.
• no eating after dinner
• app called My Fitness Pal on my phone. It tracks all of my calories, activity and water each day. Weight if I choose. Has lots of nutritional information on it, plus you can add your own.
• sheer willpower!

I feel like this should be the time I make goals or predictions, but I won't. This isn't a competitive thing. I'm just doing absolutely as much as I can do in one month before my cholesterol is tested again, hoping to be in ranges where I can avoid medicine. 

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV 

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

Photography Fridays ~ the road to peace

For God is not the author of confusion but of peace ... 
1 Corinthians 14:33