Monday, July 11, 2011

To Be A Friend




Hello, Friends! Welcome to Mary Rose's frugal finds, where I'm using what I've got, making do, and getting creative with the stuff in my stash.

Every month, some fabulous company releases new crafty items that make me stamp my feet like a pouty three year old and shout "I want it! I want it now!" But then I take a breath, walk into my studio, and realize that I am not a toddler, and I can do a lot more with less.

I toted the new SU catalog to my mom's house in Michigan this weekend, where we could properly appreciate all the pretties together. Papers and ribbons and punches, oh my! This card uses all three, but in the oldies and still goodies category, not the new and gotta-have variety.

1.) Ribbons...I have more ribbons than I know what to do with! And while the new polka dot scallop edged ribbon is pretty, my old polka ribbon is just as lovely.

2.) Papers...got plenty of those, too! This card uses a tone on tone stripe from last year's Specialty Bride paper.

3.) Punches...the new Doily and Blossom Bouquet triple punches are pretty, but I can get some fun effects using my scallop circle punch and a paper piercing tool.

4.) Sentiment stamps...the new catty introduced a lot of sentiment stamps. I like quite a few. But I also forget to use the ones I have, especially the sentiments from the wheels that I unmounted and cut apart.

{recipe: all SU products include sentiment from Friendly Words wheel, black ink, white card stock, crushed curry card stock and polka ribbon, scallop circle punch, circle punch, scallop edge punch, eyelet border punch, slit punch, paper piercing tool, stampin dimensionals}



This week, I'm reading the fabulous new book from Joanna Weaver called Lazarus Awakening. The book explores the fact that we know so little about this brother of Mary and Martha other than the fact that he was a friend of Jesus, he loved Jesus, and Jesus loved him.

This book has opened my eyes to some new painful truths. I'm not always a very good friend, and I'm not always a very good friend of Jesus. For starters, I'm not a very good listener. I talk too much, and I interrupt too often. I don't always make myself available, and I'm not as trustworthy as I could be. And these very same bad habits that I've developed with friendships have carried over to my relationship with Jesus.

In January, I resolved to make this a year where I read through the entire New Testament (still working on it) and resolved to spend time contemplating my savior. Now, mid year, I can see that I need to add fostering friendship to this list as well.

I have this best friend who loves me and wants to spend more time with me. He wants to talk to me and he wants me to care the same way that he cares about me. I need to make the conscious effort to unplug, turn off, tune out and take a time out. Time to spend with my friend.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command." John 15:13-14

1 comment:

  1. I always like the sweet and simple cards...but this one looks deceptively simple...I'm detecting lots of layers and time. Funny, My first morning prayer was to be a better friend. No, I'm not kidding. We are such sisters!

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