New Mercies

This week the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge is from the (lovely) Linda Lucas! Her scripture verse is :

Lamentations 3:22-23 
"The faithful love of the LORD never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. "

When you visit the Stampin' Sisters in Christ blog, you will be able to read this week's wonderful devotional by Linda. I did this morning, and it was so uplifting!

This verse was the inspiration behind my card.  When meditating on God's mercies being new every morning, God impressed something "new"to me this past few weeks. I have felt very hard-pressed on all sides by trials for over a year now. And the thing is, new trials keep coming into my life!!  Sometimes we have seasons like that where so many concerns for family's health, fragmented relationships,  those we love being far from the Lord...all these can bring a sense of  despair and hopelessness.  The feelings can come at night when you are alone and in the dark and most vulnerable, or in the day time when you are surrounded by people that seemingly have no cares or concerns weighing them down. While these feelings are not healthy, they are very human. They don't feel very spiritual...but I can attest that God is there in the midst of the trials and the dark times. I had been trying to deal with the difficult situations by either distraction, avoidance, or worry.   Finally, out of desperation, I changed my direction... and  I asked the Lord to bring something "new" into my life. My heart basically cried out from a feeling of such a low spirit, that I needed to see God's hand at work performing something new...and something I could perceive and say, "This is from God. God is working in my circumstances!"  A new way to resolve an old issue, a new attitude for me,  a new way to see my present difficult circumstances, a new light shed that might ease a difficult situation.  I prayed this prayer over many nights..and God answered in a "new" way. Charles Spurgeon's commentary on this verse stated that sometimes God's mercy was a new mercy, something we had never experienced before. And sometimes his mercy was presented in a new way, by a new deliverer...in my case it was both!! I had a neighbor who I had not seen in almost five years come to my door one day shortly after these prayers... with a cheery bouquet of bright summery flowers. She said she had hosted an outdoor dinner and they were left over and she thought she'd share them with me. This woman had been pastoring a church for the past few years and was gone from home during the days. She had recently left her pastoral position, and for some reason had come knocking on my door. Later that week we enjoyed a special time of fellowship over lunch and catching up on each other's lives and it ended in a sweet time of prayer in the car in front of our homes.  She was a "new" mercy, and God's perfect timing! While the trials remain, it is so true that burdens are lessened when shared, and this friend certainly did that.
When I made this card, I pictured the freedom, the innocence,  the sweetness a new day brings when the Lord is part of it. We have fresh mercies available to us each morning.  A new day unfurls like a gift, wrapped in ribbon, and if we have eyes to see, the hope it brings with it may be as close as a neighbor with a bouquet of flowers! 

The challenge this week is to look deep into your stamp supply cupboards and find something you bought because you had to have it...but have not used it!

The prize:  Clear Dollar Stamps is offering a generous 15.00 gift certificate this week!!

My "digging deep" produced these prima flowers...I stacked two on this card!! I bought these in every color and have only used a few as usually they are the wrong size or the wrong color. These shaped petal cards are a new purchase I recently bought on a trip to Victoria, B.C...and this challenge helped me to use one up!!

I hope you will visit the SSIC blog and read Linda's devotional and be challenged this week to see a  fresh mercy the Lord has blessed you with!!

Supplies:
Paper: "The Papery Petal Cards", Papertrey Ink Vanilla, PTI white, SU! Pink Pirouette, Designer Paper
Stamps: Flourishes "Kid's at Play"

Accessories: Labels Nestabilities, Prima Flowers (layered), Pearls, Pearl Flourishes,  PTI twine, EK Success punch, SU! Scalloped Punch,  Iridescent Ribbon, Glimmer Mist, Charm