“Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. “Proverbs 4:23
“The hands that made the stars are holding your heart.” Psalm 139:13
A scaffold of hearts,
rolled on their sides
and staggered vertically just to the left of center page.
That’s where my attention fixed while scrolling through a multiple pages of beautifully designed visual prayer journal images. The inked threading of stitches and the narrow panel of dots down the side further pleased my eye. That particular art page was created and posted by robenmaries.com.
In my imagination
it provided inspiration for an inviting page-scape of color and form for my own journal;
modified with colored pencil, scripted verses of scripture,
and journaled reflections on God’s love:
Its the loving we receive that primes the flow of our own outpouring of care and devotion that initially tumbles from our hearts. The security of protective arms that cradle us early. The hand that holds ours as a tether to keep us close, as a guide to show the way. The familiar and trusted voice that diminishes our fears in the darkness of night, or fever, or loss. We folks who walk upright, we’re innately designed to crave love, to curl tightly into the gracious gift when its given. In our human realm we seek love from our families and from the significant others who walk our way. As we approach God’s realm in search of divine love, an endeavor that has its own hardwired features, the experience can be much the same. We long for the strength that cradles us through every darkness of living. We seek the inner voice of Holy Spirit presence as well as the voice that speaks across the centuries through scared text. It is the divine loving, eternally offered from Creator God, that initiates the soul’s lifelong yearning to return to Him.
Visual journaling, the craft of combining art and print, is a prayerful activity that can be practiced for several purposes. When used as part of daily devotionals it expands the experience into realms of visual forms and metaphor. Exploring faith meditations through art materials becomes a means of honoring God through a creative offering and articulating those art based meditations into words becomes a form of testimony or a form of prayer. Creating an artful page can also enhance the inspirational message of faith based writing. However visual journaling is used, whether to enrich ones devotional time or to visually represent elements of the faith journey or to pictorially elaborate a message of faith; the outcome is a heightened sense of communicating the power of faith.
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Linking with Playdates With God an online community hosted by Laura Boggess and Still Saturday, hosted by Sandra Heska King. Join me and the other writers gathering there to share our God Moments.
