Moments of Delight Center Step Card---Join Us for an Anything Goes Challenge at 613 Avenue Create!

Happy Labor day everyone! I can't believe it's already September and my birthday is just around the corner.  Time is super fast and before we know it, we're beginning another year.  There are times we want time to stand still especially during happy moments in our lives.  Yet, there's are also those not so happy moments when we want to speed it up.  It happens in time of grief, frustrations and challenges---when were hoping and praying for brighter days.  Our emotions can take us high or low, like a roller coaster ride and "LIFE" can be both exciting and devastating!  Sometimes, the people whom you thought are going to support you end up hindering you and those that you didn't expect to be there are the ones who takes the time to encourage you.  Really, life is full of unexpected surprises!  It's safe to say that "everything comes in its season, in the time allotted by God!"  The friends you had long time ago may not be there  at all today.  But God sends people our way for a special season in our lives.  We need to be open for some changes and allow the Lord to bring more blessings through new friendships and Godly relationships.  I find myself emotionally  drained trying to pursue friendships that were sometimes good for a season.  I spend countless times investing time and effort to maintain and make friendships work but what I forget is that friendship is a two-way street.  You can only answer for your part.  I've met many people in my life and so thankful for those who took the time to get to know me as a person.  If there's something others noticed about me, they mostly speak of my "transparency."  What you see is what you get!  It is hard for me to be pretentious because somehow, somewhere, my eyes would speak the truth.  I am also big in "fairness" and "word of honor."  Anytime, I see or experience the lack of any of these three attributes, it really affect my relationship with those people---in a big way.  I believe that transparency, fairness and honesty are the perfect combination to any lasting relationship.  But the truth is, it's very hard to find people that possesses all of these characteristics in this imperfect world.  Many out there are out with selfish motives and whether they admit it or not, most serve their own interest.   Yet the Kingdom of God is different.  Upon our surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, God works to take "selfish" out of us and changes it to "unselfishness."  To be great in God's kingdom is to abandon self and serve others.  The core of serving is "love" by allowing others to advance instead of promoting oneself.  Take for example, if you are privileged to be a leader of a dance team, you can take advantage of the position by assigning yourself to every dance routine so as to show others how good of a dancer/leader you are.  But what you may be forgetting is that everyone in the team can  dance and that you are not the only one with the gift.  The test of true leadership is to keep yourself from using your privilege but to make use of it to assign others that are qualified to do the part.  Unless it is specifically clear that you are the main artist and others were your back-ups, then, that behavior is not consistent with the true meaning of leadership and servant-hood in God's Kingdom.  Those who wish to argue can enlighten me about the reason why one needs to be the center of attention instead of delegating task for the advancement of the whole group?  It's sad but this happens not only in the secular world but among believers.  God has warned us against selfish motives and ambitions that the ungodly/worldly people clamor for.  But as human beings, though saved by grace by the finished work of Jesus Christ,  we are still in the process of transformation to be more like Jesus.  We will not see the fulness of that glorious change till we meet our Savior face to face.  We are to be patient with one another and pray for the leaders (both in the big and small scene) that God assigned over us.  Godly leaders (great to small)  should be open to correction or suggestion from their team members.  Be transparent and fair in creating opportunities, making sure that self is not serve, giving others a chance to share the gifts that others have for the Body of Christ.  These passages in the Scripture clearly tells us of how it is to live in God's Kingdom and how we ought to pattern our life to what the Spirit of God is leading us to do:

"When he (Jesus) noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 14:7-11)

"Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

  

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!"  (Philippians 2:3-8) 

For my inspiration card for our Challenge, we our task to incorporate our optional twist----Sights, Sounds and Taste of Autumn.  I used one of the image provided by one of our sponsors, Meljen's Designs, called "Cinnamon Harvest Mug" and I added another image from the same sponsor that I have in my stash called "Windswept Diva."  Both were colored using my ProMarker/Prismacolor markers.  The base card is Kraft, cut and score to make a 5.5 inch center step card.  All the DP's were from my scraps.  I used a Nestabilities die for the lacy oval, added some white nail head gems from Imaginisce, added glitters to the image (Stickles-Diamond and Crystal) and some regular and fancy stitching.  The heartfelt sentiment is a freebie from Create with TLC (Special thanks to Paulette!).  I'm pretty happy with how this card turned out.

 

MOMENTS OF DELIGHT CENTER STEP CARD:

MOMENTS OF DELIGHT CENTER STEP CARD LAYERS:

MOMENTS OF DELIGHT CENTER STEP CARD SIDE VIEW:

MOMENTS OF DELIGHT CENTER STEP CARD INSIDE:

MOMENTS OF DELIGHT CENTER STEP CARD WITH ENVELOPE-BOX:

This Card is entered into the following Challenges:

Artistic Inspirations---ATG/Memories
Cheerful Stamp Pad---ATG
Crafting from the Heart---ATG
Craftin' Desert Diva's---ATG
Crafty Bloggers Network---ATG
Cutie Pie---Two's Company
Digi Makeover---ATG
Digi Sketch---Sketch and/or Theme: A Girl Thing
Lexi's Creations---Sparkle and Shine
Craft Creations---ATG
OLLCB---Fancy Folds
Simon Says Stamp---ATG
Stamp and Fun = Creativity---3 layers of paper
Paper Nest Dolls---ATG
Fairytale Stampers---ATG 
Glitter n Sparkle---Show us some Sass
Scribble and Scrap---ATG
Stamping Sensations---ATG
Squirrel and the Fox---Spring or Autumn

Have an awesome week, everyone.  Please join us at our neighborhood---613 Avenue Create for a wonderful Anything Goes Challenge.  Great prizes to be won and you can link practically any creation if you don't want to follow the twist.  I can't wait to see what you come up with.  The next couple of days, I will get busy creating a card for my other wonderful group---Word Art Wednesday and so, watch out for another inspirational post this coming Wednesday.  As you go through life, always fix your eyes on Jesus so you may not be swept away by daily challenges or frustrations of life.  Focus your eyes on Jesus in order to serve and not to be served.  God bless!