Hello friends… so excited to introduce you to the team, new and old. I had them share about how Bible journaling has changed them and I’m so excited for you to see the hearts of each of these women and get to know them a little more! I also had them send me two of their favorite Bible journaling entries and then of course I’ll share their flatlay at the end so you can see if you guessed correctly. Congrats again to Amanda Ensor for winning the random drawing for the Heart Layers Devotional Kit.
Note: I’m gonna go in alphabetical order as pictured in the feature image. I switched up Jill and Jillian because Jill and I both had Whatever Craft House stairs in the background so I stuck Jillian in between us LOL.
How has Bible journaling changed my life:
I’ve always wanted to be an artist but struggled to find my medium. I absolutely CANNOT draw or paint and when I would try to put paint to paper I continuously walked away feeling defeated. After becoming a new mom I taught myself how to quilt and make clothes for my daughter and I LOVED it!! I loved hunting through fabric stores for the perfect color and pattern combinations, but I still felt like I had unused creativity inside. And that’s when I found Bible journaling! I remember scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram and thinking, “YES!! THIS is what I’ve been looking for!” I had no idea the amazing journey I had just embarked on. Not only was I feeding my creativity, but I was also seeing God in a whole new way. Words were no longer just black ink on a page, they were ALIVE. I was creating soul art. It’s messy and imperfect, it pushes me to show myself grace and LOVE! I pray that in 20 years when my daughter looks through the Bibles I’ve journaled in she sees a LIVING God who loves her and a mom who daily needed Him.
Bible journaling ignited my passion for meeting God in His Word. When I began painting and sticker-ing in my Bible I read its pages and sought out sermons, podcasts and worship music like never before! I’ve also made some great friends from all over the country. Beautifully creative gals I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. I am so thankful for this hobby and the crafty community that has formed around it!
Hey guys!! Vanessa here! My journey into Bible journaling began when I was knee deep in one of my lowest + loneliest seasons. (Think straw-poking-up-from the-surface-to-stay-alive kind of deep!) We had recently moved to a new state and building new relationships was a struggle for me. The day-to-day responsibilities of raising 5 little ones, homeschooling three, while also working on several big DIY remodeling projects in our home left me depleted and in a spiritual drought. I had nothing left to give to any one. Not another drop, friends! Compliments from others on the progress of our house, or how brave I was for homeschooling with five children during it all were nice, but they did little to fill me up. In fact, it often made me sink further into the muck of my wilderness. My heart was in a serious state of disrepair. Prayer wasn’t healing me, relationships were depleting me, and my time in the Word felt like another chore on my To Do list – just another person/thing to take care of instead of a place to rest.
Much like our house at the time, I was treating my heart like a fixer-upper. And do you know what I learned? I discovered I was really, really bad at renovating it all by myself! So I did what any decent DIY-er would do, and I YouTubed it! That’s when I found Illustrated Faith. And for the first time in a long time, I felt my heart stirring and reaching out for its Creator again. I knew that Bible journaling would be a path of healing for me. So I began journaling, and slowly, I gave myself over to His blueprints. With His help, I started to clean out the old, outdated spaces in my heart. I’m still a fixer-upper, y’all! But flipping through my Bible and seeing how He’s cleaning it out and working in my heart – room by room, gives new life to this DIY-ing little Mama!!
