souldare

Let those on the hunt for you
    sing and celebrate.
Let all who love your saving way
    say over and over, “God is mighty!”

(Psalm 70:4 The Message)

Every good adventure has a beginning, middle and ending. The past few weeks have been filled to the brim with goodness, growth and even a bit of groaning at times. But mostly my two nieces and two nephews and I had fun during our summer adventure that we dubbed “Ant Kamp” a couple years ago.

Each year, I marvel how God meets us in the midst of memory making and activities that we want to try. Each child had the opportunity to be a teacher for one day. Our first teacher, set up his classroom and changed into his polo shirt and khaki trousers for his role as teacher.

We learned about England followed by afternoon tea. We harnessed electricity to make a jumping jitterbug, an aerial tram out of a soda can, and a water pump from a kit. We learned about first aid, and even had a couple adventures, in which we needed our kits stored in recycled medicine bottles. We created stop action movies that still need to be edited.

We enjoyed our own version of cupcake wars and made crafts with our friend, Tracy. We went to the water park, the zoo and the art museum.  A mystery guest surprised us at the zoo, and then became our art museum guide. (He was also our guest judge on cupcake wars day. Thanks, Bradley!)

We survived the hot, humid days of July and early August. And we even had an impromptu camp out. Girls on the screened back porch; boys in their tent, which they put up all by themselves.

Our pace was fairly relaxed, and the kids were able to sleep in most days, so I had leisurely times writing in my journal and doing quick collages to feed my soul.

The night of the camp out, my soul was overjoyed. By the light of our electric lanterns, the boys sketched, while us girls wrote and doodled in our journals. We read about fireflies and watermelons. These kids are this creative aunt’s (ant) dream come true.  I celebrate them and the God who created each one of us.

We endured bumps and bruises and a few raised voices, including mine, but we weathered this summer together and lived out the truth of Proverbs 27:17:

As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. (NKJV)

On Monday, we will celebrate our adventure one last time before school starts midweek. What a privilege to share the summer and God’s creative work in each of our hearts. We sought God and He pursued us, too.

In celebration of Random Journal Day #53, I want to share a meditation on another Scripture that came across my page this past month, as well as some collage work from this summer’s journal. We tried our hand at a little Bible study method called S.O.A.P.

Scripture: “Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Timothy 2:3)

Observation: hardness, difficulty, trials, hardship…life is hard, life can be endured…it is good to endure. endurance is a quality of a soldier. If I am a soldier of Jesus Christ, then he is my Captain, my Commander, My Lord…yet he is also my Brother, My Companion, My Lover (the One who calls me Beloved, Delightful and Beautiful)

Application: In these hard times, sometimes painful, sometimes frustrating, sometimes confusing, sometimes downright exhausting I will and can endure because Jesus is really all I need

Prayer: Jesus- Help me to endure the hardness of life…to enjoy your presence, peace and power in the midst of sometimes LONG days. Thank you for the joie de livre. I confess that my mind is all over the place…having a hard time settling in…please help me to settle…to sit still…and be set upon by your Holy Spirit wooing me to love, to ideas, plans and purposes for this day…Help me let go…Amen!

Don’t you love how a journal can contain so much and be a meeting place at the same time?

Linking with Dawn at Random Journal Day!