Hard Love Hurts, Its Hard

This is my second time posting with the Five Minute Friday.  You can read about it at The Gypsy Mama.  The rules write about the topic for 5 minutes, no editing.  The topic this week is The Hard Love.

Ready, Go.

As I think about this weeks topic, it hurts.  It hurts because right now my family is experiencing this very truth.  Hard love is just that, it is hard and it does hurt.  God shows us hard love.  God is full of grace and mercy, but his love is hard.  It is held to a standard of truth, right and wrong.  Hard love is when we show our love by giving/telling the righteous truth, God's truth even when it may be painful to give or to receive.  We love so much that we are willing to go outside of our comfort zone to make sure the other knows we love, we care and we want to save them from the impending danger even if this will put us out or cause ridicule and un-fair judgment on ourselves.  God is our example to hard love.  He loves us, but he will not tolerate sin and though he loves us if we do not receive his Son, if we reject him, there will come a time when he will reject us. "Depart from me for I never knew you."
Matthew 7:23 "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Done

Some Things I've Been Working On

I have been dying to get these done, but I needed to get a couple things from the store and I was refusing to make a trip just for this.  With gas prices so high I am trying extra hard to consolidate my shopping trips and believe me waiting wasn't easy.   So what did I do.  I turned these:

 Into These Silhouettes:

 This was a fun and easy project.  First I painted the plates with paint leftover from painting the living room.  Then I used Mod Podge to apply the tissue paper (this paper came with a wedding gift from over 7 years ago. Yes I tend to hang onto things) to the painted plate.  Don't forget to let them dry in between steps!  The next step should have been easy, but my printer is weird and only does what it wants to do when it wants to do it.  You should be able to pick out a photo of the desired subject or take a photo and print it out the size you want it.  Cut out the silhouette. (If you have printer issues here is what I did. I pulled up the picture on my computer, viewed it in the size I wanted and then very gently traced the outline onto paper. Then cut it out.)  After cutting out the silhouette, Mod Podge it.  Once I had the silhouettes Mod Podged I did a final cover with tinted Mod Podge.  I tinted it with a very tiny dot of dark brown craft paint.  This gave my finished product the aged look that I was wanting.  It is very important to realize that you do not need much at all of the paint.  I did not like my first finished project.  I originally used white paper.  Sometimes my envisioner doesn't work.  In other words things don't always turn out how I envision them in my mind.  Fixing it was no problem, though.  I took black craft paint, a toothpick and small thin paintbrush and very carefully painted the silhouette black.  After the paint dried I put another coat of Mod Podge over the silhouette.  I am loving these.  They hang in my bedroom on either side of my bathroom doors.


Next up is this sundress I made for Princess.  She loves it!  I am very pleased with how it turned out. 

 Just for fun here is a pic of my handsome curious little man.

5 Minute Fridays -- On Distance

I found The Gypsy Mama through Kelly's Plain Path, my dear friend who got me started into blogging. Love you Kelly.  The idea is to write about the chosen topic for 5 minutes with  no editing. It sounded like fun, so I thought I would give it a go.  This weeks topic is "On Distance".






So here it goes.
I am no stranger to distance.  I grew up in a military family which means we moved and distance was placed between friends and family alike.  Being that I was so used to distance after graduating I went across the states to go to college.  Now that I am married and have a family of my own distance is still a big part of my life.  Some of my best friends are a good distance away and nowadays that distance doesn't have to be that far with the price of gas. My family is still distances away.  Most of my family is about 7-8 hours drive time away.  We do still get to see each other a lot compared to how often I saw my grandparents growing up.  No matter how far the distance is email, phone calls and facebook are able to help close the gap if only for moment in time.
I am reminded of another distance.  The distance of a lost soul from an ever loving God.  This distance is by far the worst and the saddest I can think of.  "For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son..."

There you have it.  My five minutes unedited.