In the beginning….

I thought I would share a little perspective on my scrapbooking “career”..

I do not generally consider myself a creative person.  I have friends that are amazingly creative and I envy them sometimes but I definitely don’t put myself in that category.

When my kids were young my friends and I wanted to go out but we were not sure what to do for a night on the town.  I am not a drinker, not into clubbing, not a huge fan of movies and had not gone out consistently since the kids were born.  We also had a little motherly guilt about leaving our kids to do something for us.  Also anyone that knows me knows that I am “thrifty” so hiring a babysitter at $10 and hour seemed crazy!

One evening I decided to host a Creative Memories party.  My friends and I realized that we could get together at night and do something fun while accomplishing something amazing for our families.  It sounded like a win/win!!

The group became one of my kid’s fondest memories and some of my best times with friends.  Initially we thought we would leave the kids with husbands and get together at someone’s house without the kids but that didn’t work very well and before long we were meeting together on Friday nights with the kids.  The kids would run wild upstairs or out in the backyard and we would scrapbook and share stories, laugh and share struggles and “solutions”.  Sometimes we would stay up until 2am and the kids would either fall asleep or stay up and play.  It didn’t matter that my 8 year old was up at 2am running wild because it was just once a month and it was special time.  My kids loved it, I loved it and the whole family enjoyed the finished product.  My kids still asked to get together for “scrapbooking night” even into their teens.

So..  Back to perspective..

I was the person in our group that was on a scrapbooking mission.  Because I am a planner/organizer by nature I was all about getting projects done quickly and keeping my project organized.  I came up with a project and would create a picture plan, print the pictures and slap it in a book.  I would get 40 pages done in an evening.  They weren’t pretty but that wasn’t the point to me.  They were done!  There were other ladies there that were afraid to put the pictures on a page because it may not be perfect and ladies that spent an evening on two or three pages and they were beautiful.  Everyone has a different perspective.

Here is a picture of one of my early scrapbook pages.

Journaling

There are so many different ways to document your faith!  You can explore all of them or just a few and see which ways suit you best.  One thing to consider is.. are their things that you want to document just for you that you are not ready to share with others?  That type of “faithbooking” may best be done through journals.  I am not great at keeping journals but when I do they are such a blessing to me.

I keep journals of my prayer times with the Lord where I just write several pages about what is on my mind and what I read in my bible or devotional.  It always is interesting to see my spiritual and personal growth as I look back on journals I wrote years ago.  Often I think how silly I was being or “why did I think that”.   I can see God clearly working on my growth and in the lives of those around me when I keep these journals and reflect on past journals.  Someday when I am gone I hope they bless my children or family, as they will be able to see my faith or unbelief through worry and how God was working in my life and theirs.

I keep journals of prayers that I have for others.  I especially love looking back on my Mom’s in Prayer journals!  I am amazed to see the answers to prayer that God has blessed us with through our prayers in MITI!  If you have not heard of Mom’s In Prayer you should check them out.  Here is the website.. http://www.momsinprayer.org/.  It was an incredible leap of faith for me to begin praying out loud with other women.  I encourage everyone to find a small group of people to pray with on a regular basis and document your prayers.

I also keep a journal in my car/purse where I can document “God moments”.  I don’t know where that phase comes from but I know it as times when I can see that God is working in my life in the little things like my car dying in my driveway instead of on the highway.  Another example is a meeting with someone that you can tell is God ordained.  God is at work all the time in my life and the life of those around me and I want to recognize it and give Him thanks as often as I can.

Hello

Hello!  My name is Laurie and I have started this blog in order to share Faithbooking with others.  I have been married for over 20 years to a fabulous man and have two wonderful teenagers.  I have been scrapbooking since the kids were little and have been working on Faithbooks for six years or so.  I believe that God desires for all of us to document in some way our relationship with Him in order to help us grow in our faith, so that we can pass it down to the next generation, and so that we can remember it in the times when we struggle with doubt or complacency or gratitude.   

I have never blogged before so please be patient with me as I learn:)