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Precious friend, I am reminding myself that no matter the season I find myself in, I can find rest, comfort and even happiness in the precious promises from Psalm 23. A sweet sigh of relief washes over me when I read the words, “Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me ALL the days of my life”.  

HE is The Good Shepherd. 

I am His beloved sheep and HE is my beloved Shepherd. I pray you can find comfort, rest and reassurance from this Psalm. And that you can find JOY in knowing that His sheep, no matter the season, have the secret of happy life, death and eternity.

I have been blessed to share beauty with truth-filled words of encouragement through my artwork for more than twenty years. But in all honesty, this monthly Encouragement Kit — Lemonade Reminders — was born out of a stress-filled big batch of lemons! 

The Kit became the beautiful result of a big stack of misprinted calendar art pages + a LOT of prayer + a calling to encourage women with scripture reminders + an open heart to try something new!

When I asked Pam about this design, she recalled painting the bird first, then searching for a hymn to go with it. The black and white bird resembles a black-capped chickadee, which is in fact a songbird. 

She then researched the backstory of this particular hymn and after reading about it, just soaked in the fact that suffering and sorrow is not new! People have been walking through it since the Garden. There have been countless people who God has worked through in the midst of great sorrow as they used words and songs to process their pain and write of His faithfulness in the midst of their storm... and there are countless more people who have come after them and are continuing to receive the blessing of their honesty and obedience. God continues to use their stories for our good and His glory! This gives tremendous HOPE!

Just like the bird keeps singing with hopes of his future days, and just like Bridgers wrote in his hymn, we can keep singing knowing Jesus is always with us! In all of life's ebb and flows!

There is a lot going on at From the Heart Art this Holiday Season! We have graciously taken the stress of gift-giving away from YOU! And have put together several gift options to make it easy for you to give love, encouragement & God's Word to your loved ones! There is something for everyone on our 2022 Holiday Gift Guide! We know you'll find something for all the special people in your life!  

We are including several products with our Fullness of Joy Path design since that is our theme design and verse, which will help you decorate for Fall.

But as we prepare to usher in Christmas, we wanted to include extra presents for our subscribers! One of the products is a flour sack towel with one our newest Christmas designs, the Wise Men. We are most excited about the reversible ornament with the Adonai Manger and Names of Jesus on it. 

David had repeated encounters of having his enemies on all sides. He had been surrounded by danger. He knew tragedy. And David knew the depths of great sorrow over his own sin and the grief over the weight of the consequences birthed from those sins. And yet, he could write this psalm with great confidence!  

“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.

Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever -

forsake not the works of Your own hands”  Psalm 138:8

Proverbs 3:5 & 6 gives us these reminders that almost seem like steps in a recipe. Reminding us:

1. WHO to put our trust in 
2. The need for a FULL commitment of spirit, soul and body
3. To Trust God not only in salvation, but ALL areas of life
4. A healthy distrust of self is acknowledging that we don’t know what’s best
5. Turning over every area of our life to His control… laying down our Self-will to embrace His will

"May the God of Hope so fill you with Joy & Peace in believing that by the Power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be bubbling over with Hope." Romans 15:13

Freedom is not free, it comes with a price! Just as each of us was bought at a price: the price of Our Savior laying down His life so that we may be FREE! Free from sin, Free from death, Free from the weight of our own destructive nature.

"So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed." John 8:36

You are NOT overlooked. You are not forgotten. You are not unheard. You are NOT a mistake!  You are KNOWN by Him. You can praise Him because you ARE fearfully AND wonderfully made BY Him!

I hope you can take a few moments to read our blog and read the 24 verses of Psalm 139. Read them slowly to soak on the words and let them sink into your heart. The words are describing a Good Father and His precious child. These verses are incredible Truths to combat negative thoughts and feelings.

What IS Peace Anyway? 

I think this is a really important question to be able to answer. Read this week's blog as I share a few thoughts that I have, as well as a few verses that I hope encourage you. And you will even find some helpful tips for next time you are lacking peace.

I was reading the Tony Evans Bible Commentary to see what Dr. Evans had to say about these verses.  He describes it this way: “Peace is harmony on the inside always in every way–that is, regardless of your circumstances.”

The theme verses for March are I Peter 1:2 "May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure." and John 10:11 "The Good Shepherd gives His life for His sheep." We want you to REMEMBER and REMIND others that The Lord of Peace and our Good Shepherd lays down His life for us! 

Read this weeks blog to see how versatile our beautiful Good Shepherd Sheep Reminder Tag can be!