Troubles Grow Us | Bible Journaling Process

Hebrews 13:21 and James 1:2-4 are on opposing pages in my Bible, yet they share the same message. Trials and troubles in our life are good for us. They grow us into promising, enduring, faithful, pleasing, and complete characters, ready to serve and glorify God. How we allow God to to grow us through these trials and troubles is up to us.

This Bible journaling process actually represents the growth process discussed in these Bible verses. A few weeks ago I spilled water all over my craft desk, and this page was MESSED up, along with many pages in my Bible. I spent an hour separating and drying the various pages. This particular one suffered bleed through from the opposite page.

So I decided to cover it with inks and stamps and all the goodies. I used Distress Oxides to blend a tri-color background. I had to press and rub and pull, but I finally got the result I was looking for. Then I planned on stamping some florals images to go along with the “growth” motif of the Bible verses. However, the stamps did not want to cooperate with me! I’m not sure if I was just having a bad day, bad luck, or if it was because the page was already so messed up, but I could not get a good stamped image for the life of me! They were all incomplete or blurry or streaky. So I decided to stamp them on to white card stock and fussy cut them out, which took a good bit of extra time and effort. But the result was worth it. I LOVE how the page turned out!

This process reminds me of the process God takes us through to grow us. We are a sinful mess: wrinkly, inky, yucky, and mucky! But God loves us, and puts the time and effort into rubbing out those wrinkles, covering up the spots, cleaning up the mess, clarifying the blurriness, and in general, beautifying the ugliness. It is through His power, and our submission, that we can grow into something pleasing to Him, complete in Him, and perfect for Him!

Check out the process video for this entry and see what I mean. Thanks for joining me today! I’d love for you to share any questions or comments, or things you’d like to see or read about in the future.

God bless!

Jules