The Plan

Devotion for the week...

I've mentioned in a devotion before that we're fans of the show The West Wing. There's one episode where the press secretary, CJ, had to have an emergency root canal, so she can't do the press briefing. Josh takes her place, but Josh doesn't have nearly the same understanding of how to deal with the press, so when they ask if the president has a plan to fight inflation, Josh quips, "24 PHDs on the council of economic advisors, Katie, they have a plan to fight inflation." Of course, that prompts another reporter to ask if the reason he won't tell them about this plan is because it's a secret. Josh, bumbling along sarcastically, says, "Yeah, Danny, we have a secret inflation plan," and the room goes crazy because now all the reporters want to know about this (non-existent) secret plan to fight inflation!

Two weeks ago, that scene was what popped into my head when my pastor shared a message about God's plan, probably because it's what comes to mind whenever anyone talks about a plan 😂 My pastor went in a totally different direction, but I thought about the fact that God did have a plan and it wasn't a secret. In fact, He laid His plan for salvation out clearly for anyone to read about and encourages His people to share it with anyone and everyone.

"For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:16-17). That's the plan. God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins so that anyone who believes can have eternal life. There's nothing secret about it, and no hidden agenda or hurdles we have to clear to be included.

Who shared God's plan for salvation with you? Have you shared it with anyone lately?

TGIFF - Three Merry Minis

Welcome to another Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday! Today I'm celebrating my first, second, AND third finishes for this year's WIPS-B-GONE challenge. That's right, the challenge only started on Tuesday and I already have three finishes! Of course, they're all mini quilts that only needed binding, but that's not the important part here. The important part is that they're finished!

If you're not familiar with WIPS-B-GONE, it's my annual challenge to finish up some lingering works-in-progress during October and November. Check out this post for all the details or go here to join the fun.

You can find the Merry Mini pattern in my shop. I made these three Merry Minis during the Merry Mini Christmas in July QAL. I mostly kept up with the QAL (I have a tendency to fall behind even when I'm the one hosting, lol), and when I did fall behind I got caught up again...right up until the end. The last few days of July were too hot to spend in the sewing room, which is on the upper floor of the house, and my parents were here visiting, and Paul and I were getting ready to head across the country for our anniversary trip hiking in the Rockies. July ended and my Merry Minis were not finished.

When we got back from our trip, I jumped right in to working on Tiered Treasure in preparation for its release to Stash Artists members (Join the waitlist here. Stash Artists doors will be opening again next month!). I've looked at the minis a few times since then, thinking I should get them finished, but I always found a reason to put it off.

If I'm being honest, once the QAL ended, there wasn't the same urgency to get them finished. There was no deadline anymore, and I've learned that I work best when I have a deadline. It's one of the reasons I find the WIPS-B-GONE challenge so helpful. Sure, it's a me-made deadline, and there are no real consequences if I don't meet it, but telling people I'm going to work on certain projects makes me feel that urgency again, so I actually do work on them.

And shockingly, when I work on things, I finish them! Case in point, three lovely Merry Minis bound and ready for display come December. One will be mine, though I haven't decided yet which one I'll keep - embroidered, crayon, or fabric marker. I love them all! The others will be Christmas gifts, and this is by far the earliest I have any handmade Christmas gifts finished.

It's only the Merry Christmas that is either embroidered, done with crayon, or with fabric marker. Here's the crayon one,

the fabric marker one,

and the embroidered one. The fabric panel of this one got a bit discoloured when I washed away the Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy I used to transfer the text. It's not super noticeable in person, especially when you only look at this quilt, not at all three together.

All the other projects I plan to work on during the WIPS-B-GONE challenge will take a lot more work than these minis did, but it still feels great to start the challenge with a bang.

One more thing before you link up your own finishes and head off to visit some of the other links. If you'd like to learn to sew curves, I just opened registration for a Conquering Curves workshop on November 2nd. Go here for all the details.

Okay, now you can link up your finishes so we can celebrate with you!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Holding On

Devotion for the week...

When I was at our provincial women's retreat a couple of weeks ago, the Scripture for the weekend was Psalm 139, where verses 7 -10 say:

"I can never escape from your Spirit! 

    I can never get away from your presence!

If I go up to heaven, you are there;

    if I go down to the grave, you are there.

If I ride the wings of the morning,

    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

even there your hand will guide me,

    and your strength will support me."

Our speaker, Faith Eury Cho, shared a powerful illustration in one of her messages that has really stuck with me. Faith had another woman join her on stage and told us to pretend that woman was God. She then said, "We think this is what our relationship with God is like." She reached out and took the woman's hand, "We go to church and we get with God, but then we go home and we get annoyed at our husband and we yell at the kids." Faith dropped the woman's hand and stalked across the stage. 

"Then we turn on some worship music so we can get back with God." She rushed back and took her hand again.

"Monday morning someone cuts us off in traffic and we get angry." She dropped her hand and stalked across the stage again. "So we go to prayer meeting to get back with God." She rushed back and took her hand. She gave several more examples of things we do that make us pull away from God, and ways we try to get back with Him again, rushing back and forth across the stage.

"It's exhausting!" she said. "But that's not what our relationship with God is like." She then turned to face the other woman and they clasped each other's forearms.

"I get angry at my husband," she said as she let go of the woman's arm and tried to pull away, but the other woman didn't let go. 

"I yell at my kids," Pastor Faith said, pulling harder, but still the other woman didn't let go. "God doesn't let me go. Through it all, He's there. We don't have to get back with God because He never let us go."

He never let us go. What a wonderful thing to remember!

As I've been thinking about that illustration, it made me think of Jesus' promise to His disciples and to us. "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). That promise isn't dependent on us. He didn't say, "As long as you hold onto me, I'll stay by your side." Nope. He simply said He's with us always. No matter what we're going through, no matter what our mood is like today, no matter what the kids are doing, what happened at work, or what diagnosis the doctor just laid out before us. He is with us, and He's always holding on.