Watch Where You're Going

Devotion for the week...

I have been going for walks with toddlers almost daily for about 20 years now. If I had a dollar for every time I've said, "watch where you're going so you don't fall," I'd never have to work another day in my life! With some kids, I have to say it every few minutes because they get so distracted by everything going on around us that they forget to watch where they're putting their feet. One youngster fell almost every day, even with the regular reminders! Several of them have loved to race with the other kids, but consistently forgot to look ahead rather than behind while running.

There are multiple reasons we have to watch where we're going as we walk or run. There could be obstacles in the way (loose rocks, a raised section of sidewalk), there could be holes we might step into (especially around here!), or we could simply go off course because our feet tend to follow the direction of our gaze. With the littles I've looked after, I've seen all of those things result in falls, despite my warnings.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote, "If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). In the previous 11 verses, Paul wrote about the people whose stories were recorded in the Old Testament, saying their stories of craving evil (v. 6), worshipping idols (v. 7), and grumbling (v. 10) were recorded " to warn us who live at the end of the age" (v. 11). 

Of course, with the advantage of hindsight, we might be tempted to think those people were weak or foolish, and of course we would never be tempted to sin as they did. Uh, yeah...that's exactly why Paul told us to watch where we're going! The littles are all sure they're not going to fall, too, completely oblivious to the rocks and holes in their path, or to how they're not running in the direction they think they are. 

We can be just as oblivious to the spiritual obstacles in our path. Those obstacles aren't physical rocks; instead they're temptations to indulge in things contrary to how God wants us to live. Maybe it's a temptation to gossip, or to judge others, to grumble or to worship something other than God. If we're not paying attention, we could fall right into those actions even though we thought we were immune to them. Or maybe that should say because we thought we were immune to them, and so didn't watch where we were going.

Where are our thoughts headed? Where are our conversations headed? Where are our actions headed? Are they going in a direction that leads to who we want to be? To who God wants us to be? If not, what changes do we need to make to get back on course, and to avoid the obstacles in front of us?

My First Quilt with Monika Henry

It's the last Friday of the month, which means I get to bring you another My First Quilt interview! Today's featured quilter is Monika Henry of Penny Spool Quilts. Monika is a fellow Canadian (from Switzerland 😊), and a fellow pattern designer. In fact, she just released a new Christmas pattern!

You can connect with Monika at her website, on Instagram and on Facebook.

And now, here's Monika's first quilt! Isn't it fantastic? You know I love those blues!

What year did you make your first quilt? What prompted you to make it?

The year I started it, or the year I finished it? ;-) I took a quilting class in 1999 and after a couple of potholders and a pillow, I thought I was ready for a big quilt. I started it that year, but didn’t finish it until we were getting ready to move overseas in 2005 and the quilt top had sat in a bag for a couple of years while I tried to figure out how to back such a large quilt, and quilt it. But I wasn’t going to pack it unfinished, so I finished it as best as I knew how and moved it with us.

What techniques were used in that first quilt? Did you quilt it yourself?

It was a double nine patch, roughly queen-size (I’m not sure what I measured because it was supposed to fit my twin bed), all cut with scissors and cardboard templates, and traditionally pieced. I had not heard of rulers and rotary cutters, and I think part of the measuring issue was me trying to convert inches and centimeters back and forth.

I quilted it myself on my domestic machine with a large crosshatch. I had aspirations of doing fancy quilting in the large white squares, and the crosshatch was just supposed to hold it all together until I learned to quilt feathers etc… it’s still only a crosshatch.

Who taught you to make the quilt?

The class I had taken was at my local seniors’ center, and that’s where I learned the basics. After that I was gifted the book Quits! Quilts!! Quilts!!! by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes that had this pattern in it, and I basically taught myself how to make it from that book. Quilting and patchwork was not a big thing in Switzerland, and with no internet, resources were scarce.

Are the colours you chose for your first quilt ones you would still choose today?

Yes. It’s blue and white and those are still colours I use a lot, and in combination, too.

Did you fall in love with quilting right away? Or was there a gap between making the first quilt and the next one?

I loved it from the start, but there were definitely bigger gaps between quilts then, mainly because of where I lived and the lack of access to quilting fabric and classes.

Where is the quilt now?

In my closet. It still gets used regularly as a bed cover to keep the cat hair off the duvets.

Is there anything you wish you could go back and tell yourself as you made that first quilt?

“Make something smaller” lol If I had realized just how much work a quilt that size was going to be, I would never have made it. I didn’t make another large quilt (the next one was twin size) for probably 15 years after that, I stuck to baby quilts and the occasional throw.

Anything else you want to share about your first quilt?

I still love the quilt, despite all the flaws and things I did wrong. And it’s interesting for me to look at it and realize that I really was drawn to modern quilts from the start. This was the most modern-looking quilt pattern in the book, and despite there being no “modern” fabrics at the time, I still managed to make something quite similar to what I would make today.

Thanks for sharing your beautiful first quilt, Monika! I love it, and I loved reading all about it 😊

Swirling Thoughts

Devotion for the week...

I had to have a hard conversation with someone recently. I hate any kind of conflict, or anything that makes me feel I might be disappointing or inconveniencing someone, so I had been putting the conversation off for a few weeks, but it finally had to happen. The next day, I kept replaying it over in my mind, coming up with ways I could have said something different, or things I didn’t say at all, but should have. It just kept going and going, until suddenly I thought of Philippians 4:8, which says, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” 

A few verses before this one, Paul told the Philippians to “always be full of joy in the Lord” (v. 4), then he told them, “don’t worry about anything” (v. 6), and to “thank [God] for all he has done” (v. 6). Can you see how thinking about things that are true, honourable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise would help with all of that? Thoughts that fall into those categories are uplifting and positive. They help us see the good in the world, and in other people. They remind us of joy, and give us reasons to praise God.

The replayed, and reinvented, conversation swirling through my head did not fit those categories. Thinking about it over and over didn’t leave me feeling uplifted, or joyful, or in the mood to praise God; it just left me feeling depleted and annoyed. And for what? I wasn’t going to have the conversation again, and the imagined replay wasn’t going to change anything.

Do you find yourself dwelling on thoughts that leave you feeling depleted or annoyed? When thoughts are swirling like that, it can be hard to get rid of them, but I find that worship music helps. The morning I was redoing that conversation over and over, I turned on Jenn Johnson’s “Goodness of God” for a quick reset. Singing along about the goodness of God pulled me out of the swirl of negativity and by the time the song was over, I was able to leave the conversation in the past and move on with my day. 

God knows us so well. He knows we tend to dwell on negative thoughts, so He graciously reminds us to focus on the good things instead. When we fix out thoughts on good things, we are better able to be full of joy, better able to banish worry, and more likely to thank God for all He has done.

What do you do to change your focus from negative thoughts to positive ones?