Hope Does Not Disappoint Us

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. ~ Romans 5:5

It’s time for another CHF Challenge Chicks offering. I’m still working with the new Aimee Nugent images that will be released on Friday of this week. This is another silhouette, a manger scene. I used Beate’s Faux Shaving Cream technique, and I love the results on these large, solid images. The CHF Challenge today was to use Krylon Leafing Pens. I used the Pale Gold, and I see this morning that it must be out of stock, probably because they are all on special this week. You can achieve the same results with any of the colors, and there are lots of samples to look at, as much of the team is participating today.  You can see samples from Julia Stainton, Julie Campbell, Lisa Silver, Kim Hughes, Kristine Reynolds, Dawn Lusk, Michele Boyer and Sherrie Seimens by clicking their individual names.

Joy! Peace! Hope! A sentiment from the Christmas Expressions set available on Thursday! Let me speak to those few words for a minute. Two times in my life, I have had a preacher stand up and say, ‘the Holy Spirit has given me a different message today that I originally planned’. One of those times was yesterday, and both times the new message was tailored to meet me where I was at, at that season. God is good. Our pastor actually preached from Romans 8 yesterday, my very favorite chapter of the Bible. And, he actually preached on JOY – the joy of our salvation! The joy of having a short (very short) list of things that we need to be happy and how that sets us up to be joyful. The encouragement yesterday gave me HOPE.

I’ve had a lot on my mind the last few weeks, a few rough situations that are really hard to wrap your mind around and even more difficult to evoke change.  While I won’t stop praying about them, I’ll be moving those rough situations off of my list of things that steal my happiness and rob my JOY. That brings me PEACE. It gives me a new HOPE, and His Word tells me that HOPE does not disappoint us. 

Tomorrow is Divine Design, and seeing how God touches so many of you through His Word, well that is one of those things that brings me JOY. Have a wonderful, wonderful day!