Monday, March 12, 2012

Creating My Legacy of Faith Scrapbooks


By Brenda Boen
May 1, 2008

In October of 2007 I started creating my first Legacy of Faith scrapbook. It was a journey that started out in our Bible study class as a prayer treasure map. We were "supposed" to create a book of prayers and illustrate those prayers. Of course, how do you illustrate? Well, you can draw pictures, if that is what you like to do. I tried but I can only draw stick figures. That would have been fine. Others were doing that and they were great but it just wasn't for me. The more I drew the less I liked it. I don't know if God just gave me a technicolor eyes or what but I quickly had another plan. I began to use some colorful scripture clip art that I use for church flyers and newsletters. That was more me. I would write down a prayer and glue down an appropriate scripture to go with it. Soon thoughts were rolling in my head. Instead of documenting very specific prayers I would generalize some prayers that would be timeless, so to speak. They were very real prayers that I genuinely prayed but they weren't all dated or specific as those that are in my prayer journal. Sometimes personal prayers are private and I thought I'd continue the way I was going.

The next step came to me to document how I feel about God and how He has worked in my life. I thought that if I could get this in a pretty scrapbook others would look at it and know my heart. I began with the subject of prayer. After all, the study I was attending was on prayer. So I thought I'd document how important prayer was and then I could document how I spent my quiet time with the Lord. My first page was more of a cover sheet with Psalm 116:1-2 (one of my favorite verses): 

"I love the Lord, for He heard my voice, He heard my cry for mercy. Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live." 

The page included some beautiful paper with shades of purple hydrangeas and butterflies and dragonflies. I also penned a special note from me to my Lord: 

"O Lord, You are always there to listen to me. You are my Father in whom I trust. You care about ME! Thank you for Your love and Your attentiveness. I love You! Brenda" 

I wanted something else to go on the page so I made a 3D dragonfly and mounted it with a pop dot. I looked up dragonflies on the internet and found something very interesting. For some Native American tribes dragonflies represent swiftness and activity and for the Navaho they symbolize pure water. And it is said in some Native American beliefs that dragonflies are a symbol of renewal after a time of great hardship. In Japan dragonflies are symbols of courage, strength and happiness. Well, that was it! When I pray God is swift and actively working on the answer. He is my Pure Water. And prayer always renews me and gives me courage, strength and happiness. Wow!


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