anniversary card

today is my 8th wedding anniversary! jeepers - i never knew i would last this long!!! REALLY!! i always looked at people who were 37 years old and had been married for many years, and thought that i would NEVER get there............and would you know, here i am! 37 years old and married for 8 of those to THE SAME MAN!!!! LOL!!! if i think back over the 8 years, they were filled with lots of tears, laughter, sadness, MADNESS, happiness, frustration, elation, and probably every single human emotion that can be found. would i swap the last 8 years for anything else? NOPE, not in a million years. i have learnt so much about myself, life, love and God, that i would not have otherwise learnt - of that i am sure. when one shares a life with someone and you do not have children in your house, it forces you to really look at yourself sometimes and wonder if you really are as perfect as you think........i know that i have really come down from my throne in a really hard way the past few years, and i pray that the Lord will humble me even more so that i can be truly the wife i am supposed to be in Jesus' image.............strange notion, i know. how to be a wife in Jesus' image...........is there even such a thing? you know, i do believe so. i lack pitifully in attributes currently that i should have, but i am confident that the Holy Spirit will guide me to become who i am supposed to be. i am also patient. i used to be very impatient with EVERYTHING - and i still am with some things, but i am learning that good things do come to those that wait.

the stamp is by a local South African company, Great Impressions. i stamped it with Versafine and then colored it with my Colleen coloring pencils and blended it with OMS. afterwards i added some Derwent Inktense to certain areas just to darken it. i then also blended that with OMS. i finished the image off with some stickles in strategic spots. why a flyfishing hat on an anniversary card? well, i have it (lol) and my husband LOVES flyfishing. i think if he did not have a wife, he would live in a tent on a river bank - in MONTANA if he could!!!

the sentiment was stamped with Versamark and first embossed with Queen's gold EP by Ranger, and then overstamped again with Versamark and embossed with a detail white EP - sorry, i really don't know by which company, as i only got a little sample from Gail. i blended the edges of the image that was stamped on Prism Brilliant white with my Tea Dye Distress ink, and it was just mounted on a left over piece of Basic Grey Patterned Paper. and there you have it - really simple and QUICK card............

when i was doing my Bible Study this morning, a verse in 1 Corinthians 6 jumped out at me - verse 18 : NKJ "Flee sexual immorality" NIV " Flee from sexual immorality" Student's Life Application Bible " Run away from sexual sin". why did this jump out at me? i was watching Brothers and Sisters last Thursday. my tv died on me during the last 5 minutes, but the one character was having an emotional affair with a man she met at the park where she takes her child to. they had not even kissed, held hands or done anything "immoral" according to our (very low) standards. but, they were "caught out". the shame, guilt and other repurcussions were ringing loudly as i watched and imagined it playing out in real life - every day. so subtly. infidelity runs rampant in marriages. Aids does not scare people. STD's are everywhere. sexual sin leaves a path of destruction that is hard to quantify. everything "goes" on TV, in music, in the media - and i know i sound like an old fashioned, "verkrampte" 100-year old party pooper, but it really just dawned upon me this morning that no other addiction is so readily acceptable in society as sex, and it really destroys when it happens outside of marriage. i am no exception and i had my share of sexual relationships before i was married - i really thank God quite frequently that He protected me from all the bad things that could have happened. SO, if you are maybe on the brink of an illicit relationship or looking at things you should not be looking at, desiring that which is forbidden - read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. there is a reason that God joined one man and one woman. it really took me this long to fully understand it. i was always EXTREMELY liberal - everything went - you have to be tolerant and understanding etc etc etc, don't offend by what you say, just please everyone...............i am not sure i can even endorse that train nowadays - i have a choice - i either offend man, or God. and since i will not be spending eternity with man, i think i would rather offend a few of them!!! God loves you and it makes no difference if you have lived a life of extreme promisquity or if you have just cheated once. He is ready to forgive you and loves you VERY much. He sent His ONLY Son to die for your sins, so that you can inherit eternal life. what are you waiting for?