P.R.A.Y.

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Paintings by Margot Cioccio

Mark 1:35
 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, 

Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

So I finished the PRAY paintings today. I've made them available on a number of cool products that you will see below. I make a small royalty when you purchase these print on demand products.
My goal is to create items that will encourage and inspire. There are links to all my sites in the tabs on the A Devotional Mosaic Blog page. I've added a new one too called My Creative Spark. That one will give interested folks a topic to spark their creativity. It can be in any type of creative medium that you are into. The current one uses these colors and they may inspire you to paint or to write a poem or to cook or build something. The goal is to simply to inspire creativity. I suppose we will see what the Lord does with it. I will post the new topic each Sunday night. You can always submit things to the past posts as well. The directions are on the welcome page.

Source: design-seeds.com via Margot on Pinterest

I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want to be when I grow up. Its kind of humorous to me since I will be celebrating my 51'st birthday this week. I suppose it is more a seeking God for direction for the next portion of my life. I don't really know if I'm to continue to be my scattered self or if the Lord would have me focus my time and energy in a particular direction. For now I'm taking it one day at a time. I can't really see myself not doing art, music, writing or ministry, they are all things that I love to do. All things that make me happy and stretch me at the same time. I feel responsible to develop and grow in the gifts and talents that the Lord has given me.  I'd like to be able to stand before the Lord on that final day and be able to say that I have used the gifts he gave me to encourage others and to bring him glory.

I always feel compelled that I must use my life to leave a legacy of faith for others to follow. None of us knows how many days we have upon this earth. I don't want to be waiting for someday to do things that I could do today. Those who wait for someday to live might just miss the boat. I don't want to look back on my life with regrets for not having really lived.
We had a great video that we played in church on Sunday called the Lumber Song. I will embed the video for you. If you are getting this in your e-mail you will need to click on the title to visit the actual blog post to see it. It will stretch you a wee bit to think about what you are doing with your life. What things have an eternal value? Guess I have been thinking about those kind of things lately. How do I want to spend the next years of my life. Are there things I want to adjust, change, do differently? Some stuff I can't really change but I might be able to change my attitude on some things. Some things I will just have to take step by step day at a time as the Lord leads me. There are a lot of things that I can choose to do or not to do. I can just be busy or I can be purposeful and seek the Lord about what He would have me do. In all likelihood his plan will be bigger than I can begin to imagine, so I will be content with the little glimpse of direction and be thankful that he promises to lead me step by step. I want to be mindful of the future but the place that the Lord wants me to be concerned with is today. How will I use today? Will I be faithful with the things he has given me today? Will I spend time with him today? Will I be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit today or will I be suborn and lean on my self sufficiency?


Anyway those are the kind of things that have been on my mind as I intentionally try to slow down to make sure I'm not just being busy with my own good ideas and intentions, or being busy to avoid dealing with things I should deal with. I see somethings and I'm sure I am still blinded to others but I pray that the Lord will help me to see with spiritual eyes and that my heart would yield to his will.

How about you? 
Prayer: Lord we praise you because you are worthy of praise and thanks. You do so much for us each and every day and we acknowledge your hand upon our lives and are truly grateful. Lord we repent of our indifference, and pride and self sufficiency. We ask that you would lead us in the way you would have us to go. We look to you for wisdom to make wise kingdom minded decisions. We choose to listen to you, and yield to you.

September Challenge: The September challenge winner is Debbie DeRienzo who got her name in that hat a bunch of times for each of her wonderful Photo Challenge posts. Since the challenges don't really seem to be inspiring folks to comment on posts or interact on the facebook page, I'm going to wait a while before doing another challenge.  

Items featuring my P.R.A.Y artwork:

Pray Greeting Card

Pray Card by MargotsDesigns
Find more note cards online at zazzle.com

Prayer Jar
 

Prayer Jar by MargotsDesigns
Browse other candy dish designs on Zazzle.

Another fun idea using the PRAY paintings. Fill this jar with the answers to prayers during the year and then celebrate by reading them at the end of the year. Or fill it with slips of paper with promise verses or things to pray about.

 PRAY Poster

Pray Poster by MargotsDesigns
Look at more fine art posters

14x 11 Poster

Custom Wall Decal

PRAY 12 x 18 Wall Decal by MargotsDesigns
Create personalized wall decor designs online at Zazzle

Brighten up any room with a custom wall decal from Zazzle and Walls 360! Printed with premium eco-solvent inks on high quality fabric paper, your images, the design will pop off the wall with stunning clarity and color accuracy. Made to be moved, each wall decal can be peeled and repeeled up to one hundred times without damaging the decal or walls. No glue, no frames, no pain – make a space all your own with a customized wall decal!

Dry Erase Board w/ Pen

 

PRAY Dry Erase Board with Pen by MargotsDesigns
Browse other Pray Dry Erase Boards

Add this to your to-do list: Get a great custom dry-erase board! Vibrantly printed using the AcryliPrint®HD process, Featured in three sizes, this dry-erase board is the perfect fit for the kitchen, office, school locker, or college dorm room.

• Three sizes: 8" x 8" (small), 12" x 8" (medium), and 22" x 16" (large).
• Includes black dry-erase pen and mounting equipment.

A Walk In The Park

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Matthew 7:3-5

New International Version (NIV)

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Yesterday my husband and I went for a walk in a near by park. I saw a sign in the park that said the park had been established in 1904. Its a lovely park with many beautiful areas where one can walk or sit and reflect. There is a Japanese garden, a rose garden, a conservatory garden, there is a duck pond, lilac garden, children's play areas and picknick grounds. One can walk through the park in a big circle and pass through all the various park areas. It was a beautiful afternoon here in Spokane that seemed to cry out not to miss it but to take the time to experience it in some way.  

A late bloomer

I had suggested a bike ride but my husband said his back was hurting and that he would be more interested in going for a walk in the park.  We filled our water bottles and headed to the park. I have been to the park many times but it was my husband Marco's first time to experience the park.  I was surprised to still find so many flowers in bloom.

The Geese are fun to watch

I realize that marriage is not always like a easy walk in the park on a beautiful day. There are seasons that are difficult. Some that seem dry and barrin and others that are lush and full of life. There are joys and disappointments. Wonderful acts of love and kindness and sometimes selfishness, pain and sorrow.  I saw this quote posted on someones face book wall.

The Conservatory Garden

It is easy to see the highlights of everyone else's marriage or relationships and think you are the only one who struggles. Its easy to feel like you have lost your way. You might feel your screw ups are too big to overcome, or the screw ups of others to great to forgive.  Ask the Lord to help you. Maybe make a point to not grumble and complain to others but do your venting with the Lord. Allow him to help you see the things you are facing from his prospective. All too often we allow stuff from the past to influence and color the present. Allow the Lord to strip that stuff away. Today is a new day and you don't have to be miserable. A little kindness goes a long way and forgiveness further still. We need to be careful to not de-value the people around us because they have hurt or disappointed us or because of our own feelings of guilt for letting them down. It does take time to work through some things and there will aways be new things to work through. Relationships are a journey and traveling through life together has its benefits and each has its own stress points and places where each person needs to grow to be more Christ like.
It might be time to stop waiting for others to make changes and get on with you, yourself deciding to be a better, more loving, more forgiving person. You may be surprised what the seeds of kindess planted today my later bloom and grow into.  We live in a fast food, disposable society. We want everything now in an instant. If things don't work we throw them away and don't take the time or effort to try to repair them. We need to be careful not to do that with the people around us. Each one is a unique gift to you from the Lord. Yes... even the difficult ones are there to help you to learn patience, tolerance, long suffering or some other character quality that the Lord desires to grow in you. I also realize that it is easy to point out the faults and to be critical of others and to lay the blame upon them for why things are difficult or broken. I can tell you from first hand experience of being very open and honest with the Lord about my struggles that when I vent to him - he is gracious to help me see all the balls that I have dropped and to help me be responsible for the part I have played. He will help you remove the log from your own eye and help you then with humility, compassion, and love to help you remove the speck from the blind spot in the eye of another.

Even fading flowers are still beautiful

Prayer: Lord help us to look at where we are in our journey with you and our journey through life with others. Forgive us for de-valuing some of the people in our lives. Help us to see them as gifts from you. Help us to be courageous enough to vent to you and not to others. Help us to pray more than we complain. Make us more and more like you to see the good and the unique and wonderful value in each person.

Open Ended Questions

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio.

In A conversation both share, both listen

Open ended questions are the kind of questions that don't allow you to get away with a nod of the head or a grunt or a simple yes or no. Open ended question require one to have to think, to have to express. They cause you to have to share your feelings or your perspective. The beauty of them is that they are the basis for forming a dialogue in which people converse sharing their thoughts and ideas.

Jesus asks open ended questions. For example in Luke 9:18 during a private prayer time with his disciples. He asked them "Who do the crowds say I am?" I suppose that is a less invasive question because they at that point only had to share the opinions of others. Jesus was just getting them warmed up. Then in verse 20 he asks "But what about you? he asked Who do you say I am?"
Yikes now the disciple will need to lay their own cards out on the table. Peter answers and says."The Christ of God."
 
Jesus often spoke in stories rather than just simply give the answer. The listener has to think it through and connect the dots. It then becomes that persons revelation, their own personal discovery. It is easy to be disconnected from facts and figures. When we have to work our way through a puzzel to find the solution we realize that we were given more that just a fish sandwich - we learned how to fish and make a meal for our selves.

You may find yourself crying out to God to tell you what you should do. You want answers and you want them now. You want the Lord to make his will very clear.  I love this quote from John 6  Jesus has just done the loves and fishes miracle and the crouds have come to find him on the other side of the lake. In verse 26 Jesus say " I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval"  They then they ask " What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus spells it out pretty clearly. "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."  They want him then to prove it by a miracle. They had to take that leap of faith to believe that Jesus himself was the bread that came down from heaven.  The doubters then raise their voices in verse 42 " Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?"

I guess my question to you is this. Tell me why the doubters could not connect the dots and believe?
Then tell me what doubts are you allowing to stand in the way of following Jesus?

I know for myself I often struggle to decide what are my own or others good ideas and what are the things that God has set before me to do. He leads us beside still waters, he restores our souls. If I will be quiet I am more able to hear the open ended questions in the dialoge that the Lord desires to have with me. 

Take a little time now and be quiet and still. Listen carefully. What is question is he asking you today? Write it down, think about it. It might be one of the ones I asked in this post or it may be something else. The answer you are seeking will be found as you enter into a dialoge with the Lord. He will help you to connect the dots. The problems you face he already has the solution but you need to work it out for yourself. You need to trust him to lead you step by step. If he were to show you the big picture you would likely go into over load and panic. He graciously will show you the next little step. Do that and he will show you the next steps as you get to them.

Prayer:
Jesus my shepherd, my guide on this journey, I look to you. You are the source of all that I need. You have the answers and I trust you to help me to see them. Help us to not just rattle off our long list of prayer demands but to enter into a conversation with you. Help us to share our heart and then to listen as you share yours. 


  

Be Still And Know That I Am God

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

I have been trying as much as I am able to have a quiet week. Which means that I have had to say "no" to things that people have wanted me to do. I won't be at things that don't directly depend on me to happen. My first response is to feel guilty but my second is to step back and realize that I am not indispensable.

I know that for weeks the Lord has been saying to me "slow down". I realize it is a process for me to do that. My thoughts are still un-settled and I am still easily distracted. Even so, I have to know that the Lord will help me to get to the place of slowed down, settledness that he wants for me. If he is asking something of us, he has a way and a plan for getting us there. I'd like to be led willingly not like a donkey fighting my master every step of the way.

Search me oh Lord and know my anxious thoughts, Psalm 139 says. I suppose the Lord already knows what things frighten and unsettle me. I suppose in praying that prayer God is searching and knowing my heart but I think that he is also helping to to reveal those things to me.  We may put on a brave, got it together face for the world around us but I have found that it is best to be honest with the Lord. Forgive me Lord, I have anxious thoughts.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

It is much easier to point a accusing finger at everyone else than it is to look honestly and humbly at our own offensive ways. It is easy to keep so busy or so numb that we don't deal with our own issues. I suppose I know in slowing down that there are issues that the Lord wants me to see and places that he desires to heal.  I am thankful that he sees my feeble attempts and will meet me and help me.

The 23 Psalm says he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. For my soul to be restored I must get to a place of being still and settled. I have to be a sheep that trusts my shepherd when he says I need to slow down and rest. 

Prayer:

Dear Lord, 

Help us to be still and know that you are God. Help us to realize our own anxious thoughts and to see our offensive ways. Help us to not then have a pity party or a condemnation fest, but to allow you to help us change to become the men and women who's lives are pleasing to you.

 

Photo Challenge 8

A Devotional by Debbie DeRienzo
Who remembers this great family game? My family plays it quite often.... and I laugh at the irony of this game. It is called SORRY but you are NEVER sorry when you "sorry" your oponent! LOL. You...

are very excited when you get to send the other players back to the start and you take their position! And then... you can't wait to do it again!!!! It makes me think of how many times we say sorry. If you are like me.. sorry is a main staple in your vocabulary. I mess up alot. But I am human.. NOT perfect! But how many times do we say sorry to God for the things we have done... but then just do it again. Sorry I lied today God.... sorry I yelled at my spouse... sorry I drank too much..... sorry I ignored my kids today and though of myself first...sorry I was lazy.. sorry I looked at that inappropriate web site.. etc etc. then the next day comes and we do it all over! What must we do to change this pattern. At some point sorry just becomes an empty word. BUT....Praise God for His mercy.... for His mercy is new every morning!!!! He continues to reach down to us and forgives us for every failure so long as we come to Him asking for forgiveness. But.. here is the"catch" .. to really overcome this pattern we have to desire to be more Christ-like. We must realize our sin and lay it at His feet. We can not stop bad patterns of behavior without His help! We can not do anything within' our own strength. HOWEVER..... we can do ALL things through Christ Who give us strength!. So, next time you need to say sorry... say it and MEAN it, remember you are forgiven so you do not have to be bound by those chains that entangle you!

Ask The Holy Spirit To Help Yo

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Like a sailboat we need the wind of the Holy Spirit to move us.

Genesis 2:3
And God blessed the seventh day 

and made it holy, 

because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

It is now Tuesday morning. I did pretty much rest all day yesterday. Even so I still went to bed early. I did a few things like I had to get milk and a few items at the grocery store, I made a simple dinner for my family. I read a book for a while, tried to follow the directions to make some earrings but could not concentrate well enough.  In the late evening I watched a show with my son. Mostly I rested.
I struggle with resting I always feel like there are things that I could be doing. Part of trust for me is realizing that it is ok to rest. Not only that God wants me and you to rest. I was reading somewhere yesterday that resting is an act of worship. It says to God that I trust Him to be able to take care of the things that concern me in the other 6 days of the week. Resting is a spiritual disciple that we actually need to practice. I can look at my day yesterday and I can see some thing that I could have done with just a little pre-planning that would have eliminated some of the things I did have to do. I believe however that the Lord saw my heart was to obey him even if I did not do it perfectly.

It took me time and practice to make my early morning quiet time a regular part of my daily life. It took me time to get the hang of writing and blogging daily. God does give us wonderful spiritual gifts but we also must use them to become proficient at using them. I think of them more like spiritual tools. If you give me a router or a band saw as a gift, I still need to practice cutting and shaping wood. My first attempts at something new,  like the earrings I attempted yesterday, are always a bit clumsy.
I will try them again when I am less tired. I realized there were some supplies and other elements that I needed to still get, and I will work on acquiring those things this week.  So you may feel a bit awkward and clumsy about taking a actual day of rest. It may feel a bit uncomfortable and there will likely be things that you will discover that you could improve upon. I think God is pleased when we give him more than mere lip service regarding the things he says we should do in his word.

Maybe resting is not a struggle for you, perhaps it is being part of a community of believers. That one takes practice too. Its hard to be a living stone in a spiritual house if you hardly attend any services or activities at a church. Sometimes it takes some practice to organize your priorities to make time for healthy spiritual disciplines and practices in your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.

For weeks I have been feeling like the Lord has been saying to me, "Slow Down!" He has sent me that message in dreams, and in things I have read, in His word and at least one friend has voiced their concern. So I am going to try to do that this week and my first step of faith towards trying to slow down was to actually heed the word and take a day of rest. I'm not sure exactly how it will play out during the rest of the week but I am going to try to be intentional about not taking on a bunch of extra stuff this week. I realize that I will need the Lord's help. I've heard Him repeatedly telling me to slow down and I have been trying but failing pretty miserably at it. So I am telling the Lord that I hear Him and I want to obey but I will need His help to see where and how. I will need his help when I am feeling clumsy and outside of my normal comfort zone.

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
There are things that you have been speaking to each of us. You have been patently waiting for us to realize that we need your help. Thank you that your word says that when we are weak you are strong.
Go before us and help us to see little changes that we could make today, and little changes tomorrow and the next day. Help us not to get discouraged because we feel awkward or uncomfortable outside of our comfort zone as we take little steps of faith to trust and be doers of your word.

Sabboth Rest

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Source: google.com via Margot on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Margot on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Margot on Pinterest

I'm not saying you need to get all legalistic about this but we were designed by God to need a day of rest. I don't think what day you rest on is the point. The point is that you can't continue to go full tilt 24/7 and not burn out. Trust me I am preaching to myself today - I need to rest today. So this is my post to you as well. Take some day this week and rest.

Source: google.com via Margot on Pinterest