SMASHing Sermons

 SMASH: "for the moments and musings that stick"

At the end of "Making Crosses", my project for Lent, I stated that I wanted to find another project that would allow me to focus on God and use creativity on a regular basis. I found it!!

Every Sunday I take notes on our pastor's sermons in a small notebook for that purpose. I don't like the notebook because the spacing of the lines is weird and sometimes I use all the lines and pages (2 per sermon) and sometimes I don't. All that blank space bugs me. The notebook itself is very bland and not very exciting. Most people probably don't care if their notebook is exciting but as a lover of pens, paper, school supplies and The Container Store I want my notebook to be pretty!

Recently I went to Michael's Craft store to purchase some supplies for the third grade Sunday School class and I saw some wonderful notebooks called SMASH books. The idea for these is that you use them for projects. They have a pen with a marker on one end and a glue stick on the other attached to the notebook. That way the glue is always handy and you can easily glue things into your notebook as you find them. Examples of things people use these for: wedding planning, decorating or remodeling, a place to collect ideas for projects, a place to save favorite quotes and sayings and as a planner. Art journaling is very popular right now and this is a modified version of that. 

What I think is really cool about things like this is that I love to take something designed for a "normal" or secular purpose and use it for something spiritual. I bought a SMASH book! I am using it to paste in my sermon notes. I am then taking time during the week following the sermon to go back over the notes, look up the scriptures mentioned in the sermon and then create something decorative around the sermon notes and the scriptures. The SMASH purpose is to record "the moments and musing that stick". I want God's Word to "stick" to me!

I did the first sermon this week. Our pastor presents interesting and challenging sermons, ones that make you want to change something about yourself or to do something differently. Each sermon is based on scripture and is full of meaning. This week was the Mother's Day sermon. Mother's Day was so hectic for us this year. I had spent several days preparing to teach the third graders and teaching them just fills your head with kids. If you've ever taught children then you know what I mean. They are so funny and they talk so much. After I leave them I need time to let it all settle. This doesn't leave much room in my brain for reflection on the sermon. Since it was Mother's Day we rushed to Chipotle after church to eat lunch and then catch an afternoon movie (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - my Mother's Day present). Dean has work going on all the time and Parker has had AP tests so both wanted to get home and have time to do things in the evening. Anyway, life is always like this so I rarely take the time to go back over the sermon, even the ones that seem like they were written just for me.

This week I worked on the SMASH sermon pages several evenings which meant I thought about the Scriptures and the Sermons several times and let them sink in. I was very excited with how the pages came out. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with for the next sermons. Below are pictures of the notebook and accessories. Yes! the notebook has it's own accessories! Sadly notebooks don't wear shoes, however there is an elastic band to go around it that holds extra pens, there are little flags and stickers, some striped paperclips with little flags on them, Smash pads which are for recording certain kinds of information like quotes or family events, and there are pockets. I did not purchase all the mentioned accessories. I need something to look forward to!

 SMASH notebook and glue/pen.

 I glued one of the pockets on the inside cover. I keep grid paper in the pocket to take sermon notes on. I also keep some of the pages from the small smash pad that I use to record the sermon's scriptures.                                                                                                                                                                 

 Some of the pages in the notebook are already "decorated" in some way. This is the first page of the yellow Smash notebook.

 This is the two page spread of the sermon and the scriptures. I pasted the sermon notes onto the left hand page and then later wrote the scriptures from the sermon on the smash pad pages and glued them on the right hand side.

 I stamped some butterflies onto watercolor paper and then painted them and cut them out. I then glued them onto the notebook page. Then I began tangling around the butterflies.

 In the Sermon our pastor, Gerald Griffin talked about what Moms do. They protect. He mentioned three ways Moms protect.
1. Moms protect by living the Word of God.
2. Moms protect by Living Their Faith
3. Moms protect by Modeling Service.

 

 The scriptures used in the sermon were: Psalm 103: 8-12, 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7, and 2 Timothy 3:16

 The quote card is from the "blank" smash pad. The tangle that looks like a zig zag is called Pea nuckle and it is new.

 .

 Some pages in the SMASH book are simple and some are pretty busy.

 Blank SMASH pad.

 Quotes SMASH pad.

 More pockets and pages.

This is the elastic band pen holder that goes around the notebook!

When I made the crosses for Lent sometimes I found myself more focused on the process of making the cross than on the MESSAGE of the cross (but not always). I think it will be the same with the SMASHing Sermons project. When I was stamping, painting and cutting out the butterflies, I was thinking about the butterflies. But when I was writing the scriptures on the SMASH pads, I was thinking about the scriptures and I was going back over the sermon notes. When you are blessed with really good teaching it is a shame to hear it on Sunday, talk over the particularly meaningful parts with your husband and family and then just sort of let it go. I don't want to let ANY of God's Word go.  I have mentioned my ladies Bible study and how much I get from studying God's word in depth. Those lessons stay with me. Maybe this will be a way for the truth of God's Word from Sunday's Sermons to also stay with me, SMASHed upon my heart. Happy Smashing!

Unbound!

There could be some boundary issues here!

Sometimes I feel like books search me out and find me other times books are recommended to me. When a book is recommended to me several times by different people I feel compelled to read it. Boundaries has been such a book. The actual title is Boundaries: When to Say Yes, When to Say No, to Take Control of your Life, it is written by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend.

I first heard of it several years ago when a friend read it as part of a class at church. It has come up over the years and most recently, Denise (one of the Awesome Bible Study Ladies) asked if I would like to borrow it from her. 

I have always felt like I had a few boundary issues but not the kind that would severely impact my life. Still it seemed like it might be time to read the book. I’m glad I did. It seems that boundary issues go both ways. I’ve always thought I had boundary issues when I cannot say “no” to someone. That is a boundary issue but it seems I also have a different kind of boundary issue when I try to impose my will on someone else (this could be relevant to the minions, uh, family members that I have mentioned before). So there were things for me to learn from this book from many different sides.

Boundaries does a good job of identifying the boundary issue, giving real life examples of how that issue can negatively affect a person and then gives a biblical and psychologically sound solution. Scripture is interwoven in the information to both inform and encourage.

I recently taught the parable of the talents to the third graders so I found the following paragraphs on passivity very interesting:

“Consider the contrast in the parable of the talents. The ones who succeeded were active and assertive. They initiated and pushed. The one who lost out was passive and inactive.

The sad thing is that many people who are passive are not inherently evil or bad people. But evil is an active force, and passivity can become an ally of evil by not pushing against it. Passivity never pays off. God will match our effort, but He will never do our work for us. That would be an invasion of our boundaries. He wants us to be assertive and active, seeking and knocking on the door of life.”

Another interesting section illuminated one of those feelings I often struggle with – a sense of obligation. I can say no to people with whom I feel no obligation but sometimes I feel bound by the past in situations. The following paragraph had something interesting to say about feelings of obligation:

The idea is that because we have received something, we owe something. The problem is the nonexistent debt. The love we receive, or money, or time – or anything which causes us to feel obligated –should be accepted as a gift.

Gift implies no strings attached. All that’s really needed is gratitude. The giver has no second thought that the present will provide a return. It was simply provided because someone loved someone and wanted to do something for him or her. Period.

That is how God views his gift of salvation to us. It cost him his Son. It was motivated out of love for us. And our response is to receive it, and to be grateful. Why is gratitude so important? Because God knows that our gratitude for what he has done for us will move us to love others: “as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Col.2:7).

What do we owe those who are kind to us, who have genuinely cared for us? We owe them thanks. And from our grateful heart, we should go out and help others.

There is a very interesting chapter on Boundaries and God. I had not previously thought about how “boundaries” relate to my relationship with God: 

“God respects our boundaries in many ways. First, he leaves work for us to do that only we can do. And he allows us to experience the painful consequences of our behavior so that we will change. He is not willing for any of us to perish and takes no pleasure in our destruction (2 Peter 3;9), but he wants us to change for our own good and his glory. “

The book includes one of the best descriptions of forgiveness and reconciliation and how they work biblically that I have ever read:

 “God forgave the world, but the whole world is not reconciled to him. Although he may have forgiven all people, all people have not owned their sin and appropriated his forgiveness. That would be reconciliation. Forgiveness takes one; reconciliation takes two.”

It goes on to say: “So many times Scripture talks about keeping boundaries with someone until she owns what she has done and produces “fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt. 3:8) True repentance is so much more than saying “I’m sorry”; it is changing direction...Reconciliation involves two. Do not think that because you have forgiven that you have to reconcile. You can offer reconciliation, but it must be contingent upon the other person owning her behavior and bringing forth trustworthy fruits.”

The book used “she” in the previous text but the person I forgave but did not truly reconcile with was a “he”. Reading the above words was helpful to me.

 

There is so much more in the book. Boundaries and Your Family, Boundaries and Your Friends, Boundaries and Your Spouse, Boundaries and Your Children, Boundaries and Work, etc. are various chapters included in the book.

I saw myself in this book as someone who has often felt guilty when I said “no” and I saw myself as someone who has at times made unrealistic demands on others. I have been on both sides of the boundary. This was helpful and motivating, it confirmed my actions where they needed to be confirmed and it challenged me in the areas where I need to be challenged. Thank you, Denise, for loaning me the book, I may need to get my own copy for reference!