Faith + Trust | Bramble Fox

I'm up on the Bramble Fox blog today. Here's my post. Scroll all the way to the bottom to read my journaling.

Hey, Foxy Friends! I was very excited when Morag asked me to make a layout using the new Faith Perspextives, soon to be in the shop. I had the perfect page in mind when I got these beautiful pieces. This 8 x 8 layout tells the story of how my faith and trust in God grew and deepened dramatically when my husband had a brain aneurysm that caused a serious brain hemorrhage that landed him in the hospital for 47 days. I didn't come to my faith until I was 50, so I'm still a fairly new Christ follower, and this journey helped me really grasp so many truths God promises in his Word. If you want to read my journaling, you can go to the bottom of my blog post here.

My layout is fairly simple because I wanted my journaling to be the highlight. What looks like patterned paper on the right-hand side of my page is actually my journaling. Because my story is partially covered, I printed it a second time and adhered it to the back of the layout. How beautiful is the font of these Perspextives? And the cross is so pretty too! I love how it doubles as a plus sign for my title.

I used Cocoa Vanilla's Happiness collection because the flowers signify growth and the butterflies symbolize transformation. The lovely coral flowers from the Meadow Flowers matched the palette nicely.

I finished my layout with a few coordinating pearls and some phrase stickers that helped to tell my story.

Faith is such an important part of my life. I'm so happy Bramble Fox created Perspextives to help us document the stories that celebrate our relationship with God. I'd love to see what you create with these beautiful pieces. Be sure to add your creations to the Bramble Fox Friends Facebook group so we can enjoy them!

Here's my journaling:

My faith and trust in God deepened during the 47 days you were hospitalized. I was so scared, but I had a very strong feeling that Jesus was with me right through the whole journey. That first night, when I had left the hospital to get a few hours of sleep before your major surgery, you had just had the first surgery where they put a drain in your head and when I left, your were like a zombie, glazed eyes, drooling, and unable to talk. I came home, terrified, and I cried and cried and begged the Lord to heal you. I must've cried for hours, praying, and I saw a vision of glowing hands on your brain, and I just knew it was Jesus starting to heal you. When I returned to the hospital the next morning, you were alert and talking before your brain surgery. 

Throughout the seven weeks you were in the hospital, I felt God's peace that surpasses all understanding that's written in the Bible, and I know my peace was from God because I am not a calm person and this was not a situation that would make me feel at peace, and it was because I had literally hundreds (maybe over a thousand) people praying for us--not just for your healing, but for my peace and strength to walk this difficult and terrifying journey. 

So many times I would feel myself getting scared, times when you couldn't talk or wouldn't wake up or would talk nonsense or couldn't take a step without falling over or couldn't feed yourself, and the song they sing at my church "Peace Be Still" would always come into my head. I knew the Holy Spirit was bringing that song to me as a gift to let me know Jesus was right there with me, holding me, calming me, telling me it was going to be all right. 

I felt the love of Jesus in those moments I was alone, sleeping in the chair beside you as you lay in a hospital bed with tubes and monitors all over you. And I felt his love through the love of my family and friends, through his people who called me and prayed for me and sent me cards and texts and presents. I even got a card from a friend I only know online from all the way across the globe in Australia with messages of Christ's love. 

Gina gave me a card, and I sadly cannot find it, but it said something like, "You may not know it right now because you're going through a lot of pain and hardship, but you will realize later that this is a blessing." I wish I could remember exactly what it said, but that card sat on the windowsill at the hospital and I would look at it every day and even though I couldn't imagine that this whole scary experience was a blessing, I kept thinking "It has to be true." Gina is a godly woman with the kind of faith that oozes out of her pores, and so I'm sure she knows what she's talking about. Later, I realized the truth of the sentiment in that card. Romans 8:28 is so true. God does call all things to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose for them. The Lord was using this crisis to deepen my faith and my trust in him. Jesus walked beside me every step of the way through this journey and I know he'll always be there.