Week 5!

I can't believe it's already week 5.  Emma and I have had a great time doing these challenges every day!  Whether we succeed or fail at each one, we're both thrilled to be living more creatively with each day the Lord has given us. 
My favorite challenge from last week was donating 1-2 full outfits.  I am constantly amazed at just how selfish we (humans) are.  I have a closet full of clothes and more shoes than I honestly wear, especially ones I wear on a daily basis, and yet I found it easy to complain to myself about giving up clothes.  I made myself give away two outfits, not just one, but as I put the clothes in bags to give away I realized it felt good.  Someone else who doesn't have as much as I do can wear this.  Maybe it'll become a girl's favorite shirt.  Maybe someone who barely has enough money to cover their rent really needed these winter shoes, and couldn't afford them otherwise.  I am blessed to have so much; why not share my wealth with others?
I extended that thought even further-- I've been blessed to have grace and mercy from God, who has saved me and who loves me.  Why not share Him, and the wealth I have in Him, with others?  My challenge to myself this week is to do that; pray for me if you read this, because I am going to step out in faith and speak to someone in my life about God.  The last time I tried, I became too afraid and talked myself out of it.  Lord, don't let me do that this time!

(didn't take this photo; credit to who took it)

I was thinking of a list for this coming week, and decided to do something a little different.  Instead of a new set of things to try, I am going to write down seven challenges I have failed at up to this point, and I am going to accomplish those.  If you didn't succeed at doing some of these challenges, do them this week and let me know how it goes!
Here are my seven; I am going go...
- Write encouraging letters to people, just because!
- Make breakfast for my family one day.
- Go for a bike ride, weather-permitting.
- Come up with (at least a concept of) a life logo for myself.
- Watch the sunrise one morning.
- Find a song as my anthem.
- Go vegan for a day.

Some of these honestly sound kind of daunting for me, especially because I've failed them already, but I'm not going to let that stand in my way!   As said by Walt Disney, "Keep moving forward."
~Laurel

Disciple making, mission trips, and their correlation

"Then Jesus said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...'" ~Matthew 28:18-19

My church has a saying: Be disciples, Make disciples, and Send disciples.  The focus of our lives as Christians should, in some part, be making disciples.  I think that is a great motto for life.  But Christians in this day and age, and especially in this society, seem to be so complacent.  Forget making and sending disciples--- who's even being one?  Not to sound horrible, but too many people (myself included) give up what they want most for what they want now.  Too many people are satisfied with life being comfortable, not challenging themselves or their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  We're taking the wide road that many find.  I want to search for that narrow road, the one that few will find, and I want to take that journey.  Not only that, but I want to take it with other disciples.
What does this have to do with mission trips?  Well, from what I know of mission trips, the main goal seems to be to be disciples, make disciples, send disciples, and spread the love of God to people who don't know Him.  People build churches, volunteer at orphanages, get to know local people and pray with/for them.  I've noticed lately that people often say things like, "I can't wait to see God do awesome things overseas!"  And while this is in no way a bad statement, because it is AWESOME to see God move in people, the key part I get hung up is that while people literally say 'I can't wait', that's what is happening.  Waiting.  We wait for the overseas trip that costs thousands of dollars do actually do something.  While building churches and helping orphans in other countries is fantastic, what does it really mean if the rest of our lives is spent doing none of that?  One week (or even one month) doing good doesn't mean it's okay to just sit around doing nothing to further God's kingdom the rest of the time. In fact, in my opinion, I would rather never go on a mission trip if it meant that I was using my time wisely, right here where God has placed me.
That being said!  I happen to know a good number of people who have been on mission trips because they feel God is calling them to go minister to other people-- these fantastic men and women show me daily what it's like to be Jesus to the world around them!  One of these great people is my friend Emma, who is currently in Brazil.  Hearing her heart for the Lord and for the people of that country is incredible, but what's even more powerful to me is to see that she wastes no time sitting around and waiting for a change of scenery to do what God has called her to do.  I see people around me who are actively being, making, and sending disciples.  They are the few, the faithful; the ones who have found that narrow road.  So whether you've been on dozens of mission trips or you've never left your hometown, I hope we are all using this beautiful thing called today to be, make, and send.
~Laurel

Recap from Week 3 / Week 4 list!

For me, doing the challenges this way was a lot easier.  Some days, it's easier for me to get the bigger stuff done.  Others, I don't really have time to do those so having the flexibility to switch it up comes in handy.  I completed all but one of the challenges this week; making breakfast for my family didn't happen because halfway through the week our fridge broke and didn't get fixed for a few days.  It was fun, though, to choose each day which challenge I wanted to tackle!
Some of my highlights...

1. Making the "creativity wall."  I had one in my old house, but last year my family moved and I hadn't created another creativity wall before now.  I didn't necessarily put all the papers and such on the wall-- instead it was on my closet door-- but all the same, it was nice to personalize my new(ish) room!
2. Memorizing a quote and writing about why I love that quote.  I chose something my pastor said a few weeks ago that really stuck with me at the time he said it; "The world is looking for a reason to not believe in God.  Don't give them one."
3. Writing a poem.  As a person who loves to write, I loved doing this.  I hadn't written a poem in a long time and it was fun to get back into that after a while.

And here's the list for next week!
1. Spend 15 minutes reading the dictionary one day.
2. Make your own life logo; something that expresses you and your personality!
3. Choose and carry out a project on your Pinterest "DIY Projects" board (let's be honest, 95% of us have them! If you don't, choose a project you want to try out).
4. Donate 1-2 full outfits (shirt, pants, shoes).
5. Go for a bike ride-- if the weather is nice!
6. Listen to only instrumental music for a day. (Why?  I don't know...just because!)
7. Get up to watch the sunrise one day.

With Emma gone this week, I'll need some people to do these with me and keep me accountable! So if you feel like doing one or some of these challenges, message or email me to let me know!
Enjoy the remainder of your weekend!
~Laurel

"Your Great Name"

Have you ever heard the song "Your Great Name" by Natalie Grant?  It expresses something that's been on my heart lately-- how GREAT the name of the Lord is.  I don't often stop to think about it, but when I do I'm hit and impacted in a powerful way.  These words are so true...

"Lost are saved, find their way, at the sound of Your great name...
All condemned feel no shame, at the sound of Your great name...
Every fear has no place, at the sound of Your great name...
The enemy, he has to leave, at the sound of Your great name..."

God's name is HOLY.  His name is powerful and pure; it's beautiful and mighty.  God's name is so perfect that every time it is mentioned, He is proclaimed.  Even when people use His name in vain and swear, they are proclaiming His name without realizing it.  The sound of Jesus' great name is so incredibly great that even just the sound of His name brings about healing, drives out demons, and can do mighty things.
And that's just His name!  That's not even his personage.  It's not like we're talking about an arm or a leg, or His face-- it's a title we give Him.  The human names we use to talk about God aren't even His real name, the name of I AM.  A simple title has such power?  I can't even fathom how powerful God is then, if only His name can create such amazing things!
When I think of this concept, an image comes to mind to help me visualize it.  I picture God standing in the form of a man, wearing flowing robes, and He is incredibly bright and shines with a yellow light that looks more magnificent than the sun.  It's glowing and almost sparkling when He moves.  I picture Him walking past me, and my eye catches a glimpse of the edge of the glowing robe; or, rather, a single drop of the light falls off of His robe.  This one drop is His name, and in the one drop of the edge of His robe we are saved.  In this one drop, the enemy has to leave.   In this one drop, we are able to cast out demons. 

OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS!  Am I the only one seeing this??  I sure hope not.  If just the words we use to describe Him are this powerful, why is everyone on earth not bowing down before Him in awe and in fear?  Every time I picture this image, I literally fall to my knees in worship.  I want to burst into tears because of the beauty He has shown us.  And I want to live my life for Him, not for myself or for anyone else. 
It gets even more awesome than this, though.  If you're a believer and a follower of Christ, when you die you go to heaven.  And in heaven, we will be in the presence of the Lord for all eternity.  Like, forever.  Seriously, guys.  I'm kind of super excited about this.  Because this is how powerful and mighty He is-- yet He chose to send His son to die for us.  For me.  For you.  He took our sins from us and has made us white as snow.  And now we have the chance to spread His love to the world! 
I don't know about you, but I want to go around telling people about Jesus simply because proclaiming His name is so awesome!  Even if they roll their eyes at me and ignore me, I get to say the name of God out loud and that in itself is a proclamation of how majestic He is! 
That's about it.  Just wanted you all to be aware of that very cool fact. 
As I used to say when I was a kid...no tricks, no lies, no jokes, no kidding!  It's for real!
~Laurel

Week 3-- Let's try something new!

This week was difficult for both Emma and myself, with regards to some of the challenges.  And though we're supposed to post the new week's challenges on Saturday, it didn't happen this time around.  So I'm posting it now-- but we're doing this week a little differently.  Instead of a strict list of daily to do's (Monday you MUST do this, Tuesday MUST be that, etc...) we're going to post a list of seven things to accomplish that week.  You choose which one you want to do on what days! And if you miss a day, you can go ahead and do a couple in one day.  Hey, get creative with it! That's what we're all about, anyway!
So here are the challenges for week 3 (starting today, Monday, the 17th):

1. Go vegan for one day. (No milk, eggs, cheese, yogurt...etc!)
2. Write a poem.
3. Clean out your music library of anything not good (profanities, immoral content, that sort of thing).
4. Volunteer somewhere.
5. Make breakfast for someone in your family.
6. Make a creativity wall-- put up cool pictures, inspirational quotes, ideas for projects you want to do, anything at all!
7. Memorize a meaningful quote, then write a little bit about why it speaks to you.

Added challenge from me: Take pictures of some of your challenges! Send them to life.creativityproject@gmail.com for a chance for them to be used on the blog! Comment or email us to tell us how your projects went or anything else you want to tell us.  And if posting on social media sites, use #thelifecreativityproject so we can see any stuff being posted!
Peace out!
~Laurel

Don't Give Up-- You Can't Stop Me!

I think it's safe to say that the creative life, is a hard life sometimes! I don't know about ya'll, but intentionally staying creative and doing these various challenges is getting trickier and trickier! But no worries, we won't give up on you or each other. Find someone to hold you accountable and then figure out what types of things you can hold them accountable for... don't give up!

This week's challenges will be up soon. For today, make up your own challenge and let your creativity take control! In the meantime, share your experiences with us by either commenting or emailing us at life.creativityproject@gmail.com. Tell us about your successes and failures with the challenges, or tell us about your own challenges! The things we post are merely ideas, but the world is your oyster-- so stay creative folks!

In the meantime, one of the challenges last week was to 'find an anthem for yourself.' Over the last month or so there has been one song I keep coming back to when I feel like I need a pick me up or something fun and energetic to start the day... follow the link to see my anthem (and be sure to pick one for yourself!)

You Can't Stop Me by Andy Mineo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y29FtD3p5V0

The song has a lot of different elements to it but I'd say it really depicts what I am trying to say about continuing on in doing the challenges and general life! It's easy to take the simple things you do for granted and decide that "eh, maybe I don't really need to do this... it was just a fun thing for the time being," but I promise (for you and myself) that by challenging ourselves to be creative, to DO things, and to live outside our comfort zone we will be building a better lives for ourselves and, most importantly, for others.

Think about living in a world where most people met their biggest goals, lived their wildest dreams, and used their unique gifts. If everyone was using the gifts they have been given for the purpose of making the world a better place than I can't even describe to you how amazing our life on Earth would be. Remember that the gifts and passions you have are unique, even if someone else has similar interests (even the same interests) your heart behind it might be different, and even if not, you have certain background and experiences with it that only you can offer, and whether they know it or not, people want what it is that you specifically have to offer them!

'Use everyday as an opportunity to learn and grow,
To let you be you
And let the world know
That you do what you do
For the uncontainable joy that is found
In a world where creativity flows,
And true life abounds...'

This week, I think life's tasks, emotions, physical and mental traumas have all tried to stop me and tried to make me believe that the various things I do (small and big) are insignificant-- but I have to fight those ideas and recognize it's not true because I have a voice and I have thoughts and ideas that no one else can offer.

That will be our overarching challenge for the week-- no matter how life tries to stop you from doing important things (from speaking to large audiences to helping clean up the house) look at life in the eyes and let it know, 'YOU CAN'T STOP ME.'


Live, Learn, Love, Leave a Legacy,

             & Stay Creative,

                 -Emma

Never forsaken

Monday's challenge was to write a psalm; I relished this one because I love writing, especially when it serves a greater purpose than just entertainment.  Writing psalms is, for me, another way of expressing my love and gratitude, or whatever other emotions I'm feeling, to my Lord Jesus.  I wrote the following late that night, after a long day babysitting and dealing with life in general.

Oh, my God, how marvelous You are!
I cannot even fathom how deep Your love for us is.
I want to always be in Your presence; please, never leave me;
Keep Your promise, "I will never leave, nor forsake you."
Be the light that guides me through life,
Let me navigate the darkness in confidence.
I look to my left and my right --
There are so many people who do not know you.
The world is plagued by darkness
But You have made a way, Lord,
So that the world may come to know You.
You, who knows every detail,
Who knows every one of the people in this world,
You look down from heaven and see us --
You know our hearts.
You see those who have not put their trust in You.
Change their hearts, oh Lord,
Make a way, show them Your love.
They long to know You, God;
Do not be far away from them.
How wonderful it is that I know
You will never leave those who know You.
May we know You, my Lord
And know Your magnificence in full.

The nice (yet scary) thing for me is that I don't have to filter my thoughts when I write psalms; I don't have to worry about what words come out.  I have written multiple psalms over the last 6 months, and after writing the other night's psalm I decided to look over some of the older ones.  I wanted to see what they were like, to see if I had been writing in a certain style or not.  What I found while reading through them was not what I expected, but it was even better.  The words and phrases I used were similar, true, but what's behind them expresses something deeper.  I wrote things like...

"Forgive me, Lord, according to Your promise,
Do not let me go and do not forsake me."

And...

"The Lord promises to be faithful;
He will never forsake me."



Each psalm I've written has been created at different times in my walk with God.  Subconsciously, I've been coming back to the same verse and the same phrase to give me comfort, to reassure me when I am dismayed, and to praise God when He keeps His promise.  I kept asking myself, Why?  Why do I go back to this, what's so important about these words?  I know that He will not forsake me-- He has said so multiple times in His Word.  And He proves it to me daily.  Yet, these words still speak to me in a powerful way.
Perhaps, it could be because I am a natural worrier.  More than that, I almost always find myself to be anxious and/or fearful of something.  What grade will I get in this class, what if someone in my family or one of my friends passes away before I can tell them how much I love them, what do I do if I can't find a job...every possible bad thing that can happen in life has run through my mind at least a dozen times.  I'm always checking over my shoulder to see if some wave is about to crash over me and drown me. 
These words, the words I keep coming back to and that constantly repeat over and over in my mind, are from Deuteronomy 31:6-8.  Although I've read these words before, God lovingly keeps telling me, "I'm not going anywhere.  I'm always there for you; I've already promised that to you.  But because I know you worry, and because I know you'll need to be reminded sometimes, I'll keep telling you.  I will never forsake you."

~Laurel

Emptiness isn't Enough

Over the past week I have seen many great works—works of the devil and miracles of God—and none of them are matters I can keep to myself. As I continue to grow deeper and deeper in a relationship with Christ, I am increasingly excited about who God is and who He has made me to be! True life is a wonderful thing! It is an incredible gift full of mysteries and magic, but the more I strive to know Him and make Him known, the more Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy. This week, I have seen and felt the spiritual warfare, as I have been continually plagued with sickness and an indescribably terrible feeling that I like to call emptiness.

Let’s be real: SICKNESS SUCKS. There is never a convenient time for physical struggles and I would say that a few weeks before leaving the country and struggling with school, work, family, and friends is one of those inconvenient times. For the past year I have been hurting with headaches and stomach pains, but in the last week they have hit me harder than ever before. It sucks, it really does suck to be hurting. For me this week, it’s been hard to breathe, it burns, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s just plain exhausting! But there is something worse than sickness, and it is having a hole in your heart...

Every day this week I’ve been battling emptiness for what seemed to be no apparent reason! Though, now I see that it was the Devil after me… Last weekend I had gone on a retreat in the mountains where I was being reaffirmed with the greatness of God and the weeks before that had been full of nothing but adventure and passion as I learned more about Him. But when I came back from my weekend in the mountains, every day things seemed to be going downhill. During the first part of the week, I didn’t even notice it. I felt a little “off” but I was still tethered to the Lord, as close as ever. Later in the week however, I felt this physical and emotional something that I can’t even put a finger on—but it ran deep. It was like finishing a good book or TV series, except much more real! As if it was the story of my life that no longer served a purpose. It sat somewhere in my stomach, just below my sternum but above my belly button. Deeper within me, I could feel what was like a stabbing in my spirit. It literally felt like someone was gutting me clean! Until it was done-- My heart was empty and it felt hopeless.

Now, I can’t say anything dramatic made this come about; I didn’t lose a family member or a love… in fact I didn’t lose anything. At most, I gained a lot of valuable skills, lessons, and even material items this week—so why did I feel so empty? If you’ve ever felt this feeling than you can identify with me, and you are probably wrinkling your face in disgust, trying to stay as far away as you can get from this void. On the other hand, if you’ve never experienced this issue before, you are probably completely lost and the whole situation seems quite melodramatic. I understand that, but I urge you to stick with me because if you haven’t felt this way yet, you will someday and there is only one way to ever really get rid of the emptiness.

So on Thursday night, when this feeling began to really settle in, I didn’t know how I was going to make it. I tried to fill the emptiness with people, food, hard work, no work, sleep, everything I could think of! Nothing was helping. I knew in reality that God was the only one who could put an end to the emptiness so throughout this time I was praying that He’d make it stop, but even with that knowledge, I felt hopeless.

However, there was a moment when everything changed. This morning the sickness grew worse and I felt like there was a cement wall between God and I, even though I KNOW He is still there. I cried to The Lord, “GOD! What happened? It was just last week that I felt closer to you than I ever have. I wanted more and more of you and I’ve still been reading your word and listening for you in my life. I still want you, but it seems like a hopeless request. I know you haven’t gone anywhere. In fact, if anything is the problem, it’s probably me… but I don’t know what to do! I’m trying to sing these worships songs and I want to have conversation and I am seeing your goodness but even then I feel empty! Where did things go wrong this week? Where did things go wrong in me? I know there are going to be times where I don’t get as much out of your word, and I might not “feel” our relationship emotionally, but this is more! This is my very spirit that is being eaten alive and I don’t know what to do to change it. I know there will be times of hardship such as this, but even then I want to find joy in it… but how can I Lord? I’ve tried it all but it seems there is no way out of this empty prison cell!” 

  
Then The God of the Angel Armies replied to me and said, “This week has been full of spiritual battle, Angels and Demons, both fighting for your heart and spirit. You were right to come to me child. Even if you couldn’t recognize my fullness because of the hope that was stolen from you, I was still reigning on my throne and hearing your God-made voice. Now let me remind you again of who I Am:”

And from this came a poem…

He is not only my father, brother, lover, creator, giver, taker, friend. 

He is all of the above, to which there is no end.

He is Lord and King;

He is everything.

He is streams of Life;

He is the light of night.

He is the sun as it rises;

He gives light to the skies and it’s,

Not enough to be far apart,
I need to hold His hand—

to be close to His heart,

And I can’t walk, can’t talk, can’t breath alone.

He takes me in, HE is my home.

He takes me on adventures—together we slay dragons.

He takes me to new worlds--
Greater than I could ever imagine.

And in the sword fight of my life,

The king steps in and slays the enemy with no more than a knife.

I couldn’t want for more than what has been given to me—

For in my possession is key to living and it is enough to set me free!

And all of a sudden, I felt whole again.

Nothing more, nothing less. He was everything I needed. So no matter what struggles you face this week, remember to step back and try your best, but let God be enough.

Live, Learn, Love, and Leave a Legacy,

-Emma

Week 2!

Alright folks.  Here's the plan for The Life Creativity Project, week 2!  I am excited to get some of these done and to continue to challenge myself.  How about you?  Here's what we'll be trying to accomplish this week:

Saturday, March 8th- Delete one app from your smart phone (assuming you have one). 
Sunday, March 9th- Actually go the speed limit all day.  Not even one mile an hour over! 
Monday, March 10th- Write a psalm.
Tuesday, March 11th- Make all the food you eat that day.  (If you have school/work, make your lunch and some snacks the night before!)
Wednesday, March 12th- Choose a song as your "anthem". 
Thursday, March 13th- Write (and mail) encouraging letters to at least 2 people.
Friday, March 14th- Go the entire day without saying anything negative about any person.
Saturday, March 15th- Make a canvas art piece!
Sunday, March 16th- Make breakfast for your parents/spouse/sibling(s).

Photo journal your day!

This was a fun challenge!  I think all of us who did this today are interested in photography anyway, so it was easy to take photos of the things we did.  Here are a few photos from us...

"It's not the prettiest picture, but it says a lot! A family reunited-- the boys are home from Africa!" ~Emma

"Thought it would be better to combine some of my subjects, instead of taking lots of random photos...Here's a summary of school." ~Michaela

"I went to Starbucks to free write...As usual, they spelled my name wrong on the cup." ~Laurel

Be without technology for a day

When I started writing out the original list of daily challenges, this one was at the forefront of my mind.  Out of the 50 or so challenges that we currently have written down, this was number 11 to make it onto the list.  The point of this particular challenge was to become less dependent on our devices.  To go just one day without these screens constantly in front of us can make a huge impact.  At the beginning of the day, I was confident that I could make it through the day, device-free, with little struggle.  By the end of the day, however, I had watched two movies, sat through the entire Oscars, and replied to a message on facebook. 
Because I was trying to abstain from technology, it made me feel guilty that I had used my phone and TV so much.  What I came away with at the end of the day was that everything I did with technology was unimportant.  I could have waited to reply to the message; I could have watched the movies on another day.  And as much as I love the Academy Awards, watching the Oscars isn't paramount in the grand scheme of things. 
The more I spent time thinking about this, the more I came away with.  Expanding from the idea of relying on technology, I began to see how many things in life we rely on that are not all that important.  God calls us to run after Him, leaving everything else in life behind.  When we spend our time focusing on other things, even if they seem fun and satisfying at the time, they really detract us from our first love.  Everyone in the world tells us that living by our smart phones is the way to go.  We are constantly reminded that if we don't have 500 facebook friends, 1,000 twitter followers, and 500 boards on pinterest, we don't matter.  The world influences us more than we may even know. 
Taking one day out of your normal routine to spend away from social media, for the purpose of growing closer to God, is always a good idea in my opinion.  Although I failed at it yesterday, I for one will be doing this again sometime.  The less time I spend on my iphone, TV, and computer, the more time I have for reading my Bible and earnestly seeking God, waiting on Him, and talking to Him. 
If anyone else has tried this challenge, I'd love to hear about your experiences!  Was it difficult, or did you find it refreshing?  Even if you haven't tried it, what's your opinion of the challenge?  Would you be up for it, or is it too difficult for you?
This verse reminds me of the challenge to be unlike the rest of society: "Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)
~Laurel