Joy Leanne

Once again I abandoned this little corner of my world for a very long time. My long held dreams of being a "writer" (whatever exactly that means) have shifted significantly over the past few years. Because of that this space hasn't felt as important or needed. I more often than not find myself over on Instagram where the pictures are pretty and the writing is brief. But, I keep coming back to this, I believe that stories matter. And more than anything else, this blog has been a place to capture my stories. So, I am hoping to come back here and dust things off and re arrange and make myself comfortable again with the words. Life is an adventure, and I would like to share that. It has been nearly a year since I have written here, and even longer since I have really written about what's going on with me and my crazy clan. I wasn't sure what to start with here and I figure an update is as good an idea as any. A lot has changed in the past year for the five of...

By Amanda Schenkenberger As a Bible journaling teacher, one would assume I am swimming with Bible journaling ideas. You would think that you could give me a verse and I would come up with all sorts of brilliant DIY entries. While I have a few good standbys in my back pocket, I am  often stumped by what to journal, and especially when I am trying to Bible journal with my kids. Hi: my name is Amanda, and I'm a recovering perfectist. My kids, on the other hand,  are messy and have their own ideas about what to journal. Not surprisingly , when you try to put rigid Amanda into a loosey goosey kid mold, it doesn't go over well. Even though it's a stretch for me, as a homeschool mom who loves to Bible journal, I desperately wanted to involve my kiddos in Bible journaling as part of our schoo l curriculum. I wanted to have deep spiritual conversations about Jesus and how we can apply the Word to our lives but I couldn't figure out how to do it. That was, until I disc...

One of my favorite pages...even with the spelling errors. I am supposed to be blogging every day for 31 day. I missed days three and four. In the past I would have just given up on the project. Missing two days in the first week would have been too much for my perfectionist tendencies.  But I am not giving up or stopping this project. I have learned a lot from my time journaling the Word. And one of the BIG things I God has taught me is that there is no room for perfectionism in the Christian life or in creativity. I could write a whole blog post about how I have let perfectionism impact my personal walk with God, but I will keep it simple. When I give into perfectionism I am saying I believe perfection is possible in my own power. When I believe perfection is attainable in my own power I'm saying I don't need my Savior. Unfortunately I have let perfectionism impact my Bible Journaling journey as well. And I have a inkling that I am not alone. Perfectioni...

I started Bible journaling three years ago. It was back before it was this big thing. There were a handful of women sharing pictures on one facebook page. Since then it has exploded and people's reasons for Bible journaling are as diverse as the people worshiping in the margins of their Bible. Before I go any further in this 31 day journey I wanted to share my personal reasons for adding art worship into my spiritual walk. *I believe our stories matter. I grew up in a family of story tellers. I'm sure I have shared that on here before. My father is a forth generation pastor and my mother is a high school drama/speech/composition teacher. Story telling is my culture and my inheritance. The stories that resonate most with us are the stories that point us back to HIS stories. Bible Journaling helps me record my stories and points me back to God again and again. Every time I take to the pages of my Bible to record my story I see His thumb prints all over everythi...

I have tried doing the Write 31 Days challenge twice in the past. Both times I gave up part way through. The first time I just sorta of gave up. Last year I made it about half way through before God called me to a season of silence. It's been a really quiet year for me. I have only posted on here a couple time since last October as I sat with the lessons and seasons God brought into my life. But, now I feel God calling me to share what's on my heart and how He is working in my life. Over the past few months our life has gone through a lot of transitions and for the first time ever I find myself with a lot of free time on my hands. I recently celebrated my third anniversary of Bible journaling. In my first journaling Bible I did 66 entries in 2 years and 10 months. I started a new Bible 56 days ago and have already done 60 entries in the Bible and two Bible journaling studies in journals as well as a scripture writing challenge in September. I share all this not to make...

Three years ago I was searching for something. We were going through a lot of transition at the time and while my faith didn't waver, my walk had become rather stagnate.  Then I stumbled across this thing online called Bible Journaling. An amazing woman named Shanna Noel had just started a facebook group and I found a community of women who were expressing themselves creatively in the margins of their Bibles. I fell deeply in love with this style of worship, but a recent change in my husbands job meant we didn't have the finances to buy a wide margin Bible or supplies. Then an amazing women I had never met before sent me a package through amazon. A Journaling Bible, some washi tape, and some fineliner pens. Sunday will be three years since that package arrived on my door step and changed the way I interacted with my Savior, The Word, and my faith. I did 66 entries in that Bible in a little over 2.5 years. Then last month I started a new  Bible. Things were shif...