Scrapbooking makes me smile!

I love to work with my photographs. Doesn't matter whether they are ones I've taken myself or if they are collected over the years. Doesn't matter whether they are of me, my family or friends, landscapes, my travels, my home...I love capturing memories.

Lately I discovered a new way of scrapbooking that if you ever catch on to it you will be hooked. It is so easy too. This is photo journaling online. Let the professionals bind it into an acid free photo book that will keep forever. No muss, no fuss, no worries as they should all be acid free (read the details before you buy). If you want to embellish it after you get it printed you can but you probably won't want to. I added a few special lines to stand out on a few pages.

You can have these done online through Wal-mart, Costco, Kodak Easy Share Gallery and many other online photo companies out there. Those three are the safest because you can also order prints online and all your photos are stored online but Wal-mart and Costco are limited in styles and options. Kodak is the best so far but they don't have a Canadian version so the cost is U.S. dollars.

The other choices are programs that give you a lot more flexibility but you have to download their programs and your photos remain on your computer and on their program. Each have their own unusual limitations. You just have to explore your options by trial and error to find out which ones work best for you. Picaboo is a U.S. company has the best options I've found but again, different limitations compared to PhotoInPress.ca, which is Canadian. There are a lot of them out there. I've found online photo book offers in almost every state from Tennesee to California. Finding them in Canada is harder.

My first one was created as an elegant, red, hardcover photobook, of our backyard barbecue party. It was an amazing night with friends and captured by a photographer. I took the photos and uploaded them onto Wal-mart site. Chose the book and wrote my story. It was well worth it!

The gift of Encouragement

Encourager (noun)
One who encourages or imparts courage to others.

The Word of God says that those who call themselves Christians, believers within the church or the "body" of Christ, are likened to the human body, which has many parts or members. Each part of the human body has its own significant function, excellently and marvelously created and formed for its purpose in the body.

We were all born with a purpose. There is a reason we are to be here on this earth, born on the exact date and born on to grow up in the era we were meant to be a part of. People can believe it or not. It doesn't change the fact that it is true but it does explain why so many people continue searching to find out who they are and why they exist.

Human beings were created with a special calling or purpose to fulfill or to contribute to on this earth. God deposited inside every one of us special gifts, talents and abilities to fulfill this calling or purpose. As each human being becomes reconciled back into relationship with God through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, we become part of the Body of Christ. We are to function together to fulfill that purpose working together along side one another in unity for the same goal, to further the Kingdom of God. Working along side one another within the the body of Christ.

This doesn't mean that a person who rejects salvation in Jesus Christ is not going to be part of God's plan. The Father can still work through people as he can through nature and through animals. Don't forget the story of Balam's ass that would not take him where he wanted to go because of the angel blocking the road or the great fish that swallowed Jonah and spat him out onto dry land exact where God wanted him to be at the exact time once Jonah surrendered to God's will. Even Judas played an important part in sending Christ to the cross so that we could all be saved. And so we are not confused, remember that it is written that

So Let's seek the wisdom of God operating in faith, coming to the full saving knowledge and in grace fulfill our part. let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty -- never canceled, never rescinded. Romans 11:29
(The Message)

...we are like the various parts of a human body with many members but not all with the same function..... since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.....If you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy...
Romans 12:4-7 (The Message)

one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the (gift giver in us) grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his^[b]faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage;... Romans 12:4 – 7 (NIV)