I am so beyond excited to show up in your inbox again. It has been two years since I sent email newsletters for Creative Faith & Co. I have missed it so much. Two years ago, Google and Yahoo made a big change with deliverability, and it made me frozen and too scared to take action and send emails. 

 

While I love sharing on social media, it can be a little overwhelming and overstimulating for my nervous system. Emails though? They are so cozy and nice to read. There are certain email newsletters I love receiving and reading each week. I have a folder in my inbox for certain people, and I wanted to share that idea with you. You can make a “Creative Faith” folder in your inbox and move these emails into the folder to reference back again and again. I also wanted to share with you the vision the Lord put on my heart for these emails. 

 

Growing up I always wanted a tree house. I loved making small cozy blanket forts. And when I was a child, my favorite hangout spot was the dishwasher box my parents put a door and window on. I have always loved little spaces to curl up with a book, to play with my parents and friends, to imagine, journal, and dream. 

 

As I was praying about relaunching Creative Faith email newsletters, the Lord reminded me of my treehouse hope. While it never came to fruition, that's my goal for these email newsletters. That you and I are curled up in a treehouse with the sunlight streaming through the boards. Our Bibles are open and our journals are nearby. There's an old trunk overflowing with comfy pillows, old cigar boxes with journaling supplies, and quilts. Our cups of hot chocolate are cooling because we are deep in conversation about what God is doing in our lives right now. We have blankets wrapped around our shoulders as we chat and reflect.  

Have you ever felt under spiritual attack before? 

 

On Friday, February 20 I went to the most amazing women's conference called Collide. I got to hear two of my favorite authors speak: Tara Sun and Ann Voskamp. It was such a powerful conference about people colliding with Jesus. The theme was “Mended & Restored.” Tara spoke about the bleeding woman in Matthew 9:21-22. Ann shared about sheep and wolves and the importance of being in community with others and with God. She talked about Ruth and Naomi in the Bible. She challenged us to think about where is our “hope thread”? What or who do we put our hope in? 

 

The following week was full of hard moments. I felt discouraged and it seemed like the enemy was sending fiery arrows right and left. 

 

Church this past Sunday was about how the enemy attacks after moments of spiritual transformation. Our pastor shared about how after the baptism of Jesus, Jesus went into the wilderness and the enemy attacked. All of a sudden, the past week made so much sense. I had an incredible experience at the women's conference. I have been feeling so on fire for the Lord this year, and the enemy does not like that. 

 

I wanted to encourage you to put on the armor of God every day to protect you from attacks from the enemy. 

 

 

 

18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere." (Ephesians 6:10-18)

 

Here are a few pictures from the women's conference. 

I used to work at my church full time, but last year I made a big job change. I am now a communications consultant. I enjoy working from home and have a handful of wonderful clients. If you ever know of anyone in need of communications help (social media, email newsletters, website updates, etc.) send them my way. We had a big birthday celebration for one of my clients, which was fun. Another client is preparing for two weekends of golf shows to promote their product. It has been a busy season with those responsibilities. 

 

However, I have been feeling a little lonely lately. There are many benefits of working from home, but it can also be challenging sometimes. It has been a good reminder that I am never alone because God is with me. 

 

February was a big month. We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary, and I turned 34 years old. It is fun to celebrate these milestones. Life is full of highs and lows, but God is with you through it all. 

February at Creative Faith & Co. was full of lots of fun projects. I enjoyed working through the pray for your husband challenge again. It was a good reminder of the importance of praying for my sweet husband. I am working on an email newsletter workflow where you would get a new email each day for 14 days with the prompts, verses, and a video to go along with it. Stay tuned for that announcement. You can also click here to check out the blog post with all the links and resources for the pray for your husband challenge.

 

February marked the start of Lent. I created a new printable all about Ash Wednesday, and I really enjoyed working through it myself and teaching others about Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent. For Lent, I launched a new Scripture writing plan about calling on God in prayer. We are studying prayer stories in the Old Testament, and it has been super fascinating so far. Click here to check out all the Lent resources. 

I started the most massive project for Creative Faith & Co. in February. It has been extremely exciting and overwhelming at the same time. I was going to wait until December to share about it, but my friend encouraged me to “soft launch” it before the project is done. Stay tuned for the big news soon. Lord willing this week.

 

Spring is around the corner. Are you ready for the new season? I feel the gentle shift as winter turns to spring with longer days, more sunshine, and birds chirping. 

 

I am excited for all the fun spring content for Creative Faith & Co. I designed the cutest lined spring journal with prompts. Lately the books I have been uploading to Amazon have been having some trouble. My winter Bible study notebooks and December journal with prompts took 1-2 months for people to be able to purchase. They show as “approved” in the back end, but when I try to go to the page on Amazon, it has this “dogs of Amazon Uh oh" page that appears. I designed the cutest winter gratitude and prayer journal that is showing “live" but still unable to purchase 1.5 months later. It makes it so discouraging to create new journals.

 

This past Sunday while we were driving to church, I saw the spring journal with prompts was approved. When I went to purchase it, the “dogs of Amazon Uh oh” page popped up. I told my husband that it makes me feel extremely hopeless and sad. He reminded me that it is good to always have hope because God can do anything. And I told him it was better to be realistic than optimistic. Yikes… Not my finest moment, but those fiery arrows of discouragement have really been hitting hard lately. Monday morning, I thought I would check to see if miraculously the dog page disappeared, and guess what… it did. My husband was right. It was better to be hopeful instead of sad and discouraged.

 

“But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.” (Micah 7:7)

I am excited to make these email newsletters so interactive and fun. Please reply to them and engage by clicking the links. Engaging with email newsletters helps get them in front of more people, just like on social media. 

 

Question of the day: What did you do this past weekend? What was your church sermon about? What was a fun activity you did on your own or with your family? Hit the reply button. I would love to hear. 

If you like this newsletter please do “add to address book” and reply. These are “positive signals” that help this newsletter land in your inbox. I love hearing from you. Reply to this email and send me a prayer request or let me know something exciting that's happened in your life recently.

 

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