100 Days of Grace & Gratitude: Days 1-7

**This post contains affiliate links. All thoughts are 100% my own.

Last November, the Illustrated faith community was set to start journaling through the second 100 days journal- 100 Days of Grace and Gratitude. I'd ordered the journal early, and couldn't wait to get started on November 1, just in time for the Thanksgiving and holiday season. But on what would have been Day 3, instead of continuing on my 100 Days journey, I instead found myself sitting in an emergency room with a broken collar bone. Not fun! Being my dominate arm, journaling was out for awhile. While I am still not healed, I have been able to start using my arm more, and so I jumped right back in where I left off! Thankfully, though the community had already finished working through it, there is NEVER a wrong time to start.

Today, I'm sharing my journaling through Days 1-7.

Day 1: It's A New Day

Being November at the time of creating this page, it perfectly coincided with the first Grace & Gratitude devotional kit from Dayspring. It was perfect for creating a simple fall themed post. And what a great day to start this new journal, right? A celebration of the new day ahead and the fresh starts to come.

Day 2: His Gifts Are Perfect

Some might say that November 2 was a little early to do some Christmas journaling, but I'm certainly glad I was able to get one holiday themed page in while I could anyway. The reality is I love Christmas, I'd already had my tree up and when I thought of God's gifts, I could think of nothing more appropriate at that time of year.

To be honest, when I started back into the journal, I debated if- given the months past and the seasonal nature of my first posts- it would be better to just start fresh and journal some of the other verses in the devotion. In the end, I decided to just start back where I left off anyway...

Day 3: The Fullness of His Grace

This devotion talked about the perfect peace that we can find thanks to God's grace. For that reason, I wanted to keep the colors light and subdued- peaceful. I loved this die cut and the serene look on her face so I thought it would be the perfect show of grace. Some simple stencil work, a few letter stickers and some extra room to add in personal journaling later gave this simple page the perfect finished look.

Day 4: What Do You Think About?

Something you may or may not know about me? I collect vintage Pyrex. The colors and the prints are so gorgeous that I cannot get enough. When I saw this die cut from the Jen Hadfield My Bright Life collection, I couldn't help but be reminded of that style that I love and I had to have them. I had no idea how I would use them in my journaling, but I knew I'd figure it out eventually. They arrived on Day 4, and I instantly knew they would be the perfect way to illustrate this page... 'Whatever is Lovely'. What a beautiful reminder to keep our minds on Jesus and all things good!

Day 5: Walking With Joy

I feel like Joy is one of those topics that I've journaled about VERY often. It's a common and very important theme throughout the Bible so that only makes sense, but I like making each page unique to the last so that can certainly present some challenges. My joy pages are usually full of fun and color, but for this page, the idea came right in the title of the devotion- WALKING in joy. This die cut from another Jen Hadfield collection (Chasing Adventures) was just perfect. It is among my favorites so far.

Day 6: Nothing Is Too Small

It's easy to remember to show gratitude for the BIG things- a promotion at work, an addition to the family, good news from the doctor- but the Bible reminds us to offer our thanks for everything- the big and the small. Even the things that seem as though they don't matter at all. That is just what this day's devotional was all about. I decided to again keep is simple with some small layering of more elements from that My Beautiful Life collection. I loved how this style put my mind into the place of the simple things in life--- small details that might be overlooked. This is again a page where I have plenty of room to come back and list everything I am thankful for with over very simple message to God, "Thank you!"

Day 7: Grace Is...

As far as the devotional content, this was my favorite in the first week. It takes a great look at some different examples of what 'grace is'. While reading through though I couldn't help but hear the song 'His grace is enough...' playing through my head. And so, that is what I decided to journal for this entry. Enough is my word for 2019 as well, so it was great spending some time focusing on that idea once again. I kept the page very minimal to demonstrate that idea that we don't need a lot, just grace.


Want to join my in this 100 Days of Grace & Gratitude? It's never too late! You can pick up your copy at the link below.