Strength in a Squeeze

 Breast Cancer Awareness Month series.

When you're facing a challenge with your health like breast cancer, life can begin to feel a bit squeezed, and like our beautiful flower in the graphic above, whose petals appear to be pressed up against the top and sides of her world, the pressures that surround you may be squeezing in on your life.  
But, if you take a closer look at this flower, she's actually flourishing. She's just continuing to grow and bloom, even with the sides pressing up against her.  Why, she looks as if she's out in a wide open field, letting her petals unfurl and dance in the breeze!  And it's all because of the source of life WITHIN her.
God can do that for you.  He can become that source of life, that "river of life",  that flows continually, flooding your life with newfound sources of strength, help and peace. Even in the midst of a health crisis.  We know this from firsthand experience and you can read our story in our October 1st blog. Because we understand the challenge of breast cancer,  we know that there is a greater power at work in the lives of those who know God and allow Him to come into their lives.
We want to encourage you to get to know Him, to begin to walk through life with Him, to begin to let Him live within you, right in the midst of your "squeezed world".  
When you walk with God through a tight spot, you'll begin to slip through life with thoughts like this:
God is with me, I will not fall. God will help me.  He'll be a refuge and strength in times of  trouble. (paraphrased from Psalm 46)

And then like us, you'll just press-up against verses like this when you're squeezed:
"It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!"

Praying for God's strength to be in you today,
The Velvet Lime Girls 

Today's resources:
Thermograms are a safe way to monitor your breast health and this article by Dr. Christiane Northrup discusses the benefits: Thermograms

A thermography team we've worked with: 
Mobile Thermographic Imaging

Healing Scriptures - Dodie Osteen


Previous resources:
Breast Cancer Conqueror
50 Healing Verses

The Truth About Cancer

Prayers for Healing

Strong Spirit
(A great message to build you up in your spirit)

It Is Well With My Soul - Bethel Music

Summer's Here!

Summer's here and we've been enjoying our studio garden so much that we almost forgot to share a few photos with you on this first day of summer!





 




























































We have buttercups, walking lilies, swiss chard, spiderwort and flowers yet to be named, just bursting-out all over our garden. Every morning there's a fresh, dew-kissed face, framed in petals, peeking up us!  

They're daily inspiration and gentle reminders of the grace God wraps us up in every day.

"My grace is enough to cover and sustain you..." 
 2 Corinthians 12:9 - The Voice


Happy first day of summer,
The Velvet Lime Girls

LOVE!

Happy first day of February to you! This is the month filled with sentiments of love, chocolates, roses, and gifts-from-the-heart to those you love. Here's a little love-note from us to you! 
A heart-themed graphic to print out or share with others.  It's a light-hearted, whimsical expression inspired by our reading of the historical letter found in Galations 5:6.  We discovered a real connection between faith and love in this letter, and The Voice translation seems to sum it all up beautifully:  "What makes a difference is faith energized by love."

This is so true!  Faith works by love, expresses itself by love and is energized by love!

So, take a little of the energized love we're sending your way today and get ready for a few more love-notes from us before Valentine's Day!

You are so loved,
The Velvet Lime Girls

Summer in our Hearts

last late sunflower bloom

Do you just hang on to every bit of summer that you can, even when it's full-blown fall time?  We do!  A few weeks ago, we walked through the sunny side of our studio garden and captured the last remnants of sunshine days. We thought we'd share a few with you today! Perhaps these final flourishes of the season will brighten up your day like they do ours.  Its amazing how a thing of beauty, held in your heart, can make even a rainy, cold day seem like a day at the beach. 

last petite bloom of the salmon colored hibiscus

It reminds us of the thing of beauty we hold inside of us, the treasure we carry around inside of us while on this earth.  The Voice translation describes it quite beautifully like this:

"But this beautiful treasure is contained in us—cracked pots made of earth and clay—so that the transcendent character of this power will be clearly seen as coming from God and not from us." 
2 Corinthians 4:7

purple coneflower fading with grace

We hope our little snippets from the garden remind you to look for the the beautiful bouquet of treasure contained inside each of you.

Holding the beauty of summer and the treasure of God in our hearts,

The Velvet Lime Girls

birth of a late blooming sunflower

spiderwort buds

last burst of color from purple coneflower

                            

Chosen

Lately we've been thinking about the beautiful word chosen.  The dictionary definition alone is pretty amazing... one who is the object of choice or of divine favor.

When you take a look at how God uses this word though, it takes on a new radiance.

He chose us before He began creating the foundation of this earth.

He chose us to be a treasured possession.

He chose us first.

We're chosen.  Picked by God. And He wraps us in words like treasure, royal, and special possession.

That is amazing love.

To remind ourselves of just how chosen we are, we created this little graphic inspiration, splashed with shades of radiant gold, to remind us that God calls us a treasure and that we are very, very chosen. It's not just a love expression for us though, it's for anyone with an open heart.  So take this little treasure for yourself today and begin to call yourself "chosen". 

Feeling quite special,

The Velvet Lime Girls

Inspirations from 1 Peter 2:9, John 15:16, Ephesians 1:3-4 & Galations 1:5

We've been thinking about how beautiful the word chosen is lately.  The dictionary defines it as one who is