SSIC Two of Everything!

Hello friends!  It's Sunday and time for another Stampin Sisters in Christ challenge!  Today our hostess is the sweet and talented Miesje.  Miesje has chosen Matt. 11:28-30 for this week's Scripture.

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Miesje's challenge:  Sharing: use 2 of everything you use. ie: 2 Dp - 2 flowers - 2 stamps - whatever you use two.

I love this passage but I think it's often misunderstood. I don't think Jesus is saying that if we come to Him, our lives will be easy and all will go our way!

Earlier this week my family and I spent 4 days at Colonial Williamsburg.  One of the things we saw was an old yoke, which was used to bind two oxen together so that they could work together in doing the work of plowing, etc.  The yoke is made of heavy wood and is worn around the two oxen's necks.  It does not give them hardly any room to move without the other one.  Imagine the struggle if one ox has a fly biting him on his back, and he wants to reach around to remove it.  It would be almost impossible! That to which we are yoked can be very burdensome to us, or it can be a great blessing to not have to do the job at hand alone!

Most likely Jesus is talking about the burden of sin which we all bore until we turned to Him for our salvation. He could also be talking about the burden of trying to follow a "religion" which weighs the follower down with rules and regulations that are burdensome to say the least, and are not going to do a thing to save a person's soul!

Jesus, however, offers not religion, but relationship.  When we become yoked to Him... He gives us rest from the burden of sin we have been bearing, and He teaches us (if we are listening) how to be His disciple.  Living a life for Christ is not necessarily always easy..... we all know that we still face trials throughout our lives.  However, living a life in relationship with Him is not burdensome... He fills us and empowers us to serve Him and instead of being burdened by our sin, or  religious rituals, we respond to Him because of His great love for us and all that He has done for us, and the love that we in turn have for Him.   Gone is the worry of where we'll spend eternity.  Gone is fear of the future.  Gone is the worry that our needs might not be met, because all His promises are ours if we have yoked ourselves to Him.    To look at the analogy of the yoke again....  when we are yoked to the One who is all knowing, all powerful, and all loving.... we have the advantage of having all His help in doing whatever tasks He may lead us to do!  He is yoked to us just as that second ox is and it is not burdensome to do anything because we are not on our own... He is right there leading, guiding, and  empowering us!

I have to share with you that this passage is particularly meaningful to me right now, as on Friday my husband was suddenly laid off from work.  It appears that all he was working for in a retirement and having our insurance paid into retirement has been taken away.  However, those were "our" plans.  God sees the bigger picture and has a plan for us.... and it's a plan for our good,  and we are trusting Him to meet our every need.  It's so wonderful knowing that we are yoked to the ONLY ONE who can fully be trusted.  He's been faithful and will always be faithful because it is one of His many attributes!  We do appreciate your prayers as we seek His will for the future.

For my card today, I used one of this month's releases from Our Daily Bread designs, Holiday Ornaments, which I stamped twice and embossed in gold.  I water colored the holly and then fussy cut the images out and sponged with distress inks to age.  I cut two birdcages out of Recollections brushed gold with a T Holtz die. laying one flat and then popping up the second one on top to give some dimension.  I used two designer papers from Websters Waiting for Santa/ Sweet Season combo pack and made two bracket cuts with the T Holtz  Bracket die.

For my embellishments, I used two trims: lace (Websters)  and the gold trim at the bottom of the bird cage.  I used two fibers, and I cut two Spellbinder's Holly Accents from brushed gold, then sponged and interwove them to make a sort of medallion effect in the center of my lace.  I added two pearls. 

On the inside of my card I used two of the negative cuts from my bracket die to finish off a pretty edge there as well.

Our Sponsor this week is Designed2Delight

We thank them for their continued support!

For the full details of the challenge, prize and devotional, please visit the SSIC Blog.

Be sure to check out the rest of the design team for more inspiration:
Chris, Linda,  Miesje, Rebecca,  Kris, Peggysue,  MariLynn,  Lisa, and Traci

I am entering this in the following challenges:

365 Cards -  So Sophisticated,Crazy 4 Challenges - Create something for an up coming holiday, Little Claire's  -  #14 Christmas, Marks Finest Papers -#77 Seeing Double, Our Daily Bread Designs - ODBDSLC80 Holiday with a twist, Stamp, Scrap and Doodle -   Falling for you anything with leaves (mine are holly leaves), Crafty Ann's - Inspired by a Christmas Song (Deck the Halls with boughs of Holly), Fabulous Friday - A Fancy Trim, Floweret - Christmas, Jingle Belles - Christmas - Inspired by a Holiday song (Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly), Charisma Cardz -In Stitches (real or faux)