Holiday Gift...

While considering a Holiday Gift for my friend that would be both meaningful and useful, I decided to customize this simple 2020 planner that I picked up at a local department store.  I pictured it being used at work to stay on task, or better yet, to keep a prayer journal - this particular friend is a prayer warrior on the prayer team at his church.

I decided not to be sneaky or stealthy, and straightforwardly asked for some of his favorite Bible verses.  He sent me  four or five of his favorites.  I took his top 2, and made them into artwork for inside the covers of the planner.  The planner had no holidays marked inside it for some strange reason, so I then went through the pages of the book and marked and decorated each holiday on its monthly calendar page.  (There are additional weekly pages where he could keep track of prayer records or meetings, etc.)

This was the artwork that I put on the right side inside the front cover.  As you open the cover, you immediately see this bright and encouraging image.  On the left side of the inside cover, I hand-wrote out the verse and colored the edges of the page in matching blue and gold watercolor.  The image was sketched and watercolor painted, and overlaid with black ink from a quill pen.

The favorite verse, Romans 15:13, from the NLT translation

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Inside the back cover of the book, I similarly sketched, painted, and inked an image for his second favorite verse, Mark 12: 29-31 and on the opposite side of the cover, I hand-wrote the verse.

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. The Lord our God is one Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.” 

The reaction upon opening the package?   

"It's Simply Beautiful."