Survival of the Fittest

I have said many times that this can be a cold, cruel world and I don't know how people make it without faith.

I seriously don't know how.

There are things that bombard us everyday that can try to shake our faith and question it so if someone doesn't have it at all how in the world do they cope?  I couldn't.

I believe God wants us to more than survive in His world, He wants us to make a difference and every single second of every single blessed day gives us opportunities to do just that.

But, we don't always use our time wisely and we fail.  We fail to do the right thing or misinterpret something or we are just human.  God knows we are just human and that is why He sent His son to die for our sins.  He made the ultimate sacrifice so we could make mistakes but still be given His love and grace.

Guilt is a big, bad word.  We have guilt and, often times, regret.  It can get in the way of the work the Lord wants us to do.  It's part of our real humanness, though.  It's a natural emotion, but we are forgiven and should move forward.

My kids are very into fitness and healthy eating.  I am too, but this generation has gyms on every corner, sections of grocery stores with better food choices and apps and websites with all kinds of information of what is considered healthy and unhealthy.  We had health class in school that was a few weeks of PE class when I was growing up.  We learned the basic food groups and basic information.  My kids talk about macros and micros and low carb and carb loading and thankfully they grocery shop for themselves because I wouldn't know where to begin.

It's important to feel good and be physically healthy to do everything we need to do in a day.  It's also important to be able to enjoy things because if we run out of steam on the things we need to do there's no time left for fun things and that's the heart of life and where memories are made.

I created my latest charm from these ideas.  It is inspired by my kids' love of fitness and working out.  They also impress me by their strong faith for young ages.

I did a cross with weights.  The idea is we need to give the "weight" of our sins and burdens to God.  I am a worrier and I know it does me no good, I need to give my worries to God.  I have the part of the cross with the weights and bar with the Bible verse Hebrews 12:1.

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

To "run the race" set before us and live the life God wants us to live for Him we need to give those things to Him and live the way He wants us to live.

The eagle is for strength.  I love the verse Isaiah 40:31:

1 
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Eagles symbolize strength and "to soar" or excel and achieve we need to be strong in our faith and confident that God forgives us and wants us to move ahead.  He wouldn't offer forgiveness if He wanted us to dwell on human mistakes.

I am going to be including this charm in my shop this weekend.  I will have it on Stainless Steel chains and I will have some leather pieces to make with it also.  I think it will look really great with leather.  I will come back and add some of the listings.

I also have three more new charms coming in soon and can't wait to show those.  And, as always, there are more coming in behind those!  I absolutely love creating these charms.  They are beautiful and a symbol of my family and memories but they also give me a deeper look into my faith. I think about a lot of different things creating them and it is rewarding and so much fun at the same time!