I Loved to Ponderize Even Before the Phrase was Coined!

     I thought I would open with this cute picture of my grandson on his first birthday since I haven't posted them anywhere yet.  He is such a doll.  I have 6, going on 7 grandchildren and they are all amazing.  

     My real topic for this post is pondering the scriptures. For those of you who do not know, I love the Book of Mormon.  I love the Bible. I love to read them and apply their teachings, the teachings of my Savior, into my life.  In the Book of Mormon, 1Nephi 19:23 it says "...I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." Profit in this case means to help us become better.  So, when I read the words of the scriptures I try to put myself in them and see how they apply to me.  I believe that is why we have the scriptures after all.  A few months ago, the term "ponderize" became a popular term to use applied to studying and pondering the scriptures.  That term brought to my mind a thing I had done a long time ago when my children were small to help them learn the scriptures.  I had a decorative wooden frame that I hung in their bathroom with scriptures in it that I would change out every so often.  I thought if they had to sit and read something in the bathroom, maybe a few of these scriptures would stick in their minds.  So, I decided to update that idea and make a frame that would remind us to ponderize the words of the Lord.  
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     I started with some $1.00 wooden frames from Walmart or Michaels. There are all kinds of shapes.  When you take off the wrapping to paint them, save the piece of cardboard in the picture area.  You will be able to use it as a pattern when you cut out the scriptures that you want to put in the frame.

    I base coated the frame brown with an acrylic paint. After it dried, I applied a crackle medium, and then let that dry. 

     I started with this blue shade, then I wanted to add a little darker shadow around the opening of the frame.  To do this, I just added a little bit of black to the color to make a darker shade. That is a good trick to make sure your colors go well together.  If you want a lighter version of your color, (or tint) take a blob of white and add a little of the color to it.

     It is so cool to see the paint start to crackle and the brown paint start to show through.  Do you see the cool wooden arrow sticker I found? I painted it the slightly darker color that I made.  
      Next, I found a card stock color that I felt coordinated with my paint color and used my Cricut to cut out the letters to "ponderize".  Then, I glued them on with regular glue.  I don't really like to use Mod Podge for projects like these because I find it tends to stay sticky and I end up ruining things because of that.  Anyway, her is how the frame looks:

          Now comes the fun part of choosing your scriptures.  I chose some of my favorites, such as 1 Samuel 16:7, Matthew 6:6 and Moroni 7:14. (I will let you look these up for yourself!) I printed up about 8 different scriptures all in different fonts, for some variety.  For this frame, I used white card stock because that is what I had that looked the best with this color.  But, depending on your paint color you can always make a different choice of course. 

     Instead of in the bathroom, this frame is on our family room table.  I have started painting different frames to give as gifts in various colors and styles.  For my friends who do not read the Book of Mormon, I could give them a starter set of all Bible verses.  You could even just use inspirational quotes from various sources.  I find this a nice way to keep positive, inspirational words visible and in my thoughts. As I study, I plan to keep adding my favorites to my supply of scriptures to frame.  Let me know if you give this a try!