All posts filed under: Musing Moments

Do You Have What It Takes?: Realizing You Were Made For Your Dream

Published by

You are not sure when the moment began, what the catalyst for its birth was. You more often than not cannot formulate the words to describe it, but you have a dream. One day, out of nowhere, the realization that you had a vision for your life that did not mirror where you currently stand, revealed itself with awesome clarity and with that clarity came…a touch of fear. Do you have what it takes to make this thing happen? Here is the answer, no, you don’t, not on your own. But here is the good news, Christ never intended for you to do it alone, but to do it with Him as your anchor and guide. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”~John 15:5 NKJV The beauty of your dream, your call, your vision, is that it didn’t come out of nowhere. If you’ve sought the Lord, prayed over this vision and have gained the assurance that this seed …

Pre-Equipped for Success

Published by

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago…I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” ~JEREMIAH 1:5 NLT, EPHESIANS 2:10 NLT The Lord sanctified and appointed you to the call and purpose, vision, dream already inside you. To be sanctified is to be set apart for a specific purpose. His Word ensures us that He is our Shepherd and that we lack nothing. This means that you have all you need to succeed and become all that He has called you to (Psalm 23). (See Creatively Established) Consider the work of a potter (Jeremiah 18:1-5). When he takes a lump of clay, he has already decided what he is going to create. Let’s imagine that this potter has decided to make a mug to drink coffee from. When he puts his hands to the clay to fashion the mug, he …

Falling Into A New Season: This Month at ICFTS

Published by

Greetings, Fellow Creatives! October has fallen upon us with the promise of fiery coolers, crisp weather, and the sense of stillness, with Winter just a wind away. But I ask you, are we really stepping into a season of stillness as Autumn blankets us with fallen leaves and seals us in with the kiss of frost, and have we really ever? I would like to offer you another thought and view of this time of year. Fall, Autumn, is the time to bring in the harvest from seeds planted in prior months, but it is also a time to prepare the soil for the cycle of seasons to come. Although we joyfully celebrate what has been, we also lay the groundwork for the goodness that is to come, setting our eyes and hearts on the future that rest upon the horizon. This October at ICFTS, I (Candice) want to help you prepare your mind for the plans ahead. I want to help you renew your mind as you focus through the lens of Christ-centered faith …

Creatively Established

Published by

“You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge (know the truth.)” ~I JOHN 2:20 When God calls you to something, He has predestined, pre-equipped you, for what He has called you to do, giving you the wisdom to walk in what He has created you for. (JEREMIAH 1:4-5) So, as Colossians 3:15 says, we should let peace, His peace, reign in our hearts, to which we were called in One Body and be thankful. We should be thankful even when we don’t quite understand the path, trusting that He makes our way straight. For creating us, He called us, calling us, He equipped us. Equipping us He establishes us. What does it mean to be established mean? It means to show or prove something to be true, sound, long-lasting. Our Heavenly Father has established us in FAITH in CHRIST to accomplish what He has put in us to do…to create, and He further establishes us as we ever grow in faith! (COlOSSIANS 2:6-10, PSALM 37:23) So keep believing, keep pressing, …

Dreaming & Sowing Seeds

Published by

“Dreaming is not wasting time, it’s peeking into your future ahead of time.”   In all truth, even though I polished up the words to make them into a quote, they are actually the result of a conversation I was having with the Lord Jesus. I have said it a bazillion times, that I am a stickler for time. I like to make the best use of every second of every day…its akin to squeezing blood from a turnip the way I can be when it comes to time management. “Dreaming is sowing seed.” This is not always a good thing, although I still stand on the fact that being wasteful of time is not good either. Once before, several years ago, also while having a conversation with God, the topic then being money, He asked me, “What happens to a fist full of sand when you squeeze it as tightly as you can?” My response, “The tighter you squeeze the faster it seems to slip away from you.” His response, “That is exactly what happens …

The Beginning of ICFTS’ Creative Adventure

Published by

Hello, Fellow Creatives! Candice here. I am certain that coming to this platform and feasting upon the content here has led you to wonder how this creative space came to be, and furthermore, why is it called I came for the soup… I came for the soup… was birthed out of an adventure that began in June of 2013. A dear friend of mine asked if I wanted to accompany her on a vacation outside of the United States. Saying yes was the easy part, choosing the stomping ground for our adventure was where we ran into difficulty. “The artist in me, the writer in me, the innocent dreamer in me had reawakened with a newfound purity.” With a slew of viable and tempting options around the world, we found it almost impossible to make a definitive decision. What was the deciding factor? Several years prior she had had the chance to enjoy some mighty tasty (so I am told) Potato and Leek soup in Ireland.  She said she would often sit and think about …

Second Sight by Rachael Ritchey

Published by

The future we see through broken and twisted spectacles There is not sure sight to know the path We trip along, hoping to grasp a rail When in fact, none is to be had Not with our hands, at least Only our hearts can lead For our hearts see what Eyes cannot see Feel what hands do not feel Touch what bone cannot touch Deeper is marrow than that of bone The core of one life is beyond imagining When hearts reach out to search the blindness Our hearts can go to places our bodies are unwilling In the heart lies the soul of a man and desire to love is there Photo by Quentin Lagache on Unsplash *This poem was written by Indie Author, Rachael Ritchey. To read more of her works, including her published pieces, follow her at: rachaelritchey.com Twitter: Rachael Ritchey Facebook: WritingRaci

Creatives in Action Coming Soon!!!

Published by

What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word, ‘creative’? Do you, like many people, think of a person who spends hours slinging paint on canvas or sewing stories on elaborate quilts? Maybe a singer, like Celine Dion comes to mind, and you, like me think, Wow, she is so whimsical. “…being a Creative goes beyond, but certainly encompasses, the creative passions of the visional, musical, and written arts, but it does not exclude other forms of creativity.”   The most important question to ask here, is do you picture yourself when you hear the word creative? If not, let this be the day that this changes. What does it even mean to be creative anyway? First, let’s define what it means to create. Create: transitive verb 1: to bring into existence … God created the heaven and the earth.  —Genesis 1:1 (King James Version) 2a : to invest with a new form, office, or rank  She was created a lieutenant. b : to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior  Her arrival created a terrible fuss.  …

New Day Begins for ICFTS!

Published by

“Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”  ~Isaiah 43:19 The season changes. The smell in the air is different. The sky is painted with dusty roses early in the morning, and dusk comes sooner than it did before. Still, you wait in the tangent, as the temperature changes from balmy heat to skin tingling chill and the delight of donning your sweater…not so much because you like the woven threads but more than anything because it is new! Today is a new day for I came for the soup… and that feeling of delight washes through me (Candice) the same way it does when I realize that I am standing just at the doorway to Autumn, my absolute favorite time of the year. Once upon a time, ICFTS was a blog centered around my growth and discovery of my maturing and once stifled creative voice. Today the blog becomes a community, geared …

NaNoWriMo: Encouragement for the Weeks Ahead #NaNoWriMo #Author #Writer

Published by

The first five days of NaNoWriMo are behind us with many more blessedly ahead. Some of you have achieved your daily writing and creative goals while others may have missed your designated marks shy of a few words. No worries. You will achieve your goal if you stick with it. Consider the first five days of NaNo as your glorious warm up. The fact still remains that when we set out with a great goal and miss our intended marks at the very start, we tend to lose momentum or even the courage to continue. Our plans seem not to be as ‘plausible’ as they were before…and then we drift…staring at our computer screens too afraid to make music by clicking the keys of our keyboards. Can we really do this? Can we conquer our vision for NaNoWriMo? Everyone else around us seems to be doing just fine. I would like to take this time to give you a bit of creative advice especially in moments when our creativity seems to get the best of us and …