By Janel Metsker
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11 Oct, 2020
When I began my company, Nite Owl Quilting, I had been specifically praying for my career to use the skills and desires God has given me to glorify Him. Sometimes the way I glorify God is simply finding joy in creating something beautiful and working hard on it as if it were a gift to Him. I decided from the beginning of creating this company writing quilt patterns, that I would produce at least 10% of my patterns to be completely Christ-centered as a way to honor Him with my time and skills. I had been praying for a couple of years about what the project would be. As I was working on my 9th pattern, Sunrise Stag, Covered in Truth became a huge dream for me. Grounding myself in who I am to Christ and evaluating my response to those truths was a life changing point in my walk with the Lord. I have been a Christian since high school, but I had never really read and re-read who I was to Christ. These promises and scriptures changed my view of myself, my God, and I definitely began re-evaluating how to live those truths out in my daily life. There are so many pressures we face daily. I began to understand how even the small lies Satan would tell me daily were keeping me at a distance from God. I would be having coffee in my favorite chair, having time with the Lord, and just wanted to be covered up in His love. I wanted to be covered under His protection. I wanted my life to be something that glorified Him. So, realizing how many pressures we face daily, I knew I needed to go into each day ready for battle. Scripture, prayer and intentional time with the Lord was my battle plan. I want to start each day remembering who God says I am. I want to have Him define the standards for my life and guide the decisions I make throughout each day. I don’t want to get weighed down by pressures and expectations of everyone else. I don’t want to be distracted by lies Satan tries to get me to believe. Grounding myself in His Truth brings me peace and clarity. “Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.” Galatians 6:4-5 (The Message). I love to quilt, so this was a way to honor God with a talent He has given me and help share Scriptures with others. The more I began to pray over this project, the more excited I was about the possible impact others would have when they began believing who God made them to be. As a mom of young children, time to get these projects done is so limited. It has been such a wonderful experience to be able to intentionally set time aside to turn on praise music, work on this quilt, and read over the Scriptures as I am working on each word. Praying over the Scriptures and asking the Lord to show me how to believe them, live them out, and show me who I can share these Scriptures with was how I approached this quilting time. Blending quilting with studying God’s word has been so life giving, and I pray it will be for those who choose to take this journey with me in making this quilt. Cover up in the truth of who you are in Christ!
