I have been making greeting cards for years, and more recently have learned to create my own art for the cards I make, and I’ve found the art developing into more than just cardmaking. Beyond being useful for other paper crafting, such as scrapbooking and what not, I began to see it as a way to hopefully bring in a bit of extra money. After all, many small businesses start out as hobbies. So, in February of 2010, I opened a shop on Etsy.
I would love to be able to say I can’t keep up with sales, but that’s not even close to the truth, sales are few! Still, I am really enjoying the journey. For one thing, I have joined a couple of Christian teams on Etsy. Conversing on the forums and blogging with other Christian artisans is fun and also encouraging, as you might imagine.
That said, I am taking it prayerfully, a day at a time. I find this passage from James to be perfectly fitting for my business venture:
James 4:13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit."
14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
15 Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."
14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
15 Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."
I believe that many of the things the Lord allows are for times and seasons, and I really do not know what tomorrow may bring. This I do know, He is with me, and that does not change. God gives His children good things to enjoy in the here and now, but truly, the here and now is not what lasts. Like you, I am looking forward to what does last, our life in Christ for eternity.
