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Writer's pictureGary Goerk

How to Scrapbook Your Future


Scrapbook items and scrapbooking your future

Scrapbooking first began as a way to preserve past memories. Today, the one-time hobby of the few has become a major industry, and a useful tool to help us plan our futures based on our hopes and dreams


Scrapbooking has evolved from its humble 15th century beginnings in England, to a worldwide billion-dollar industry. Early versions of the practice popular in England were called commonplace books and friendships books.


Over the decades, scrapbooking has had a chameleon-type history, changing as scrapbookers adopted different writing styles, and experimented with creative ways to chronicle their memories and experiences. What was once the realm of hobbyists, grew into a mega-marketing and social-networking opportunity due to technology.


Scrapbooking as Preserving and Organizing


Regardless of the form scrapbooking has taken, its basic premise has remained the same, to preserve, showcase, and organize personal memories and family history. Whether the scrapbooking tools are artwork, photos, newspaper clippings, journal entries, or digital versions of these, the emphasis of scrapbooking is two-fold, preserving the past and documenting the present. Digital technology has brought scrapbooking into the future.


There’s something special about looking through photo albums and scrapbooks with family and friends, or watching a DVD with digitally rendered photos or video of departed relatives and family vacations, but how much can scrapbooking tell us about the future?


Thinking About Our Future


Thinking about our future can be as daunting as thinking about the seemingly endless number of galaxies that may eventually be revealed. The number of possible experiences ahead of us, regardless of how long we live, is simply unknowable, except of course, by God.


Scrapbooking is a great way to bring us back to earth as we plan our future. Begin scrapbooking to be inspired and motivated. Here are tips to help you organize your project.


How to Scrapbook Your Future


1. Take time out of your busy day and a sheet of paper to brainstorm yourself about your hopes and dreams.


2. Ask open-ended questions. What are your hopes and dreams? How will you fulfill them? Who will play a role in your plans? What God-given purpose do you need to fulfill?


3. Decide if you will use a physical scrapbook of some kind, digital technology, or both. Use the storage medium with which you are most comfortable.


4. Explore which media you will use. Photos, art, poems, magazine clippings, newspaper headlines, journal entries are some of the traditional scrapbooking media.


5. Be open to new ideas and questions. Like your life, scrapbooking is an unfolding process. Keep a notebook at your bedside or in your car to capture random ideas.


6. When appropriate, share your scrapbooking with others who will support you in fulfilling you hopes and dreams.


In conclusion, God gives us hopes and dreams that reflect the future he has planned for us. Ask the Holy Spirit to be a lamp unto your imagination and a light unto your scrapbooking pages.


Additional reading:


Listen to God's Words


“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)


However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24)


May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)


Also read: Proverbs 16:1-9, Matthew 6:10, James 4:13-17


In the Words of Others


“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.” Albert Einstein


“Live out of your imagination, not your history.” Stephen Covey


“Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.” George Scialabba


Think About It

  • What are your hopes and dreams for the various areas of your life (i.e. family, career, financial, service, Christian walk)?

  • List the open-ended questions you would like to consider as you begin scrapbooking.

  • Are you more comfortable using the traditional physical approach to scrapbooking, or digital and online scrapbooking?

  • Explore which media you will use. Think “outside” the box and let your personality and individuality shine through. Have fun!

  • Google “scrapbooking” and explore the world of scrapbooking for ideas and tips.

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