'Building a Foundation'

If each day of my life represented a brick laid in a foundation, i wonder what kind of foundation it would be? I think about my days, what they normally look like and imagine that my foundation, as of yet, is probably not laid in the most efficient nor effective of fashions.  I don't roll out of bed on my knees every morning and sometimes don't even acknowledge God and so much as even say hey and good morning to Him for the first hour or so, or at least not consciously.  I rarely get up early enough that I can get a good reading session done in my bible before my children are up and let's face it...once they are up, it is VERY hard to sit down and CONCENTRATE to be able to comprehend what I'm reading.  But there is always hope.  Hope that my desire to know God and my longing to know more of His heart will stir me enough so that i might lay a more solid life foundation.  I mean after all it's on this foundation that the immediate things around us rest.  I am a wife, so therefore if my foundation is not good..then my husbands won't be either (since we are one in accordance with the word), and i am a mother...so then my children will be effected as they rely on me in order to take care of them at there age.  Spiritually God is relying on me to be His representative, a representative with a solid foundation that others can rely on at times for different things.  So right now in my life i am going back to my foundations.  I want to make sure there are no cracks so that as I continue to build daily, everything doesn't come crashing down because i neglected to keep priorities straight, or keep focused on a goal of keeping God first in my life.

'Let the light of your face shine down'

'Let the light  of Your face shine down'

16x16 acrylic on wood panel.
couldn't get 'light of your face' a song by Misty Edwards out of my head while i was painting this one.

'Rise and Shine'

Today for some reason I felt like I got the word to pray for light in aunt Carla's life.  I'm not sure in what ways, and maybe it's not for me to know but I've just been praying that she would be surrounded by color.  I know that color is a form of light, and that whatever color we see is just the spectrum of light being reflected off an object, so maybe God is giving me a unique way to pray for the different facets of Himself to be revealed.  I know many times in the bible God is referred to as being light, or we as believers are like lamps and so on and so forth so I'm wanting to do a more in depth study of light and colors and how it relates to references of light in the bible.  One thing i found online today that i enjoyed reading is the passage below....

'Romans 8;28'

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a] have been called according to his purpose.


After painting todays work I just thought that this name Romans 8v28 seemed right, because all of these things stacked on top of each other are working together to make a complete picture.


Lord I pray that no matter what our circumstances that we face from day to day that you will use those for good.  Lord when a day brings something that seems that no good could come of it, that whatever lesson that you would have us to learn you would bring that to the surface.  Amen

'Geometric'

'Geometric' 12x14 acrylic on canvas.

John Chapter 14

I've been enjoying reading John 14 today, and thinking more about the last few verses particularly verse 14 'And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.' I am going to have to think on this verse for a few days, maybe God will reveal more about it in the next few days.  I just feel as if there is something deeper to asking in the name of Jesus, and I want to know more about how that  he brings glory to the Father.  I just keep thinking about how that we as children of our parents carry their last name and as that we are representing them.  So that name association brings glory to them when we 'win the big basketball game' or make an 'A' on our test or whatever the case may be.....so maybe I will have more on that in the next day or so.  It will be something I will meditate on.

'This is the day'

I don't really have a lot to say today.  I do believe today is the most tired i've been so far and the hardest it's been to make myself to not take a nap but rather paint.  I know that it is no where near what aunt carla endures on a daily basis, but even just feeling this way and having to push through it gives me all the more respect for her and how well she handles the things that come her way on a daily basis.  I know that God is obviously with her for her to be striving through this.  God please continue to be with aunt carla.  Bless her mind and her body and Lord anything that the enemy tries to tell her or make her to believe through whatever attacks that come her way, Lord I pray that you will keep her from believing that, but that rather she would continue to believe you and your words to her. Give her life.  Amen

'Humbled Today'

well today was a great day for painting.  There are some days that it just doesn't feel like when i get done with  a painting that it is complete...there always seems to be something or many things missing and i'm always very critical of them.  Today was different though, it was just one of those times where it felt like the paint was working with me, sure i was doing the usual...sometimes talking to my paint...sometimes asking God to help to show me what i'm missing but today it just all fell into place so nicely.  After I was done  I even stood back and sort of 'proudly' said to myself wow..i like it.  haha but as God always has such a graceful way of showing us our faults and humbling even the proudest of peoples so he did with me!  when i finished the painting i took it outside as i always do to coat it with a clear acrylic sealant, i looked up at the sky and saw the MOST BEAUTIFUL clouds i've seen in a long time...and I heard God's gentle voice say..this is the work of my hands.  Of course after that i look down at my little canvas that i'd just brought outside and it didn't seem near as wonderful as the glory i beheld when looking up into the canvas of God's sky!  So that is why i named todays painting 'Humbled Today' because i was humbled by the glory of God's hand and how that he so magnificently displayed it to me!

'Faith' bridges the gap between us and GOD

(The exerpt below was taken from verseoftheday.com.)

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

— 2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)

Thoughts on Today's Verse...

What do you see most clearly today? Is it what is seen or what is unseen? No matter our belief system, we ultimately have to trust what we can't see. Even the most atheistic scientists trust gravity, breathe air, and depend upon principles they cannot see until these realities produce results in the tangible world of human perception. But as Christians, we don't believe the seen world is any more real as the unseen world. In fact, most of the seen world is subject to death, disease, disaster, decay, disorder, and death. I don't know about you, but if it isn't any more permanent than that, it's not going to be very real for any of us for very long. I want to hang on to something that allows me to look past the seen and to find my Father who is unseen. He is the one who guarantees the unseen!

This is what I read today before starting my painting.  So I decided since it was so fitting a verse for the cause in which I'm painting these 365 days, why not write it on my canvas. 

#5/365 'Can't Force a Mule'

'Can't Force a Mule' 12x14 acrylic/oil pastels on textured canvas.

I always love how God uses my mistakes to help make something that feeds my soul.  Let me tell you about how glorious he really is.
I started prepping my canvas today, should have done it last night so that the prime coat would be finished but...I'm a bit of a procrastinator at times and well that just didn't happen! so anyways I was just trying to get my textured layer that I put on the canvas today to dry faster and somewhere I read that with acrylic material it's better to use the oven that a blow dryer because it dries through and through instead of just the top layer.  So i did just that..stuck it into the oven.  10 or so minutes later I'm starting to smell a potent chemical type smell as it wafts through my home in all it's glory and i say to myself "guess i better go check on the canvas".  I open up the oven door and the stuff is bubbling up on the canvas like a bad case of the chicken pox! OH DEAR.

#4/365 'Mary' Acrylic and Oil pastels on Canvas

made a dent in the to-do list

with the countdown at t-minus 8 hours until the start of the new year and the beginning of the 365 day journey I have made a very small dent in the list of things to do in order to pull this off.  Today I was able to go ahead and make 5 frames, in which I went ahead and stretched canvas over after allowing time for the glue to dry.  so I am 360 canvas' away from being done...or at least in the way of making them...I'm getting very excited about starting to paint again.  It's really been a while since I was painting on a regular basis.  Images used to fly through my head like a slideshow they were coming so regular..i couldnt sleep at night sometimes it was so bad, but i guess i ignored so many of them for so long that i just lost it.  I'm hoping to fan that back into flame as I delve back into the bible again.  I'm pretty sure that is where the most of my inspiration was coming from.  I know it seems crazy to think that it would have such an effect on my creativity, but then at the same time if i truly believe that God made me and He also was the divine inspiration that created the bible, then why would it or does it seem so crazy.  i as the creation and the bible as the word of God my creator would seemingly have to effect one another as the sun does plants.  the one can't very well survive without the other.  anyways just wanted to share how things are going today, GOOD!! thanks for reading.

getting materials together

well as the new year and new challenge of painting or making one artwork a day approaches there are quite a few emotions that have tried to overcome me.  The excitement of facing a challenge being the best, or fear of not being able to pull it off being the worst.  which really isn't that bad.  the main thing i want to keep in mind while doing this is the reason for doing it.  It's not about me, it's about doing what I feel like God is asking me to do, that being to bear a burden to the best of my ability with a fellow christian and my aunt.  after struggling with cancer for 5 years you would think that committing to one year of something, so seemingly miniscule as a painting a day, would be easy.

the wood for making canvas frames (doesn't look like much)

I've taken some pictures this morning of some of the materials i've already started to put together in preparations.  so far i cut six-36" boards, twelve-24"boards and twenty four- 12" boards...and after doing the math realized that was only enough to make 10 frames and half of another one....yikes! making frames it going to be a bit of a pain.  i love painting i just wish i didn't have to make my frames to go along with those! haha.  I also bought a 21 yard roll of canvas...that should last A WHILE! at least i hope it does.

good, bad, or in the plan

The family loaded up this morning and we all headed to huntsville.  although the day started off sort of shaky because for some reason I was in an inexplicably crabby mood.  Do you ever have those? Anyways, thankfully I got over it before the ride was over.

Lot's to think about, Lot's to do

We have started considering and I guess, more so making the steps in order to make a possible move to Birmingham Alabama.  Haven is now applied to a couple of position in the area we have been looking at.  What has prompted the move...I think to really explain, we have to take you back all the way to a job Haven had when we temporarily moved to Colorado for a couple of months last year.

So I'm out of the boat...now what?

Have you ever read the story about Peter walking on water?  I have several times.  Never have I really read to comprehend or try to understand what God is saying through this lesson. I suppose that is because all to often I find myself reading the bible just to 'read the bible'.  The only reason that I do that is just because I know if I get out of the habit of it, it will just be that much harder for me to start back again.  If I keep it a part of my daily routine, yes then a lot of days it is just that, a routine, but there are those days every now in then when it feels like it was set apart.  A day God wanted you to read a passage, like you have never read it before, and he reveals a new part of Himself.

My Birthday is rapidly approaching!

  2 more days and I will be 25! I can't believe I'm already half-way to 30.  Time goes  by so fast.  It's going to be an exciting birthday weekend though.  Haven get's off of work at about 2pm.  When he gets home I imagine he will throw a few things into a bag and be ready to leave.  So we are going to take the kids with us down there.  A couple we know that are real close friends just moved down there about 2 months ago, and we are gonna let the kids stay the night at there house.  I just got off the phone with the concierge at Redmont Hotel in Downtown.  Haven and I are going to stay the night there for my birthday! We haven't done something like that since before Davis was born.  I can't wait!

Silence is Golden

There are so many ways that you can apply the phrase "silence is golden".  When I was thinking of a title to this post, that was what came to mind.  The reason being, that my 2 year old had finally just been brought to a silent hush. She has been laying in bed doing everything but sleeping for the past hour and a half! So she finally gave up, quit crying, and has went to sleep.  These are the moments that I look forward to a lot of days, where I can sit and hear my thoughts and just enjoy some silent time.  I'm not saying I don't enjoy the laughter, the yelling, the humming and other things that my children contribute to my life.  It just allows for more enjoyment when the silence does come.