'A Lonely road without Him'

    I'm so thankful that I have never known what it is like to be an orphan.  I grew up with a great set of parents that were always there whenever I needed them.  In reading in John 13 and 14 I have been reading about how Jesus continues to refer to himself as being 'in the Father' and the Father being 'in Him'.  I can't help but think about what that means in the earthly sense.  I consider that my parents made me and raised me and in a lot of ways we are 'in' each other I think in much the same way that Jesus was referring to. I think that is the way God designed us as families.  We are able to understand one another well because we have a melding of will's with one another because of genetic and learned things.  I think that is why in a lot of ways sometimes parents are the only ones that may understand certain circumstances that we go through in life where we may need advice on what to do or how to handle situations.

    I also know that there are some things that we as people fight within ourselves, a certain 'battle' that may never be verbally expressed to another human being, maybe because of fear of not being understood or whatever the reason, but those are the times when I've needed the Holy Spirit the most. There have been several times when I felt like there couldn't possibly be anyone else in the world that knew exactly how I was feeling or what I was going through.  Those are the times where there just didn't seem to be words worthy to express the type of feeling that was deep inside of me, nor the thoughts that were running through my mind.  Often times even then my parents were unable to reach the depths of whatever battle my mind or spirit was facing, and much of this time I didn't have the Holy Spirit in my life either.  It was a loneliness that no one could have filled, yet the only one that was capable of pulling me out of it was God himself in the form of the Holy Spirit.

Steady as She goes'

I must admit that there feels like a certain amount of pressure to perform at this point.  I guess that is just the natural human reaction whenever you know people are watching you.  but it can also be a bit of a weight to carry, so I hope that i can push through that like the ship merging out of the fog in todays painting.  I continue to have to remind myself that my painting is not about me, but rather about my spending intimate time with God in prayer.  I tend to notice the days when I have trouble keeping focused on that, the paintings don't flow out of me as freely.  It's almost like when your in prayer with God and your reciting words, rather than really having a conversation.

'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. 

364 left and i'm already up and getting ready

well i've been up since 4am.  I woke up and layed in bed for about 30 minutes trying to go back to sleep but couldn't because i kept thinking about what I was going to paint today.  so after my time of procrastination i decided maybe God knew I needed to go ahead and get up...since we never know what the day holds, why not go ahead and use whatever time i have been given.  I was able to get up and read for a bit in my bible.  I was reading about the centurion soldier that sent some jewish elders to Jesus to ask the centurions servant's healing.  Jesus heads to the home of the centurion and he is stopped outside  of the home and told that the centurion believes he's not worthy for his Lord to step into his house, and the centurion does something to show great faith.  He says "say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.  I tell this one, 'Go' and he goes, and that one, 'Come,' and he comes.  I say to my servant, 'Do This,' and he does it."