The Artist

I had the the blessing of going to the women's event a few weeks ago. I had never done one of those "group canvas" things before so this painting was super exciting for me to do! Through it I was just reminded how much God loves us. Just as I created this painting He created us.

I took my time, layering each color, looking at it a bit then tweaking it till I felt it was good. Isn't that how God looks at us as well. Little tweak here and there and wow that person is just as I want them, made in My image. Just as we all looked to the leader's painting (image) to "copy" from we are a copy of God's image too. None of our paintings turned out exactly like the leader's. And that's OK they weren't supposed to!

We aren't made to be exact replicas of anyone, but striving to become like Christ. The moment we started on the trees the comparisons really started. No ones trees looked the same, and you could hear the discouragement in some voices like wow I wish I could paint like yours etc. I was reminded then how comparison is the thief of JOY!

Satan loves nothing more than to take something beautiful that God has created and make us worry and compare and become jealous of others. There was also holy yoga at this event and the instructor said something to the effect of, "God help us not to compare ourselves to our neighbor. If they are in a season that we aren't in help us not to covet that but to find joy in our own season."

That hit me SO HARD because my physical neighbor doing yoga right next to me last night I had coveted. Wished to be in her season. And that's not what God has for my journey right now, So I can find the joy in my own season, or get stuck in the woe is me comparison and lose my joy!

This painting now hangs proudly on my wall (I seriously haven't been proud of creating something in a LONG time) as a reminder of the night. A reminder to find joy in whatever season I'm in. Definitely NOT a perfect painting by any means, but I made it, and I love it, and when you take it away from all the other paintings and stop the comparison and just focus on the beauty of my own painting (also my own life currently) I see no flaws at all.