C.S. Lewis
Smile. Cherish. Enjoy.
“ Don’t bother too much about your feelings. When they are humble, loving, brave, give thanks for them. When they are conceited, selfish, cowardly, ask to have them altered. In neither case are they you, but only a thing that happens to you. What matters is your intentions and your behavior. ”
I will not be a product of my past. Instead, I will be a child of God. Adopted, redeemed, restored, grafted in, an heir of the Kingdom, beloved. I am His and He is mine.
Hallelujah Jesus.
“ The way to love someone is to lightly run your finger over that person’s soul until you find a crack, and then gently pour your love into that crack. ”
Keith Miller
(Source: musingandmulling)
“ We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. ”
C.S. Lewis
It’s been one of those mornings. You could also insert the phrases “completely nerdy” or “absolutely wonderful” into that last sentence. Both options are equally as true.
I’m not actually sure why I felt the need to document my trekkie moment with Jesus this morning, but whatever. He loves me just how I am.
Straight A’s and Outstandings
I had this really awesome third grade teacher, her name was Mrs. Cao. She was one of those teachers that made learning exciting and genuinely cared about her students. When I went back to my elementary school to observe a classroom two years ago, I ran into her and I decided to go up and introduce myself. She remembered me and asked if I was still getting straight A’s and outstandings on my report cards.
As amazing as it was to find out that she remembered that, I remember something different about the report cards I got from her class. Yes I got perfect scores, but always in the comment section it would say the same thing. “Carolyn is a great student, but often she makes silly mistakes.” I would be so sure of myself, thinking that I was too good to double check my work, and because of that I would forget simple things like punctuation or to carry the ones to the next column.
Mrs. Cao kept popping up in my head this week as I was thinking over the past two years. I think that I still have the problem of making silly mistakes. I know what is right, and what is good and true. I know the attitudes and actions I am called to live out as a follower of Christ. I am put in situations where I could show others the Kingdom of God but because of fear, pride, or some other silly reason I don’t live out the Gospel the way that I should.
Lately, I have been feeling very purposeless, out of place, unnecessary even. And after a lot of prayer I realized that I had been feeling like I had nothing to offer because a part of my heart didn’t believe that I was good enough to reflect God’s Glory. And in all reality, without Jesus, I wouldn’t be good enough. But through His grace I am good enough. More than good enough, I am God’s child, He is pleased with me. I have just been refusing to accept that grace. It’s a mindset that is going to take a lot of time and effort to fix, but God is faithful, I just need to expectantly wait upon Him to teach me and mold me to be more like Him. Until then, I am going to try my best to stop making those silly mistakes and obey what it is that He has called me to do right now.
Our God is Good.
“As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” Psalm 17:15
So right now I am reading this book, Stages of the Soul by Father Paul Keenan, and it’s amazing, so I thought I would share some of the quotes that I found really amazing/thought provoking/I squeaked with excitement when I read them.
“It takes some doing to realize that the way things were before may not be something we should want to recapture…When we can open ourselves to the possibility that the reason things fell apart for us may be that we were meant to experience something else, we can relax a little and realize that we may need to stop running around frantically and instead simply listen to what is going on.The truth is that we are being pulled away from the moorings which, however much we love them, are not the best places for us to be.”
“You are not the sum and substance of what you have done, where you come from, or what others have done to you or said about you. Thanks to your soul, you are free to think differently, to see yourself independently of your history and your labels, whether self imposed or imposed by others.”
“Compassion breeds understanding, which in turn invites forgiveness.”
I will probably add more quotes to this when I get farther along in the book. Halfway there!
So I have these pair of Nightmare Before Christmas shoes that a good friend of mine drew on that I am in love with. They’re magnificent. The only problem is that I can only wear them from October to December. I decided that I wanted another pair of artsy shoes so I bought some Toms to paint myself.
I couldn’t come up with anything that I wanted to draw on them, so I was looking through a bunch of other artists blogs, and I was inspired by their artwork. So i decided to take some of my favorite parts from their artwork to decorate my shoes. And here is the final result. I’ve decided that I love them.
Here’s the art that inspired me:
Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John by: Aline B
I didn’t work on anything new this last week. But I did get this painting put up on our wall and I said that I would post it after I did that, so here it is.
I probably won’t be updating this blog weekly for a while, with classes and everything starting up again soon. But I’ll post anything that I end up drawing or painting. And I might just throw in some non-art related blogs if I feel like it.
“Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. Trust in Him at all times, pour out your heart to Him, for God is our refuge.” Psalm 62:5-8
Daisy Love
Please pray for Daisy Love and her family, right now she is having some really bad reactions to chemotherapy. Daisy and her family are such strong followers of Christ, and have been such a witness to me in the way that they have such a deep faith and they fully believe in the sovereignty of God even through all of their struggles. http://prayfordaisy.com/
And if you have 45 minutes to spare watch Britt’s sermon about what is going on with Daisy, suffering, and Jesus. It’s an amazing testament to his faith. http://prayfordaisy.com/post/832799585
