As a young adult, my poor
self-esteem carried over into my new Christian life. God decided to use art as
His way of proving to me that Christ in me was totally capable and I could
trust in Him.
He put His desire in my heart to
paint. Too poor to afford supplies, I used some old paint belonging to my
mother-in-law, some toothpicks and some egg shells with the insides literally blown
out.
I "painted" flowers,
birds, dogs, cats, trees, mountains and all sorts of nature on those egg shells
and declared myself an artist. My former husband said I had to sell my art
before I could claim that fame.
Well, not to be undone, I asked
my Daddy to take my "art" to work with him to see if they would sell.
He gave me some end-caps from metal tubing to glue on the bottom of each egg as
a stand, and they were quite attractive.
Within a few days they all sold for
$3.00/each; and Daddy's workmates gave me special orders to "paint"
family pets, beautiful landscapes and other meaningful visuals from photos,
which they gave me as examples.
Of course, I had no natural
talent, but Christ in me duplicated every one of those special orders perfectly;
and I had myself a new and thriving "cottage" business.
With the money I earned, I bought
painting supplies: real brushes, small canvases and fresh paints. I stayed up
painting for hours after my family went to bed and my chores were finished.
I kept one of those paintings (I
still have it) and gave away the rest of them as gifts. Once my supplies ran
out, I went back to my original love of making crafts out of trash.
I used them to decorate my home
and as gifts as well. I started making my own greeting cards, which I still do
to this day. Then, I moved into the realm of making jewelry for myself and as
gifts.
I added the God-given talent of buying
clothes at thrift stores and mixing and matching them with scarves and my jewelry
as works of art. Now, I am perfectly dressed from head to toe no matter where I
am, even while cleaning at home.
I am so glad that I
"inherited" my Daddy God's creative abilities through Christ in me
(Ecclesiastes 3:11), and I look forward to continuing to create out of other
people's trash for the rest of my days on this earth (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for
encouraging my young life with Your creative powers through Christ in me. I
pray that You will do this exact miracle for everyone with low self-esteem who
comes to know You as their personal Savior. Build them up in the most holy
faith and bless them and allow them to bless others by Your love within them
(Jude 1:20-25).
When Your creativity flows out of
us in the form of art, baking, needlepoint, childcare, writing, building, mentoring
Your Saints, engineering, teaching a class, singing, mechanics, gardening, playing musical instruments,
preaching a sermon or whatever form which You choose to anoint our life, we
feel at one with You in every respect (Exodus 35:1-5, 35:35; 1 Chronicles 15:16;
Job 19:23-24).
Thought for the Day:
An artist is not born overnight,
but cultivated over years of inspiration from our Father God, because He makes
all things beautiful in His own time. - Ecclesiastes 3:11
