I am sitting in a truck, with a laptop rested on my overly large stomach, with my arms tucked beside me, elbows sort of like chicken wings, and my hands right at my ribs, plugged into the thing that makes the lighter power thing go from 12 volts to whatever I need for this laptop to run. It is hot outside, and the sun is shinning down on my arms through the glass…and Gabriel is sitting in the back seat, hoping that I will quit playing with the computer, and go outside, in the 87 degree heat…I have no idea what the humidity is.
I want a studio/office!

Why are we always wanting something other than what IS?
When I was young, I wanted long straight hair…
the girls with long straight hair, wanted curly hair.
So, I straightened mine, they permed theirs, and we both ruined the beautiful hair God gave us.

I can paint. I can’t paint like Thomas Kincaid, or Michael Angelo, but God has given me a gift to paint that some folks find appealing.

Some folks are willing to say, I don’t know much about art, but I know I like what you have done.
Some folks are willing to say, I don’t like what you have done(though, thankfully, I have not heard that very much, probably because I throw those paintings away!)
What gets me is when someone that is not an artist, wants to seem like they are an artist, and comments on things in a piece of art that make no sense, but they say them with conviction, as if they actually understood perspective, shading, hue, and tint! And why is it always that when someone has to pretend they know what they are talking about, that they say negative things???? Can’t they just talk ignorant stuff and say good things with them? They aren’t comfortable with appearing as if they don’t know anything about art.

The 10 year old wants to be 13;
the 13 year old wants to be 16 or 18;
the 18 year old wants to be 21;
the 40 year old wants to be 21….or 29!

I am 51.
I don’t mind that I’m 51.
What I mind is how little I have to show for it, and how much I have to show for it!
I have very little in the way of what I have done for the Lord…and therefore, I am concerned about the talent parable…I’m not going to be the o0ne that gets praised like the one with 10 talents…I just want to not be the one who hid her talents!
I have way too much to show for my 51 years – in the area of waist, waste, and health issues.

In my 50th year, I started writing again.
In my 51st year, I started painting again.

Now, in my 52nd year, I need to figure out what God wants for me to do with these things.

The Parable of the talents lends itself to business mindedness.
The talents that God has given, haven’t been given for our benefit…they are His investments in us…and the parable gives us an idea as to what type of return He is expecting on His investments. In fact, it is VERY CLEAR that HE IS EXPECTING a return on His investment!!!

We are his workmanship….We are created for good works….that God prepared before hand that we should walk in them!

God put the talents INTO us, HE created us with talent, for the good works that HE intended for us to walk in!

The key is – what am I doing with HIS talent?
Am I dedicating HIS talent to HIM?
and, just an aside…what is a talent compared to a skill?
Could there be a difference between innate talent, and a learned skill…and yet, both have some responsibility to be given back to HIM?

Some folks are gifted to do…and not to teach.
Some folks are gifted to teach…and not to do.

My husband can read a book about painting, and very clumsily show me what it says…and then, in his words, I take the brush out of his hand, and create something really special with it.
I’d like to be able to teach – but I can ‘t.
I’m not sure about him wanting to paint…..but I KNOW he can TEACH!

There are things about the WildBerry Patch that I can do…but i’m not gifted to do.
There are things about the WildBerry Patch that I cannot do…but need to be done.
And then, there are things a bout The WildBerry Patch that only I can do…or it wouldn’t be The WildBerry Patch.

What is it that only YOU can do?
THAT IS YOUR GIFTING! Within reason!
If YOU are the only one that can do what you do in the way you can do it, and in doing this something, you will bring return, fruit, then that is YOUR CALLING!!!

I have several drafts sitting waiting for me to finish, because there are things that I needed to do…things that only I could do…and I didn’t get back to these drafts.
How much time is there in a day? 12 waking hours, that would be safe.
I write and I paint in my sleep, but since I don’t get that stuff out there…I guess sleeping doesn’t count.
I need to let those others do what they can do, so that I can be about doing what only I can do.
We are all me ant to be uniquely fitted together so that we can all be one body.

If my wavy, frizzy hair is not good enough for you…too bad. It’s the hair God gave me!
If my four eyes that cannot wear contacts bother you…too bad. They are the eyes and glasses that God gave me.
If I never walk a marathon, that’s not going to change what I, and only I, can do!
It doesn’t matter if I ever do another sprint triathlon…it won’t affect my writing or my painting.

I am created with a gifting for writing and painting.
God created me to be an artist and an author.
God has provided me with a mobile studio and office!

What has God put into you? What are you doing about it?

In His hands and under his wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7