Start Here

Newest illustrated faith entry.

I get frustrated with myself when I don't live up to my expectations of myself. So in my time with God today, He reminded me that I need to start where I am. It's no use lamenting how I've fallen short, just confess & move on. Don't dwell in the woulda coulda shoulda's that plague my self image. Start here. Start where I am. I can't start where I think I ought to be. Start here. Trust God. Start with trust. Trust that God is who He says He is. Trust that God forgives & loves & has a plan for me. He has a path for me. Trust God. Start here.

So my image has an olive tree planted by the water (Psalm 52:8) & a person walking up the hill, leaning on a staff (olive branch) of trust. As I lean in to God, my trust in Him makes light work of the trip.

I used pearlescent paints for this. Pay no attention to the date on the page. I'm starting from the beginning & illustrating the pages that I missed the first time through. My favorite colors are earth-tones, so anything with greens, browns & blues makes me happy.

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Look to Him

Here's my most recent creative devotional response. I am illustrating my Jesus Calling devotional book. Many people get creative right in their Bibles, but I'm not confident in my artwork yet. And the devotional has some blank space built in, so I'm not covering up good stuff.

The picture doesn't show the thought as well as I had hoped. I'm waling on a rough ocean & feel like I'm sinking (heard that story before?). So I look to Christ for my peace in the tumultuous world. The long brown smudge is supposed to be the cross & Jesus is the white form on the cross. After I was done, I decided I should've left the brown cross off & brought Jesus down closer to the rest of the picture. What you can't see in the picture is that I used a glitter to indicate the peace that comes from Jesus when we look to Him. It pours out from Him as we seek Him in the midst of our chaotic lives.

There's some assorted background stuff (the yellow) which bled through from yesterday's entry.

This entry reflects the chaos I feel in my mind of late. I was not very pleased with the artwork, but it very accurately reflects my mind. So when I turned the page & saw how it had bled through, I almost skipped that page & went on to the next. I'm glad I didn't, because it only deepens the impact of what looking to Jesus can (and does) have on my life;.

So here's to God's peace. My it be shed abroad & may it come to rest on you.