I hope you all have been well and enjoyed celebrating the birth of Christ with your family and friends! We had a beautiful time celebrating here, and it’s been so nice having a bit of a slower season over the holidays to spend some time reflecting and praying. I am not exactly sure what God has in store for us in 2024, but I know it is the year of the open door and I have a lot of expectancy for what is to come. We are looking forward to moving into the things God has for us in 2024!

Over the holidays I decided to treat art a little differently. I want to be more prolific, and so I need painting to be accessible. I decided to take my art journal out onto our island counter in the kitchen. I had some of my paints in an ice cream pail and would just paint one color whenever I had a few minutes. I would then wash my brush, let that layer dry, and then come back later with another color. Each painting session was only a matter of seconds really, but I was able to get a surprising amount of painting done that I wouldn’t have normally. It did help that my boys were having a few night sleepover at their grandmas, because usually whenever the youngest few see me painting they immediately want to join, which can make things a bit more complicated. But I enjoyed this little ‘burst-painting’ experiment. I’ll include some images below.

I also felt like God has been wanting me to share more of my testimony and what He has been setting me free from. I know this to be true: God has spent this past year setting me free from the fear of man, people pleasing, and having an identity crisis. Now how does this relate to art? I am seeing more and more how intimately intertwined they are. It all stems from identity. Who are you and why were you born? When you understand that the Creator of the universe intricately designed every part of you, breathed life into you, and set you on earth at this exact time with a specific purpose, it really changes the way you approach your life. And this is true for all of us, whether we accept it or not. That’s the thing about truth: it’s true regardless of our feelings about it. And God is truth. You don’t have to look far and you will find this out. I pray that if you don’t know Him, that you will have a divine encounter that will so radically transform your life that everything changes. That’s what happened for me.

I can’t even describe when that exact moment was, but I know that all my life God has been setting me up. I was raised in religion, and yet God has such great plans outside of that small world I found myself in. He had relationship. And He placed in me such a great desire for relationship, which translates to a great desire for Him! Growing up my mom always said that my gift in life was that I was a good friend. I thank God that He placed in me a desire that would draw me to Him. I had such a wrong perspective of the kingdom of God growing up, and because of family dynamics, I really didn’t know how to receive a Father’s love. But thank God, He was so patient with me. He walked alongside me through all of the darkness until I was finally ready and willing to have my blinders pulled off. All along the way He kept pursuing me and was faithful. He watched over me, protected me, I saw miraculous answers to prayers. I thank God for it.

I also realized that the enemy of my soul has been warring against my identity all my life, trying through whatever means he could to reinforce rejection. But now that I know, I’m able to take those thoughts captive and replace them with what God says. Not to say I no longer face battles, but satan’s plans aren’t very effective when I’m aware of them. And knowing and seeing clearly what he has been trying to do in my life has ignited the warrior in me. I must overcome! I cannot tolerate this in my life any longer. I want what God has for me in fullness. And I want it for my family. He is helping me to settle my identity in Christ alone, and go forward boldly, without fear of failure because I know who is singing over me. God is my father, and if He is for me, who can be against me? This has changed my life. I know that I was living with such an orphan mentality. But God. He changed everything. Stay tuned, I will be sharing more.

As always, thanks for stopping by!