Gifted

Oct. 17, 2012

I remember the first time I picked up a book on lace painting.  I was in Hobby Lobby looking for an idea that I could paint at both ends of a scripture I had painted on Lettia's wall.  I looked at the cover and thought, "I can do this."  It was a confidence that said, "I can" not "I'll try."  I bought the book, paint, a paintbrush, and transfer paper.

I picked out a design and roughly practiced it once and then painted it on the wall.  It looked pretty good.  So, I bought a plain hinged unfinished box and stained it and chose a design that would look good on the lid.  Because I tend slightly toward the night-owlish, I started to work on it at 10 pm.  By midnight, I was really excited about how good it was looking.  By 12:30, I couldn't contain myself anymore and I woke up Tim to show him.  Have I said lately just how wonderful (and wonderfully patient) Tim is?

Lettia's wall and my first lace painting

That box now resides on Lettia's desk (I just realized that she got my first and second painting projects.  How’d that happen?).  By now, I've painted many boxes, serving trays, and a platter.  I love the painting and making money from it is a great side benefit.  What's odd to me is that I have to drag myself to do it even though I really enjoy it once I do.  I don't understand that at all.

We are all gifted.  Each gift is as individual as the person who has it.  Each gift is from God.  If God gave me this gift, then surely there is a point to it.  Usually when you recognize your gift, it is easier to discern the point of it.  There is always a method to the madness.  Is that too sacrilegious to compare God's plans to madness?  Maybe so.

Lately, there seems to be so much chaos around me.  I think more and more that the counseling center that I am a part of is under spiritual attack.  Several of us counselors are struggling with things right now, including my boss (and friend!) and her husband being hit and severely injured by a hit and run driver while sitting still at a traffic light just six days before their daughter's wedding.  It took 2 1/2 years to figure out a diagnosis that should cover all Kelsey health struggles and after this long of a journey it is a little hard to totally believe.  Aron has had strep throat twice in a month. 

In processing this as I write, I realize the things I get from lace painting: satisfaction, distraction, escape, and a sense of peace while doing it.  Perhaps I have been thinking about the painting wrong.  It has felt like just one more thing on my plate to take care.  That plate is already so full. But, in reality, the painting supplies a better escape than vegging in front of the TV.  God has given me the gift but I have to step away from what I feel and rest in the faith that He knows what is good for me.

“And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?  So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.  Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.  For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.  For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said.”

~ ~ Hebrews 3:18-4:3