Flower are given as sign of our love to someone. Flowers are sent to bring comfort in times of loss. Flower bring a sprinkle of color to any garden. I guess that is why I love to create drawings featuring flowers because I know they are always a cheerful and colorful creation. I hope you enjoy today’s offering. As always remember God gave us a colorful world. It is our job’s as artist to create our interpretation of what we see in that world.
My favorite drawing tool is a pencil. Mostly I use a standard #2 like the ones we used to use in school before they created those mechanical ones. I carry a pad and pencil with me whenever I can. If not I figure there is always going to be some paper and a pencil wherever I go. Having a piece of paper and a pencil in hand gives me an opportunity to create drawings like the one above. the drawing is a doodle come to life. I love to draw and hope to get better and better. Drawing is one of those crafts you get better at the more you create art. Our Christian life is like that. The more we study the Bible the more we will grow in our faith.
In an earlier post I wrote about all the cats and dogs I had in my lifetime. One thing I forgot to me was all the work I put into raising my four legged friends. I devoted a good many hours taking care of each pet. Some more than others. Pets are not something you can bring home and let them be, they must be cared for and loved. Even when you go away you must provide provisional care for them. So if you do not feel you put the time and care into taking care of a pet please do not adopt them. What does this all mean for you as a Christian, well if you need to put all the time and effort in your four legged relationships think about what it takes to maintain one with your human friends.
One of the greatest treasures of this earthly life are our friends. As I have recorded in earlier writing I had some good friends in my life which came from my neighborhood, my school years, the years spent as a volunteer fire company, church and of course work. the sad news is almost all of those good friends not counting family and my wife are no longer part of my current life. Many of my past friendships I wish would have continued but sadly they didn’t. Only their memories are still there. So today I give to you this advice, hold onto your friendships as long as you can.
Growing up Autumn was one of my favorite seasons. No not because of school but because I knew Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas were not far behind. Now, I am in the late Autumn of my life time. I am not so much looking forward to what comes in this season of my life. While there are bright sides to the Autumn season of life like retirement and having more time to do things you always wanted to do there are also drawbacks. As we age our bodies loose some mobility and aches and pains seem to pop up out of nowhere. Don’t get me wrong. I am not whining. I have just realized that as I age each new day is a gift from God to be used for what ever He needs me to accomplish. I now look at the Autumn of my life as new days of opportunity and if I do get to retire someday I will still be working for Him anyway I can.
As a child one of my favorite things to do was run through the rain drops. Catching a stray raindrop or two on my tongue. Back then there seemed to be something refreshing and magical about the rain. I no longer run around in the rain well on purpose. Sometimes I get caught in a rainstorm and have no choice but to get wet. I also know now their is nothing really magical about rain because I know it is a gift from God to help His creation, the plants and man refreshed and hydrated. I hope you enjoy today’s drawing.
We live life in a straight line but we seem destined to repeat certain patterns in life as our parents. Not the same life per say but we seem to pick up certain traits and mannerisms as our parents. Thus goes the patterns of life, I used to think people were wrong about what I just wrote but the older I get the more I feel like and act like my parents or I find myself saying, “Man my mom/dad used to do that or say that.” So be careful what patterns on to your children because at a certain they will start mimicking what you do and so on down the line.
An artist’s life is all about unfinished work, some of it is intentional some of it is because creative ideas at times flow fast and furious. I have found there are times I must put aside new projects in order to take care of unfinished work. That is what I plan to do with some of my creations from this blog. In the New Year I plan to revisit a few of my drawing and finish them or redo them in a different medium. I have also our daily lives are the same as our art lives, we begin a lot of projects with good intentions of because we thought we could get them done.
Then when something else comes along we put the project aside for something new. We should however endeavor to finish all that we start in order to get in the habit of finishing what we’ve started. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 8:11 says, “So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.” Life is not only about finishing the journey we’ve started but also finishing it well.
Over the course of my Christian life I have attended or visited many churches. Some of the churches have been mega churches with a couple thousand member, still others have had moderate membership upwards of a few hundred and lastly are the smaller churches with around 50 members. The most recent church I attended was a small church. I found I like the small church the best but sadly churches are at a disadvantage because they are not always viable financially.
Our church was in this position so we switched to an affiliation with another church. This at first glance is a good thing but now it appears our church is locked into getting the number of the attendees up. Now as we expand those of us who once called the church home have left and are being replaced by new members. This leaves some us long timers feeling lost in the membership shuffle. So in my thinking it is not always better when my church is bigger than your church especially when you loose the focus of why we are ALL entering the building in the first place…to honor God and fellowship with other believers.
