Illustration

Daily Drawing #290, A Cool Breeze is Blowing In

| Whitt’s End Art

Well it is that time of year again…fall, Autumn. Whatever you call it, the winds of change are blowing through. There is a new chill in the air. When I was a kid I got excited about this time of year because it meant Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas were not far off. Now as I sit here with another decade almost in the rear view mirror the chill in the air means more blankets on the bed, the air conditioners get removed from the windows and the coats and sweatshirts come out. Oh well, at least I have the coming holidays.

Daily Drawing #289, Hopping Over the Wall

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I have an obvious metaphor to go with today’s drawing. In life we are going to up against many walls. There are times when we must take our time to walk until we reach the end of the wall. I have lived through a couple of those, like cancer and debt reduction. There are other times when we must climb up over the wall and see what exists on the other side, like maybe a new life. One of these is the moment you decide to follow Jesus. It only takes a moment to bend the knee and climb over the wall. Think about it.

Daily Drawing #288, Giving the Gift of Merriment

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Giving the gift of merriment is something each and every one of us can do each day. A good example is just passing a smile to everyone you meet or giving a heart felt hello. I know what you’re thinking, “but I don’t feel like smiling everyday.” Truth is me neither. At one point in my life I suffered from depression but I set my mind on not passing on my down feelings to others. Instead I decided to pass on a smile and a hello each day.. I still do it to this day. I’m not saying it will work for everyone but at least give it a try. I must also add if you’re suffering through any kind of depression or any other related illness please seek out a Biblical counselor.

Daily Drawing #285, What’s Hanging Over Your Head?

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I don’t know about but there always seems to be something dangling just over my head. When I was a young child it was trying to find my niche in my peer group. Well I guess that never seems to go away. As I grew my area of concern was getting good grades in school and what college I wanted to attend. When I finished high school I ended up working in stead of college. The list of things dangling grew as I went to college later in life and tried to support a family. Well you get the idea. There are a lot of things dangling over out heads  The key as Jesus said is in Matthew 6:30-34:

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.““Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Life is not guaranteed to be care free. The key to not be overtaken by the things danging over our heads is by putting our faith and trust in Jesus.

Daily Drawing #283, Hanging Out With Your Friends

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One thing I really miss from my youth is the hours spent just hanging out with my friends. Back then we didn’t have video games or electronic devices or um-teem number of television stations. All we had was our own sense of adventure and time. Needless to spent hours of time out doors playing made up games and even more time just hanging out at one of many places. One of our favorite places to go was the mall. There we would compete with each other at the local arcade, comment on people walking by or spend time seeing the latest movie.

I learned a lot about my friends in the hours we spent together.  I know hanging out sounds dull but we were happier and closer then. Sadly once adult life caught up with us we stopped hanging out together and almost all of us went our separate ways. I look back on that time and wish I could recapture those moments now, but times have changed and become more hectic.

Those by gone days remind me of all the time Jesus spent hanging out with his disciples. As they traveled together they learned a lot about their savior and friend and while Jesus, being God come to the Earth, already knew all about the disciples found out what it felt like to hang out with your friends. We need to get back to those days with fellow believers, just hanging out with other believers in order to get to know each other better and grow as Christians.

Daily Drawing #282, The People On My Street

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I’ve written before about how Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors. The closest neighbors we have live right next door or right across the street. Growing up those neighbors were my best friends, the first girl I hung with and so much more. My neighbors were the ones I went to when I wanted to talk over things or when a good time was brewing, like a party. Sadly today in many neighborhoods our neighbors are just the people next door we may talk to from time to time. We need to reestablish the connections to our neighbors in order to make each community better.

Daily Drawing #281, Forget Something?

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As I grow older I have discovered…wait what was I going to say. Oh yeah! Now I remember. As I grow older my rate of forgetting things has increased. It is the little things I forget like where I last laid down my phone or what my wife told me five minutes ago. No wait, I have been doing that for years. Well anyway we are all forgetful at times. Like when we forget about God and try to do things our way until we find we need to ask God for help in getting us out of the jam we find ourselves. So from now on don’t forget to seek out God’s advice first.

Daily Drawing #280, Don’t Skate Through Life

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I spent a lot of my youthful and young adult years skating through life. For those of you who don’t know what that means, skating through life is a euphemism for doing the easy stuff which takes little effort while seeking to avoid the harder road with greater rewards. I don’t know if it came from my upbringing hanging around with members of the sixties generation or not. Whatever the reason I am here to tell you life is hard and takes work. If you want to succeed get to the task of working do not try to skate by because before you know it the years are gone and you’re not where you like to be in life.

Daily Drawing #279, There Are No Two Alike

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I think it is very interesting that the world we live in today though different has many similarities to the one I grew up in. Back in the good ole days people, me included, tried to look and act like those we considered to be cool, like rock stars and the cool people at school. I have since come to realize that we are all individuals and we should revel in our individuality. Also, instead of criticizing those we don’t know or think don’t meet our standards, we should revel in getting to know them and learn from them.