Colors Show

Color gets the credit but value does the work?  This was an art blog this morning that I was reading.  It was saying that if you look closely at any painting that draws you in that likely you will find that the color played a big roll but it was the value of how much color was used that really did the trick.  The value is how light or dark a color is.  

If you work in painting….black will give you shades of a color where white adds tints or highlights to the color, thus shadows with dark and light with the whites.  The blogger was saying that the value of each color used is what makes the painting stand out. 

Some of you may look at some paintings and see where this works really well.  Next time you look at a painting….look at the background.  The darker the color in the background will cause the colors to pop out all through the painting.  Thus sometimes the masters would use an all-black background.  Other times the lighter background sets it off.  So it’s all about color but the value of colors makes it stand out.

Made me think about people.  I know several people who stand out both ways.  Some are always bubbling and full of life and no matter what goes on in their life….they stand out for being happy and make it through things.  We are drawn to them and enjoy being around them.  Then there are those who are always down, deep in moods, negative and we sometimes want to avoid being around them or we feel we will get drawn into the dark colors of their life.   Many of us don’t realize the true colors of ourselves.  We don’t stop to really see if we are a shining light or sending out darkness to those around us.  But believe me, we see it in others.   Just as that color draws us to a painting, the color we give off shows what we value.

 ^“But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.”  (Ephesians 5:13 NIV)

Magnifying

I was working on a more detailed painting and I had to use a special desk/light magnifying glass to really get a good look at the design I was doing. It helped me to really see where I needed to add some lines and make sure they looked ok. But it got me thinking about how someone was telling me that they knew someone who always liked to magnify the details in someone else's life. This person told me she was on the receiving end.....that the person was making sure to bring tiny details to light and use them to belittle her, instead of seeing the good that they had been doing and trying to do things right.

So many of us are guilty of this. Call it what you want.....blaming, accusing someone, gossiping about them, nit-picking them to shreds, condemning them and just judging before we know someone. We know what it is and we know it's usually to make our self-look much better. We are in a habit of pointing a finger and still having 3 pointing back at our self but we choose the blinders then.

Instead of tearing someone down or trying to find tiny issues with a magnifying glass....we should be repairing and building others up. We all need to be seeing the good in them....seeing them as a person, a friend, a loved one. After all....what if we turned the magnifying glass on our own life.....many of us wouldn't like what we see.

"Some of you accuse others of doing wrong. But there is no excuse for what you do. When you judge others, you condemn yourselves, because you are guilty of doing the very same things." (Romans 2:1 CEV)

True Love

TRUE LOVE. So many these days think they know the meaning of true love. But do we really? We might say we do but I saw an example of TRUE LOVE the other evening at a restaurant while on a trip. We had gone in to try the food out and were sitting waiting for the waitress to come to our table. I saw an older man wheel his wife in and another waitress moved chairs out of the way to accommodate her chair.

You could tell she was to the stages of later Alzheimer’s. I could tell she had been a beauty in her younger years. Here she sat with an indifferent stare while he lovingly tended to get his wife just right. He made sure she was next to him and every so often he held her hand and brushed her hair back a bit while waiting on the waitress to come take their order all the while smiling and talking to her.

The woman just stared off in space and he talked to her pointing out different things to see around the place and once in a while she would make contact with him and he would just smile as if he had just stolen a few precious moments with her. The food came and he began to feed her as she couldn’t do it herself. She would chew and some food would fall out of her mouth but he would be right there to get it taken care of and wipe her mouth off and just kept talking to her, asking her how she liked everything. Again, he would put his hand on her shoulder or pat her hand as he would take bites of his own food.

Now to most in the place, they may have just seen an older man feeding an old woman and why would he bring her in a place and have folks look at them. What I saw was love. He didn’t look around at others to see if they approved or were making fun or staring…he was loving her. I thought of all the couples I saw in the restaurant and wondered how many would do that for their mate. How many would really take on the vow of loving for better and worse, sickness and health? Now days it’s hard to find that.

I noticed my husband, look over and then he looked back at me and gave my hand a squeeze, he saw what I saw too. Love like that is for real. I have told my children many times to think hard about a person they may date and started to get serious about. Would they see that person down the road loving them no matter what happened to them and vow to stand by them and take care of them?

Good question for many but I know I saw true love that evening.

Doing The Math

You do the math!!! I’m sure all of us have heard that when things don’t seem to add up. Bills to pay monthly and then you throw in an added unexpected cost like a trip to the ER or maybe the car broke down or needs new tires. Many of us live pay check to pay check. We sit down to look over the bills and we re-add and redo as much as we can and then we sit and scratch our heads and wonder how we can make the math come out right.

Maybe it’s not bills but something has come along that’s happened in your life and things are just not adding up right. Worries, concerns, loss of loved ones or other issues crowd in and we can’t get things to come out right. We just want to throw up our hands at times and wonder how we can make it through.

God does a different kind of math. I could tell you many ways He has taken care of things in my life when I didn’t think there was a way at all. I get worried, I have bills to pay, I have concerns and sometimes can’t get things to add up, however I trust God and let Him help me to take care of things. Now don’t get me wrong and think He’s a big magic lamp to rub when I need things. I know I might still have to work to get an extra cake order, but out of the blue one comes in that I didn’t expect to get. He comes through for us in so many ways and times when we didn’t think there was any way it could happen.

I trust Him. I trust Him with my bills and that means I don’t over spend when I know I don’t have the extra money. I trust Him when I am worried, afraid, concerned. I know He will make a way when there seems to be no other way. Because I have a RELATIONSHIP with Him. He takes care of things and sometimes in ways I wasn’t expecting, but He took care of it.
Believe me, in my mind when things don’t seem to add up….I let God do His “Divine Math” and takes care of it or gives me the peace in knowing it’s getting taken care of. I thank Him daily for always being there with me and I know His math always adds up.

“God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him.” (1 Peter 5:7 CEV)

Ice Berg Analogy

You ever find yourself in a room full of people and you’re expected to share a little bit about yourself in like 20 words or so? You may be the type that doesn’t like sharing in front of others in the first place and now you have to tell them all who you are in less than a minute. We might say who we are married to, our age (maybe not), what we do for a living or did do for a living, hobbies, achievements, or our interests? For some of us, we feel we don’t measure up when others are sharing things that sound so cool or neat. We may begin to feel even more awkward that we are just plain old plain old. We live in a performance-driven world….people are interested in status, titles or positions. And for many…we feel we don’t fit in.

What’s really under your surface is more important. Not what others think….but what God thinks of you. That’s more important than status. It’s like an ice-berg. What is seen above the water is only 10% and is what most people see of us….but what is beneath the water (around 90%) is what we really are in God’s eyes.

God doesn’t care about titles, how many jobs you’ve had, talents, trophies you’ve earned or degrees. God looks at our substance (heart) not our status. God loves a humble, contrite heart over any of those other things. He’s more interested in “what we are becoming” over what we have accomplished.

It’s easy to look at others and make a quick judgment about them by their present or past but we are only seeing 10% of that person and may not know all the tears and aches someone has in the 90% that is not showing. What we show to others is just the tip of the ice-berg and we keep the other part hidden at times. We all have the deep lines, cracks and scars that hit our very soul. Those are emotions that we carry, the hurts, insecurities and pains that others don’t see, but God does. He’s ready to help you live beyond just a status issue. He helps heal the 90% of things we don’t always share with others…..because He loves the one and only you, 100%!

“There is nothing that can be hid from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before his eyes. And it is to him that we must all give an account of ourselves.” (Hebrews 4:13 GNT)

FOLLOW DIRECTIONS

I have heard many complain they have used a GPS before and still didn’t follow the directions it gave.  Now I’ve been there and done that before and most of the times….the GPS is right.  I said most of the time.  I know one time my husband and I used one in Southern Arkansas, believe me, it ended up taking us all the way to just a dirt one lane road with tall grass on both sides and my husband finally said….THIS ISN’T RIGHT.  I was beginning to hear the banjo music from the “Deliverance” movie in my head.  He got the right coordinates in and we got to the right highway.  But most of us will admit, we may think we know better than a GPS device or instruction manuals or expert advice and then we hate to admit we were wrong.

Same with God’s Word.  If we are honest….most of us don’t like rules and regulations, but they are for our own good.  It saves us from doing wrong and making a mess out of our life.  God doesn’t intend to ruin your fun but some things we think are fun end up messing our lives up big time.  There are plenty of times I don’t always pay attention to His Words either….or follow what it says….but His Word is there to help me have a full and meaningful life.  So sometimes I need to stop and check my directions and I might need to just recalculate my route and make sure I am doing what God wants me to.

“I pondered the direction of my life, and I turned to follow your laws. I will hurry, without delay,
 to obey your commands.”  (Psalm 119:59-60 NLT)

Paint Brush Masterpiece

As a sat looking at all my paint brushes the other day, I realized I had so many different types. Some are used for thin lines, some for wide filling strokes, some special ones for leaves and tall grass, some for techniques to get certain designs. However, none of them can do what they are supposed to do unless I pick one of them up and begin to paint. A paint brush can’t paint a painting as long as the brush isn’t used. Until the artist’s hand picks up the brush to use it, it’s just an inanimate object. It needs the artist hand to do the job.

We are all a paint brush in God’s hands. He is the Master Artist. He has a plan to paint your life into a beautiful painting. His plan is a masterpiece. He sees the potential, the beauty in every one of us. He doesn’t always see the imperfections but the beauty of what we can and are to be. If we let the Master Artist work in our lives, just like that paintbrush, it does the job it was intended to do. You are a Masterpiece to God. You are worthy to hang in His Art Gallery.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT)