Born to Create

Our Creator continues to inspire me daily. All of His creation is masterful! I'm so proud of Him. I'm like a child when I say, "THAT’S MY DAD!”

Honestly, I cringe when I hear people say: "I'm not creative. I can't cook. I'm not an artist. I’m not a crafty person. I can't sing. I can't sew. I'm not technological. I could never blog like you do. I can’t play an instrument." I continue to be amazed at the talents and abilities of those who activated their creative abilities! Those who realized that with training, studying, practicing and pursuing, are the ones who are doing what we wished we could do. It started with a desire and a dream and they put those desires and dreams to task when they turned their “I can’t” to “I can”!

Case in point….Marco! I met this brilliant and talented master chef last week while in Mexico. His culinary abilities were outstanding and his attention to detail inspired me. Oh, I know we are all busy and it takes time to master a skill as Marco has done, but he took the time to learn and it has served him well around the world.

My 96-year old friend in Tulsa recently took up watercolor painting. She was delighted to show me her works of art displayed all around her room. She followed in her Creator’s handprints and created.

Erwin McManus, author and speaker, says: "God designed you to design; He created you to create; He imagined you to imagine; God dreamed you to dream; When you were born, you were not an ordinary child. Someone made you feel you were ordinary. You are the essence of your Creator. You are the reflection of God, Himself. You are extraordinary. Now it's time to BE the genius He created you to be -- you are both a work of art and an artist at work."

The CREATOR of the universe made us in His image so we have the goods to do WHATEVER we set our heart and mind to do. I, for one, didn’t realize I could write and blog eight years ago, but I let the creative juices that were already in me, placed there by MY Creator flow and I began to write. Here I am, eight years and 1,898 blogs later and I am creating!

Maybe someone convinced you that you are not creative. Someone spoke into your life to make you LESS. And it's time someone spoke into your life to make you MORE. I’m doing that today. I’m encouraging you to create. We are WORKS of ART.....and we are ARTISTS at WORK. Our homes should be like Picasso's attic -- where we are dreaming and imagining and creating. I'm speaking into your life RIGHT NOW and telling you...."Silence the voices. Get out that paint brush.....and start painting! Get out your pen or computer and start writing! Get out your cookbook and start cooking! Take a class. Buy a “How-to” book. BE a Creator!”

You are a Work of Art AND an Artist at Work

I sincerely believe God has a reason for everything -- including the things that He uses as "attention-getters". At the very least, He wants us to be aware that He is with us and He has another object lesson for us to learn from. This photo is of a man that visited our estate sale and right away I noticed his walking stick/cane that he had laid on our cash-out table. It was a work of art – art that was designed, handcrafted and carved by him. He was so pleased to take the credit for his work of art made out of a diamond willow.

I started thinking about all the uses of a walking stick. Sure it facilitates walking, but this man’s walking stick could be used as a defensive AND offensive weapon. It also conceals a knife in the handle. That walking stick acts as a support when he’s going uphill and a brake when he’s going downhill; as a balance when crossing rough terrain, test puddles for depth, and is personalized with his trademark. I was amazed at this work of art.

I cringe when I hear people say: "I'm not creative. I can't cook. I'm not an artist. I can't sing. I can't sew. I don’t do technology!” The fact is those folks will never have those attributes as long as they are proclaiming what they are NOT!

Here’s the truth of the matter. The CREATOR of the universe made YOU and me in His image.....so we have the goods to do WHATEVER we set our hearts and minds to do. Someone may have convinced you that you are not creative. Someone spoke into your life to make you feel LESS capable than you are. And it's time someone spoke into your life to make you MORE. We are WORKS of ART.....and we are ARTISTS at WORK. Our homes should be like Picasso's attic -- where we are dreaming, imagining and creating. I'm speaking into your life RIGHT NOW and telling you...."Silence the voices. Get out that paint brush.....and start painting!"

"God designed you....to design;
He created you....to create;
He imagined you....to imagine;
God dreamed you....to dream;
When you were born, you were not an ordinary child. Someone made you feel you were ordinary. You are the essence of your Creator. You are the reflection of God, Himself. You are extraordinary. Now it's time to BE the genius He created you to be -- you are both a work of art and an artist at work." -- Erwin Raphel McManus

Yes, our God, the Almighty Creator of EVERYTHING is quite capable of making SOMETHING out of nothing and SOMETHING out of us!