What are you waiting for?
When my almost 20 year old daughter was six years old, she and flew to Texas for a wedding. While there we stayed at my aunt's house. The house was full of people and workers and stuff. One of the workers was an artist. A portrait of my aunt's grandson hung on the wall. At the time, she was painting pictures on cabinets. While I watched her, I said wistfully, "I've always wanted to paint."
She answered, "What's stopping you?"
I had no response.
My husband bought me my first paints two months later.
Since then I've sold probably fifty paintings or more which are hanging in places across the country. I'm not a great painter. I'll never be a master like de Vinci or Rembrandt, but I enjoy it and my paintings I think bring people joy (that being said I really haven't painted since my daughter died in 2013. Hmmm. Maybe sometime this year I'll start again).
If you've been following my blog for a long time (or any other writing of mine), you've probably already heard that story about me. If so, sorry, but then again, maybe God's nudging you to try something.
I started something new today. I saw a picture of someone doing this over a year ago and wanted to try. Here's my new project:
I'm not a great gardener but every year I attempt it. The spiritual lessons God teaches me through gardening are worth all the time I spend on this kind of stuff -- even if nothing grows. But we'll get something!
I have another project brewing in my mind that only Hawken knows about (and no, Hawk isn't telling. He can't talk. And if by some miracle he starts talking and blabs I'll be the first to shout in joy about it).
Why?
Because it's outlandish and ridiculous and impossible (Honey, if you're reading this -- don't worry. It's not going to cost us anything -- well, maybe a couple of books. That's it). But I'm going to try anyway. If anything comes of it, I'll let you know. Don't wait for it though. This will be months in the making.
Tomorrow my husband is planning on walking with me west of the trees to salvage wood for the beehive he's going to build for me. Yes, another project. I'm going to see if I can catch a swarm (or I'll order the bees and queen online). We aren't building the common beehive. Here's what we're going to have:
Okay, I've got an embarrassingly vain confession. About a year ago my doctor told me I needed to get some aerobic exercise a few times a week. I'm not going to say she thought I needed to lose weight or anything. She just said I needed to get my heart pumping.
I know that's important, especially as we age (our bodies are like cars -- the older we get the more it takes to maintain them). So I tried. I decided to start jogging/walking fast (cause she told me leisurely walks don't count). I wrote a post about that summer with a picture of my swollen feet. See, I've got some extra bone or something by the base of my big toe. This gives me pain and my feet swell with too much hard exercise.
Well, that was that.
Sure, I could find something else to do, and I tried, but nothing stuck (I didn't try too hard).
All winter I've seen the scale creep up when I stepped on it. It bothered me a bit but not much. I still fit into my clothes and I'm not even chunky. In the back of my mind I was remembering what my doctor said but I answered that voice, "I tried. I can't help it if my feet can't take it."
God had to get through to me somehow. I put on a pair of pants I wore a lot last summer (my cut-off capris. They look pathetic but hey, they're comfortable). They were tight!! Wah, wah, wah. Welcome to real womanhood, Jane! You might have to do regular exercise to keep your weight in check now (I'm sorry -- I've never had to even watch what I did. My weight stayed the same. Okay, yeah, I've been spoiled. Thank you. I am really glad I crossed into real womanhood). I truly believe it is God's way to get me to do that exercise that my heart needs!
But there's my foot problem. I know I need surgery, but even with insurance it's expensive. So, I started asking God to just heal it outright. I asked the women's Bible study members to pray my feet would heal. A couple of weeks went by. They didn't feel healed, but those stupid pants were laughing at me.
I put on a pair of running shoes my mother sent me 18 months ago (really nice ones) and ran (okay, jogged) and walked for about 20 minutes. And guess what -- my feet didn't swell! Sure, they hurt a bit, but I've found that if I put them up when I'm done I can do this. AND, I might be able to get the surgery done through the VA since I'm a veteran. This process has begun.
God didn't answer my healing prayer the way I expected Him to, but He has surely answered it! And it reminds me that God often sends the answers to our prayers in unexpected ways. If we aren't looking for the answer we might just miss it. We might miss His wonderful creative ways He does things!
Oh my! This has been a bunch of tangents. That's how my mind works. My husband's pretty much used to it. I better give you some scripture. Have a great weekend!
"And turning to the disciples, Jesus said privately, 'Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them.'" Luke 10:23-24