MIXED MEDIA - COLLAGE - CRAFTS WITH MY KIDS - THE ARTISTIC MOTHER ART GROUP

Sunday, August 29, 2010

You are Special


I would like to remind you all just how special you are to God. Your worth is not based on your accomplishments or mistakes you may have made. God loves you just the way you are. He wants a relationship with you, just because He made you and you are His. Think about how you feel about your own children. You love them no matter what. Your love for them is not based on their performance, and you are always ready to forgive them. I think we judge ourselves too harshly, and we can't forgive ourselves. I think that hurts God because He wants so much for you to know how much you mean to Him. So I encourage you to gather up all of your hurts and past regrets and put them in a bag and give them over to God and never take the bag back again. It is a burden you were not meant to carry. Let God carry that burden for you. That is one of the reasons Jesus went through what He did on that cross, to release you from all burden and sin, to take that upon Himself. And He would have done it if you were the only one on this earth. Now that's powerful. Be free and soar. Be who you were meant to be.

“What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them.  And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.  Luke 12:6-7

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Tribute to an Amazing Woman





I would like to honor my mother, Jonel, today. She is an amazing woman. She reared her three children as a single mother and did an amazing job. Times were tough. We didn't have much financially, but she never gave up. Somehow she saw us through. 
We never worried about where our next meal would come from or whether there would always be a roof over our heads, even though she did; she didn't let us know how much of a struggle it was to provide. We were oblivious. Kind of nice not to have that stress as a child. Life was hard enough as it was without adding more to it. I was made fun of in school for not having nice clothes. I was not in the popular crowd. I think it's all made me a more compassionate and loving person instead of one who thinks she is better than others.

She taught us to be strong and to have a good work ethic. She supported us in whatever we chose to do in life. Even though we were poor, that didn't mean that we were less than others. We were to care about the way we carried ourselves. She expected us to have good manners, speak properly with good grammar, to stand tall with good posture, to chose quality friends. 

Because she couldn't give us everything she would have liked, it made us stronger because we had to work for whatever it was that we wanted or needed. I bought my own car, paid for my own car repairs and gas, bought my own clothes, movie tickets, etc. 

My mother is also a breast cancer survivor. She didn't think she would live long enough to rear her children. She handled the situation so well. We were never afraid or thought our mother would die because she didn't share the scary details or possibilities with us. She kept them to herself. We didn't even know she was in pain or having reactions. We didn't know when she went to appointments. We didn't know she had lost her hair. She didn't talk about it. She wore a wig and went to the effort to still look gorgeous. She didn't go around feeling sorry for herself. She continued to go to work day after day in spite of the horrible reactions from the chemo. She never complained, although her pain was great. So we were able to enjoy our childhoods without a worry in the world. I am so thankful for that. Now she is a wonderful grandmother. She is so artistically creative and has an engineering mind. She can figure out pretty much how to rig or make anything. She used those skills in a decorating business where she and her husband, whom she married when I was almost grown, would decorate the malls for the holidays. And now she uses them to help the grandchildren with their school projects. 

Thanks mom for hanging in there and not giving up, for the example you've been, for all you have done and are doing. I dedicate this video to you.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Newest Members of The Artistic Mother's Art Group - Added in July

I would like to introduce you to our newest members of The Artistic Mother's Art Group. All these joined in the month of July. I hope you will add them to your list on your blog if you are keeping one and pay them a visit and help them to feel welcome.

I have all participants listed in a blog list just for the group near the top of my sidebar. Those who have posted most recently move to the top of the list. It shows five at a time; so click "show all" to see the whole list. You can come to my blog daily to see who has posted most recently so that you can visit around for inspiration as well as just encouraging one another. Thank you so much for everyone's participation. You are a great group!



97.  Deanna of A Crafty Mom's Life
98.  Cindi aka Ericksoc of So, That's Why!
99.  Jade Erin Scarlett of Jade Erin Scarlett OSCI
100 Kristen of Acorn Hill Studios

***If you are new here, I am hosting an online art group where we are working through the 12 -project workshop in Shona Cole's book, The Artistic Mother, together and blogging about our progress and visiting and encouraging one another. The purpose of this group is to learn how to balance our time between family, life's responsibilities and creative time for ourselves; to learn how to fit a little creativity into each day; to nurture our own souls so that we can be better moms and wives and to prevent burnout and depression. Please click here to read all of the details and leave a comment there if you would like to join us. In my sidebar, you will see a blog roll for the participants of this group if you would like to visit around. There is also a Flickr Group for The Artistic Mother if you would like to see the projects we have been doing in this group. The book can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Borders and other bookstores as well as Amazon. You may also visit the author at her blog, An Artful Life.
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