Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. I am doing a New Thing! See how it springs up? Can you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43: 18-19
One of my first entries on this blog was entitled New Things. The past three years have been jam-packed with new things. I left a career of 13 years as a learning specialist. I had a child after 15 years of marriage. I started painting. I don't take any of it for granted, nor do I take credit for any success I've had as a mother or an artist. This is not the vision I had for my life...it is far greater than anything I envisioned, trust me.
Left to my own devices, I am plagued by a chronic lack of self-confidence, fear of failure/change/unknown, social awkwardness, anxiety, insomnia, loneliness and doubt. I hide it well. I'm not saying that I'm a hot mess all the time, but I could be easily. And I have been in the past. This verse spoke to me three years ago, telling me that if I just let go of all the stress of my career, if I stepped beyond the known, if I cast aside the anxiety that ruled my daily decisions, if I "forgot the former things," God had something better, much better, in store. I never wanted to be a mother. I had no training as an artist. Yet, here I am today, a mother overwhelmed by love for her baby girl and an artist overwhelmed by passion and potential. I could not have imagined any of it, but God is creator and author and comfortor and healer. Thank goodness!
So for my first painting of the year, I did this little heart, entitled I heart 2011.
It is my reminder of the other part of this verse, "Do not dwell on the past." I am a huge mega-dweller on past things. I want to embrace 2011 and all the new New Things God has in store for me!
Happy New Year!
little e
i adore you emily!!! we are so similar in so many ways...WOW. here's to much time together in 2011 - and i can't wait to see what this year hold for you!!
ReplyDeletethanks for this little peek into your soul...Just this morning I heard God's Spirit
ReplyDeletesay to me, "stop looking back!" ...and there it is again. It's always encouraging to hear that other artists struggle...(don't know why that should be encouraging...) but I appreciate your honesty!