“You are an artist by design” Emily Freeman

On Saturday night at Allume we had our last dinner/speaker/worship time.  Emily Freeman was speaking about the artist in each of us.  She has written a new book called ” A Million Little Ways“.

She encouraged us to see the art in us – the beauty of the art that God created around us. It is everywhere. Can we see it?

She said “Art is moving toward what makes you come alive.”

For some of us that is writing, maybe singing or painting.

What makes you come alive?

Find that thing and pursue it!!

After dinner we went into a time of worship. And can I tell you it was the most moving experience I have ever been a part of.

The music was amazing and I could feel God’s presence in the room. We were celebrating Him!!

But then they also had these women come in that were painters. Each artist had been praying over what they might paint and then the canvases were given away in a random drawing. Mel actually won one and it is an amazing story – seriously I can’t wait until she posts it because it still gives me chills!!

As part of the decorations they had these little blank canvases and some water color paints and colored pencils.  They encouraged us to create art as we felt led.

And so in between standing up and singing and watching the artists create their pieces, I sat down and painted one of my own.

Let me tell you it was NOT easy painting with the tiny brushes we were given and the watercolors…but the music was inspiring and the picture at the top of my post is what I ended up with!

I couldn’t believe it!

It was such a cool experience to feel inspired and creative in that way! I am not sure that I can recreate that environment – but I want to try this painting thing again. I really enjoyed it!!

Yesterday my Elijah asked if I could just stay home with him and his brothers after school and not go back to work.  I asked why and he said he wanted to spend time alone with me. 🙁

When I asked him what he would want to do if we could spend some time together and he said “Paint”!

So this afternoon I stopped out at Walmart and picked up some small canvases, some brushes and a few paints and tomorrow we are going to do art together.

And I will probably crank up the music just a little while we are at it. 😉

What is something that makes you come alive? I encourage you to spend a little time this weekend discovering what that might be!