Encouragement Post - Coronavirus Distancing Day 15 (Monday)

Encouragement Post – Day #15 (Monday) Kindness is important. It is one of the 9 manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, KINDNESS, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control). It is something that should really come easily, yet for many it doesn’t. It doesn’t cost you anything. I am thankful for the kindness of God toward me. I didn’t deserve it, but He showed it to me anyway.

Romans 2:4 asks, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

And then Titus 3:3-5 gives us even more evidence of God’s kindness, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”

Because of His kindness to me, I now have the power – through the Holy Spirit working in my life – to be kind to others. So, I am thinking about and praying about ways to be kind and people to whom I can show the kindness of God.

Looking toward the new year...

It was this time last year when I decided that rather than making resolutions, I wanted to have a theme for 2008. That theme came from the desire for 2008 to be a year filled with the "Fruit of Thankfulness." As I look toward 2009, I want to again allow the Lord to lead me. I want to seek to follow Him in every area of my life. I am thinking now of Proverbs 3:5-6 which says I should trust in Him with all my heart, that I should not trust in or lean on my own wisdom or understanding, that I should think of or acknowledge Him in all my ways... and that if I do these things, He promises to direct my path or make my path straight. A straight path is so much easier to navigate and so much less hazardous than one with twists, turns, and nuances that are unexpected. I don't know about you, but I like the thought of walking on the straight path with level ground around my feet at all times. He can even make the hills and valleys seem level if I am walking closely with Him.

This past year has been one of rediscovering my love for artwork and just the creative process in general. I am so thankful for what the Lord has done in my life over this past year. And while rediscovering my artwork was exciting, it means nothing apart from Him. So I am looking forward to this year with great anticipation that whatever it might hold, the joy is not in what happens but in the One with whom I am walking through it. I pray the same for you... may you discover that the joy is not in the circumstances or in the "doing"... but the real joy comes from knowing the One who has created you, gifted you, and brought you to the place in which you find yourself.

May God bless you in 2009 as never before,

From Charm & Grace Cottage

The Season and the Theme

As this new year began, instead of making a New Year's resolution I wanted to come up with a theme for the year that would be honoring to the Lord. As I meditated on this, I believe the Lord showed me that He wanted this year to be one that produced fruit inspired from deep within ... from a thankful heart... and thus my theme became Fruit of Thankfulness. You can read more about that here, if you'd like. And now, as we reach the thankful season, I have been reflecting on how well I have "kept" the theme in my life.

My artwork has been a source of many ups and downs, but in all of it I have really and truly been thankful to be blessed to get to do what I love to do. God has shown Himself to me so often in this process, and for that I am TRULY thankful. I know that there are many days when I am not as productive as I could or should be, and on those days I am truly thankful that He loves me in spite of me.

I have also seen fruit in my family this year... not of my doing, mind you, but fruit straight from the hand of the Lord... fruit of children who are following the Lord and desire to serve Him, of a husband who loves the Lord and his family above anything else, of an extended family that is more excellent than gold or fine jewels and such a blessing to me, of God's healing mercies in my father and in my mother-in-law, of a precious church family who has gathered around us so often to lift up and encourage us in ministry, and so much more. I am truly blessed and as we head into this Thanksgiving week I just need to praise the Lord publicly for all that He has done.

From a thankful heart...