Philippians 4:7-9 series

This cherry blossom and koi series gave me two main struggles. One I grew between each painting! Which to be fair is a great thing, until it shows between paintings that are supposed to have a similar feeling. The other main struggle was actually their size. I had gotten use to painting large paintings that painting on these baby 8 by 10s were suffocating. I had no room to breathe with each brush stroke.

God took these struggles to teach me that things take time and take growth. And that growth isn’t a problem, it’s a part of the process. God pointed out in a very literal way that I was looking at things too closely. And by literally I mean it, when this thought came to my mind, I was sitting with my face about an inch from the canvas…

This led to Him teaching me to take a step back and take a breath, things are not as wrong as they seem up close. I can only take things one thing at a time, and nothing can get fixed in two seconds. God was showing me that what I was focusing on needed to change, and this led to Philippians 4:7-9 became this series’ scripture. “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Phil 4:8 NLT)

This series became a reminder of things I have already known but just needed to bring into focus. You can only move “One Step” at a time, its ok  to “Take Time” in the process, and step back and “Just Breathe.”