Faith

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. {E. Roosevelt}

There's a fairly new ministry that started at our church called HAVEN. It's all about art and worshipping God thru various forms of art. We meet once a month and I started attending last January. One day way back then in January, I was asked if I would teach a class in May. It just so happened that I was having a good self-esteem day that day~you know the kind~ your hair looks good, you weighed yourself that morning and found you'd lost a couple pounds, all was right with the world.....and I said "YES"!

GULP. So now May is here and I'm teaching the class this Sunday afternoon! I am a wreck. I have never taught an art class before. What was I thinking? Who do I think I am? Are they gonna 'get' the kind of art that I do?

Yesterday I made the example. I started with an 8X10 canvas, covered in in old dress pattern that I got at the thrift. Layered old sheet music, wallpaper scraps, rubber stamped various places, framed the word 'Faith" in an old tart mold that sits on a snippet of lace.

I printed out this scripture and then covered it with more dress pattern paper. I love how it gave a parchment look to it.

I am scared to death. I don't like getting up and talking in front of people. And it's a vulnerable thing to show your personal form of art. Not everyone is going to like it. But then, I don't like all art..it's just a matter of personal taste. And I don't judge the artist just because I don't care for their art. In fact I appreciate the artists that follows their passion..and I appreciate their creativity and their own personal talent. Maybe that's what the people who come Sunday will think.  We all just want to be accepted, don't we?

And I think one of the deepest longings of people is to just be accepted. Me included.

 Bottom line, this is where FAITH comes in. I know God accepts me just the way I am. I know He delights in me because He created me and He knows me so well. So why do I concern myself and work myself up in worry for fear I am going to disappoint some people? What if I do? I am still loved. In the broad scheme of things, it's really no big deal after all, is it?

I agree with Paul where he wrote:

 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (New International Version)

Sigh. I feel MUCH better now. Thank you for our little chat! I am going to be okay! ;-)

I am linking up to Debra over at Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday