Painting

Singleness paints a picture of Christ's sufficiency.
If you are single what picture are you painting?
Each of us takes up a brush at the beginning of the day.
We have paints before us.
Vibrant colors of praise and worship and love.
Deep hues of resentment and resistance and .
We choose.
We can dip our paintbrush into pain and bitterness.
We can dip into selfish tears and cry over what we wish was or what we wish we could change.
We can paint with colors of resistance to our present.
Or we can paint with colors of praise.
We can paint with grace and encouragement.
We can use the gifts that we have been given and honor the One who gave them.
We can use the love that has been lavished on us to paint a picture of His love.
We have a choice before us.
The paint brush is in your hand.
You choose your paint.
The canvas of the day is before you. 
As for me, I want the bright colors of praise and love to paint my day.
Let's go!

Sculpting

I didn't get a lot of good sleep last night.  Lots of dreams.  This morning I was moving slow and feeling emotionally down. A good talk with Mom helped but I was still feeling like I was dragging. I finally got out the door and was going to work but there was a huge slow down. I was on the verge of getting impatient and feeling frustrated at traffic.
It was then that I heard the still small voice, " Don't worry. I'm sculpting and molding your character. Just keep going straight ahead."
I got the image of a Potter with a lump of clay on His wheel. That's what I felt like a messed up lump of clay that was in the middle of an overhaul.
But when I look up I see His loving gaze. And I know that He's doing something great. So I can go to work with a smile on my face even though I'm late. I can be nice to customers and encourage those around me. Why? Because even though sometimes I feel like a half-finished mess on my way home becoming His masterpiece. He's still got me and He's still good.