Painting for Joy and Charity

What an amazing week this has been! It started when I had the pleasure of going to see War Room at the movie theater with my neighbor and good friend Kathy. I loved the movie. We laughed and cried and felt convicted.

Then came a time of fasting and prayer to support an amazing event in Birmingham, Alabama where thousands of Christians marched, sang, prayed and expressed a unity of faith and a desire to do something real to help the genocide of Christians happening in the Middle East today.

The word has been spread through the internet about the policies of the United States government which will not allow Christians to come here to seek asylum. We as a nation turned away Jews and sent them back to Nazi Germany during those dark days. We are repeating that evil act today.

The government of Iceland said that they would take 60 people into their small country of 300,000 people. One woman thought that was not enough and so she got on facebook and asked who would take a family into their own home. Within 24 hours 10,000 people had said yes, we will. They all urged their government to do more.

And our government is saying no, none. So, I prayed and thought what can I do? I have no money to contribute. Going on twitter and posting a silly hashtag will not help anyone who is praying not to be murdered or to not have their girls raped. What could I do? I could pray and I am. I hope you will too.

And I can paint. So today I have placed a new planner insert on ETSY. You see it here. I am charging $5.99 for a two page digital download that can be used as a planner insert or any other way you choose. It costs me a few cents to place an item on ETSY and a few more for PayPal to process it. Everything about that I will be donating to Mercury One and the Nazarene Project. It is the prayer of the folks at Mercury One to raise $3 million dollars before Christmas to get many of these families out of the Middle East.

The United States will not take them, but other countries will. It takes $25,000.00 to rescue one family. The pennies I will earn from ETSY are the only way I can help.

It is my joy to ask you to help me help them.And it will be my joy to pray for each and everyone of you who buys this little offering I am making to pray for you and your families by name every day this year.

True joy comes to me when I serve God and place myself out there to serve others.

When fear and frustration, anger and grief fill our minds it becomes hard for our eyes to perceive the many moments of joy God sends our way rach and every day. When we set our intention to be aware and seek the moments of joy then gradually all the negatives begin to fade.

I have had a difficult time over the last week or so - difficult enough that I simply could not sit here at my computer and write. Worry took a toll on me. Until the day my granddaughter Maddy came to spend the day. She wanted to create something special to set her room apart. She wanted to make the space she had her own.

We talked about what her vision was. She knows me well enough to know that I will honor her ideas and not impose my own. Our agreement is that when she makes art, it is hers alone. I tell her my thought only if there is something she wants to do that I know will not work. For instance, if she wants to paint watercolor on top of glossy acrylics, I will let her try but also tell her why it might not work. I want her to feel confident and to know that she is learning as we all must do when we try new things.

We managed to get one of her projects done and another is in the works. I found a moment of great joy when I quietly watched her working. She was taking such care as she decorated some words to hang on her wall. She was quiet, as was I. And I saw a small smile play on her lips as she worked. My cares slipped away for that moment and I felt the joy.

Often in our culture we work very hard at manufacturing happiness. We are told that things will make us happy. Sometimes when we seek happiness, we seek the big thrill, the excitement of possession or striving. Happiness is a good thing but it can be shallow and fleeting.

Joy I have found tends to sneak up on me. It tip toes into my heart and often no one else knows. It stirs my heart and puts a smile on my face. And more often than not, it sneaks up when I give to others in a quiet way.

Seek joy, give it permission to enter your heart. We will always have cares. Life is often not exactly as we wish it to be. But when your heart and mind are open to joy, God surely will send it your way.