Some thoughts on Creativity...by Pam Warden

"Pamella tries to harmonize with me and she draws on everything."

My baby book, age 2

As I wind down the rabbit trail that leads from one fantastic blog to another, I am always amazed at the creativity I find out there (too many to name, but you know who you are:).
If you ever doubt your artistic bent or wonder to yourself, "why do I need to buy one more skein of yarn, bolt of cloth, tube of paint"... this is what God says, "She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes." Proverbs: 21-24
Rest in it.

I offer private watercolor classes in my studio and some women say, "I can't even draw a stick person." I reply, "Then you are probably a wonderful artist, you just don't know the techniques yet". (Most artists can't draw a straight line!)Remember when we were children, we practiced for hours and hours to spell our names, our streets, spelling MOM. We had a new and powerful way to SAY STUFF. As tiny little women we liked that :) You bet we did. And we developed the technique. We can sign our names now without so much as a thought or glance. Are you shaking your head, saying, "I can't draw a stick person and even my hand writing looks like that of a serial killer or doctor :)".... remember what God says, "For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what she does not have. 2 Corinthians 8:12
Rest in it.

In the days before I could read music (I still read music slowly with a dominant right hand) I would take blank music papers and draw little half notes, quarter notes, whole notes and rests all over the page. In my mind, once I could get my mom to come to the piano and play the song, it would be what the world had been waiting for, a song above songs, maybe something the angels sing...She would sit at the piano and play my random notes, telling me, "This isn't music." And she was right, it wasn't...I didn't know the techniques yet, the order. Our God is a God of order. (But I was still kinda pleased that the piano was playing something "of my very own"). I am a guitarist and traveled around for years, singing and playing for a living, I've written many, many songs.
If you think to yourself, I wish I could paint, blog, write, sing, be as creative as so and so....remember, this is what God says, "Each one should use whatever gift she has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms..." 1 Peter: 10-11
Rest in it.

My mom could play the guitar a little bit, a few years later and I could play the guitar a lot. In the early years she would sing us to sleep with cowboy songs. I always requested, Billie Joe by Johnny Cash and it always made me sad. I longed for him to live in the song, but he always got to0 big for his britches, took his "guns to town" and turned them on a grown gun slinger where my lovely Billy Joe "fell to the floor." I sang it to my children. My oldest son still likes Johnny Cash. I think that began my love for the minor key. Happy songs just didn't make me, um, well, er, ah happy! They were/are not as "thoughtful" in my ears. I still feel that way. The minor key.. I paint and sing in it. You will hear it in the sidebar playlist. The sound of the deeper things! We grow in the valleys, it has been said, not on the bright mountain tops. How true, how very true. I paint many funny women, but I also have titles like, The Angel of Loss and You Are Not Alone. I am reaching out to others with those paintings, shared pain, telling them they are not alone, they are loved, pointing them to Christ. Taking a little of the heavy weight from a sister's shoulders. The other day I was bemoaning to John, "Why are my paintings so different, even though women buy them, why am I not getting more contracts. Why am I so different?" The next day a Greeting Card company wanted to sign me, they said, "We love your work, it's so different." Have you wondered, "Why do I feel like I'm different?"....remember that God says this, "Each one should use whatever gift she has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:10
Rest in it.

As children of THE Creator of everything in existence we've inherited the desire/inclination to create from Him, our Father. If you ever wonder why you can't read a magazine without thinking, "Hey, I could do that!" Or if you draw a picture with your index finger in the soap suds at the kitchen sink, smell your childrens crayons and sigh, wander around flea markets with a big cart and back-pack "just in case", or __fill in blank______?
It is because you are filling your life and home with creative works, taking what someone else has sold or thrown away and making it your "very own". Writing your own songs of praise, in whatever medium you work in. We write our life songs to this wonderful, wonderful God, who loves us so deeply that He sent His Son... Remember what God says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the Heavenly Lights, who does NOT change like shifting shadows." James 1:17
Rest In It.
No matter what the creative issue is, get out your bible and "remember what God says about it." And then just rest in it as you continue on your way.
Blessings, Pam