Look at the Sparrows: My first 3 in 1 painting

After I wrote the  “Inspire Me” blog, I had to do something inspiring right? Yea so what you see above is the result of my weekend painting.

My first 3 in 1 painting set. I’ve put it up on the wall of my drawing room  I call it “Look at the sparrows” . And the colors in the background represents the 4 seasons of life. Through the winter, spring, summer and autum, like the sparrows, we are held safe in the hands of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Do click on the image to zoom in and see

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.   ³¹ So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. “

-Mathew 10:29-31

Inspire Me

Being a daughter of parents who were not so excited about my creativity did not bother me at all. I initiated all my creative efforts when I was with them. They never knew I had a blog! They never knew I wrote poems till my English teacher wrote an appreciation letter to them.  Never knew I liked to be an Interior Designer! I never knew that part either. Anyways! So they didn’t push me but I took initiatives!

And then I found my man! We got married.. Loved being in love..  Nothing else was worth spending time on when I could just sit with him and feel special cause we were together.. I guess that’s what we call the Honeymoon period!

But now looking at my friends on Facebook doing stuff.. Seeing the photos of how they go places.. Seeing their photography skills.. Seeing them write inspiring thoughts.. Seeing them being creative and being appreciated, I somehow miss those days! Getting married to a man with different tastes, somehow I feel like blaming him for my sudden drop in creative juice! Why do you think that is?! Why is it so easy to blame him for everything that I don’t do..  When before he walked into my life I never had anyone to say that “Go for it girl!” anyway.

I should tell that to myself every morning and find that inspiration somewhere within.. Somewhere in the Word of God.. Find a purpose for each day..  And do something with my life. Somewhere on the road from being a Daughter to a Wife to a Mother.. I seem to have lost Me! And no one is to blame.. Its just Me.. And I hope I find myself soon.

“Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.” (Proverbs 8:34)

Lessons from Painting

Recently, my husband gifted me a sketch pad, a box of poster colors and paint brushes on our anniversary… I was thrilled to learn a new art and I decided to do some reserach on it. I was surprised to see so many Youtube videos on painting lessons and any other lessons for that matter! We are definitly a blessed generation, atleast when it comes to technology. After a few videos, I decided that just watching is no good. Its like studing theology, going to all the conventions, watching God TV all day long, but not living the life of a true christian. So I decided to put the brush on the paper… And here goes my first attempt at painting…

 

Not bad huh? I feel very proud of my work.. And I dont believe in false humility  

I loved spending time and correcting the sketch, the colors, the strokes and mixing the paints and neutralising the textures… I enjoyed perfecting my picture as much as creating it… God also loves perfecting me as much as He loved creating me… God says “I’ve known you even before you were formed in your mother’s womb”… Its like He had a vision of who I should be and He started painting my life… a few paint strokes every day… It has always been hard for me to be patient and persevere to overcome all the sins in me that keep showing itself up from time to time… But my God who perfects me is patient and a great painter! Thank God!

I also noticed that there were some paints in the picture that didnt seem to go well together initially.. But it went great when I looked at the whole picture… Just like how certain things in life dont make sense initially… but only the creator who can see the bigger picture can understand…  The white dress that girl is wearing in my painting kept getting dirty with all the green and brown I had to paint around it… But God promises that thought our sins are like scarlet, He will make them as white as snow… But just like in a painting, if wax falls on the paper, its not possible to paint, because the paint wouldn’t stick to the paper till the wax is removed… So also when sin is there in our lives God cant dwell in us till the sin is removed… The more often we play with wax/ sin, the longer it takes for Him to remove the wax/ sin and perfect the painting…

I have heard so often that God loves you.. delights in you.. and so on.. But I have struggled to really understand how He could delight in me/ us who are so full of nonsense! But when I painted this picture and ceated something colorful and beautiful on a plain sheet of paper, I realised how much I could love my hands work inspite of its imperfetions… And so I have a small glimpse of how much God delights in me inspite of my imperfections… and is waiting to perfect me too… So relax and rest in His love… like the girl in my painting

If I had…

If I had cleaned the house daily, then I wouldn’t have had so much to do in one night.

If I didnt have so much to clean, I could have slept before  4:00 am.

If I had slept earlier, I could have woken up earlier.

If I had woken up earlier, I wouldn’t have been in a hurry and I wouldn’t have forgotten to take my watch and my mobile.

If I had my watch to check the time, I would have known that I had enough time to reach the airport and didnt have to drive fast.

If I wasn’t in a hurry, I wouldn’t have bothered to tell my husband to overtake the truck.

If we weren’t overtaking the truck, we would have more time to see the car speeding towards us.

If we had seen the car speeding towards us earlier, they wouldn’t have blinked their headlights on us driving left and right and left and right!

If they had just slowed down instead of blinking their headlights and confusing us, we wouldn’t have freaked out.

If I had not freaked out, I wouldnt have gone blank and would have told/ helped my husband to drive towards the left and get back behind the truck.

If we had got back behind the truck we wouldn’t have HIT the other car HEAD ON!

If we didnt meet with this accident we didnt have to get into a fight with those college guys speeding in their influential/ gunda/ big shot dad’s car.

If the car didnt belong to this man with holds in the corrupt political world, we could have arranged for the damage cost through insurance claim as simple citizens of India.

If we had sorted the matter through insurance, we didnt have to spend so much money from our own tiny pocket.

If we had saved up a lil extra every month, our pockets wouldn’t have been so tiny.

But then again…

If my husband didnt have that gut feeling that something was going to happen to me, he wouldn’t have asked me to put on the seat belt.

If he didn’t tell me to put on the seat belt, I wouldn’t have put it on cause I dont have the habit to do it.

If I hadn’t put on the seat belt, I would have either had a major head injury or died.

If I died like that, no good would come out of it.

If Jesus didn’t die on the cross for my sins, then I would be doomed!

But thank God for Jesus who died on the cross for our sins, cause that changes all the “If I had”… and brings HOPE.

A Housewife’s struggle in a world that preaches Equality for Women

As a young girl of the 21st century, I enjoyed the benefits of women’s rights. I had the privilege of going to school, college and employment in a multi national company earning almost 10 times more than what my mother earned when she was my age! Being a daughter was never a disadvantage over being a son. And unlike the old times when the family chose the guy with whom a girl should spend the rest of her life with and got to see him only on the wedding night, I could marry my love with the blessing of both our families and the society! I am grateful to the benefits of women’s rights that many have fought for. But now I struggle with a few of its consequences.

I chose to quit my job for a while and enjoy the honeymoon period after my wedding… I chose to be a housewife for a while so I could get used to the cooking and the other household duties and being their for my husband when he is back from work… I soon realised that being a housewife is a fulltime job by itself, though not as rewarding as a corporate job, it was best for the family and in turn for me! My husband earns enought for the both of us, so I could choose not to go out for a job and do my share at home. But the world that preaches equality for women will not let me enjoy this privilege… According to them the wife had to work to prove her independence and equality to men even if she doesnot feel the need for it… Many even assumed that it was not a choice by the wife to stay at home, but the result of a supressive husband! Being a person with an addiction for approval, I started looking for suitable jobs…

The priority for a good wife/mother is to be there for her family. But with the world that preaches equality of men and women, there were no jobs tailered for the needs of a wife/mother anymore. The working hours of all the jobs available are too long that by the time I get back home, I am too tired to cook for my family and wash plates and clean the house and be there for my kids ( when I have kids!)… And most importantly, a tired woman cannot appreciate her husband’s ‘act of love’ at night as much as a women who had the whole day to do the household duties and by evening she is ready and waiting to welcome him back home. 

The fact remains that there are many families where both the parents work and they still manage to survive in this world! There are many who sell their duty of taking care of their kids to a housemaid… there are a few who manage to juggle all the work themselves and are drained out by the end of day… and a rare few like my mother who are blessed with a job that are not too demanding and so gives them enough time for the family! But in general, women struggle to get such a job. Why? Because in the fight for the rights of women, they got carried away and started fighting to be treated as men! No matter what they say, men and women are not the same… so fighting for equality is overrated! Men have an inbuilt desire to be the breadwinner for the family and women have an inbuilt desire for nurturing and being there for the family. That is more important to her than a job that gives her the status of ‘independence and equality’. Women’s rights have definitly benefited many who were suppressed for ages, but it has also created a society that no more appreciates a women who does what her instincts tell her to do. She is expected to stand shoulder to shoulder with men and breed children whose needs are met by housemaids more than their own mother!

Would you agree for a kingdom over democracy?

I saw the movie Jodha Akbar some time back… I don’t want to comment much about the movie, except that I like Aiswarya Rai in traditional Indian attire and I liked the song Khwaja Mere Khwaja. I have no idea what it means, but a very pleasant music and a good change to the ears from the typical Hindi film songs! I hope the meaning of the song doesn’t change my opinion about liking the song!!!

 

What made me write is that the movie made me think of a kingdom…. We, in a democratic society… (or so we call ourselves) cannot easily understand the kingdom principles… We might not even appreciate the kingdom principle…. Of one man having the authority to rule… Or would we ??!!  With the financial recession, people are talking about putting one man in charge of providing a global economic solution… and soon about a global religion to avoid division based on religion… a man who can bring global peace … Do you think we will agree to give power to one man for a global solution ?!!!  Well it might be a slow process… like we might trust a bunch of leaders to work together and unite the world…. and then a global organization may be… which might eventualy lead to a global leader!

 

If it comes true, wouldn’t that just lead us all to what the Bible prophesies in the book of Revelation??… of 10 kings who will give their authority to  ‘one man’ to rule the world in the end times and soon be revealed as the ‘Anti Christ’?!  Cause kingdom principle gives a lot of power to the king… and I don’t think any human can handle that kind of power… only God can… But what do you think??? We might fall for it???

 

Well its a prophesy in the Bible…  its sure to happen… Mighnot happen the way we think it will.. or when we think it will… May be in our life time or may be the next generation???  But when these things happen, know that the end is near… and we need to be ready for the true King of all Kings… cause the pseudo peace that the world offers will fade away and we want to be in the kingdom of the victorious King! Not the temporary one….

 

Also… are we prepared to give our rights of democracy for a kingdom? Would you agree for a global leader? Well its good to be prepared cause the King who is worthy to be King will reveal Himself to everyone soon and all knees shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

Opposites attract, but after marriage??!!

I took a personality test recently and turns out, I am a Melancholic person. I wasn’t very surprised! When my husband came back from work, I asked him to take the same test… and guess what, he is a Choleric person! The exact opposite of my personality! 

I guess we all get attracted to our opposite personalities. I admire his deep voice that resound with authority, when I am the quite type looking for security. I admire how he is self motivated when I struggle with low self image. He looks at the bigger picture and is amazed at my eye for details… He admires how I am sensitive to people’s need which he fails to notice… He likes to lead and I like to follow. He has a need for change and admires my creativity. The list could go on and on…

But for some reason, we start seeing less of our own weakness and more of our partners weakness after marriage! The same things that once attracted you to each other becomes the reason for friction after marriage… Your eye for details make you realize he doesn’t fullfill your small small dreams… but he doesn’t understand why you dont see the bigger picture that he is working so hard to keep you happy! You suddenly realize that you dont agree with almost anything…

When we stop and kill the self, we will have a better life… a better marriage… There is no perfect person… With every set of strengths come accompanying weaknesses. Its like we subconsciously choose a person who fills in our weak areas so that the two of us fit together and become one! When we focus on each others assets, instead of the weakness we will be able to fill each other’s empty spaces!

If you wish to see the different strengths and weaknesses of your personality type visit the website http://www.wedplan.com/plan_answers.php 

God Bless!