And So, It Begins…
Written by Natalie Lein
(Journal entry from March 21, 2021)
Wow, wow, wow. I just came back today from my art retreat in Pigeon Forge, and I am blown away by how God met me. I know I’ll be inclined to completely forget the magic of this weekend in a few days (well, more like a few hours), so I’ll try to put the details here.
Before I went, I tried to think of what I should work and focus on. Maybe watch some productivity and business-building Skillshare videos. Maybe work on making more pop art drawing for pins and keychains and stickers. Maybe. But I kept trying to ask, “What does God want me to do with my art?” Making more Schitt’s Creek and The Good Place drawings didn’t seem like the answer.
What does God want me to do with my art?
I stopped into a jewelry store near Old Mill and told the lady at the counter that I had done lots of random commission work, but didn’t know what to do next. And she said, “It sounds like you’re doing what everyone else what’s you to do, but you have to find out what you like to do and do that.” So I thought about it. What do I like to draw? Faces and characters, I knew that much.
Then during breakfast at Brick and Spoon, I was doing the paperwork from Brooke Glaser’s “Making a Living As An Artist” class and had an epiphany: I wanted to make art specifically to ENCOURAGE women and girls. So what could that look like?
It was around the time I stopped at the Dollywood DreamMore Resort that I started sketching on my iPad and found myself drawing a girl.
I doodled a girl on the back of a paper with “You are BEAUTIFUL just the way GOD made you! Psalm 139:14. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” Then it hit me. “Maybe these are memory verse cards!” I wrote.
And it snowballed on from there.
All weekend, I started seeing God reveal how cool this could be. 52 in a pack, one for each week of the year. Have drawings of girls of all ethnicities. Maybe make a version where customers can customize the look of the character to match their own kiddo. Make postcards girl can send to each other with encouraging verses or what they’re currently memorizing… and on and on it went.
On the drive back home today, I was literally in tears coming through Sevierville, thinking about how perfectly God had met me in this. He was giving me so many ideas at once, I literally said, “Stop!” out loud and was laughing through my tears. I had to voice text them to myself before they all flew away.
But the thing that hit me most of all on that drive was God giving me my “Why.” I had just been listening to Sissy Goff’s book about raising strong, worry-free girls, and it reminded me of my struggle with never-ending stage fright and how James 1:2-8 was what I absolutely CLUNG to during all of that. It didn’t get rid of that trial, but it grounded me and helped me remember God was good and He saw me. And I wept knowing this might give other girls that fighting chance to cling to God’s Word and God Himself.
Related Posts
Related
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.