About a week after painting this God impressed upon me that I needed to give this to my sister. I have not spoken to my sister in 20 years, not because of any difficulties between us but rather because of some differences between her and my mother when I was still young. Their relationship was repaired a few years back but I haven't had a chance because of living out of town and a bit of fear I must admit. It really was a good idea though, as she had just gotten married on Feb 14th and they love dogs. He had thought this painting through well ahead of time.
I argued with God about this a bit because this was my very first canvas painting, I had longingly awaited the opportunity to paint this for several months, and because I felt nervous about giving to her. I mean let's be honest here, not everyone adores another's first real painting.
He gave me permission to make my own choice but encouraged me to be more careful in the future about asking Him to show me His will if I didn't really want to follow it. Ouch! That convinced me fairly easily because I didn't want Him to stop showing me His will in the future because of my disobedience.
Then it occurred to me that I should just show the painting to some of my friends and see if they thought it was good enough to give as a gift. That would certainly boost my morale about giving it to her right? On this he also gave me permission to make my own choice but He asked me why His opinion wasn't valuable enough? Ouch! I decided then that I needed to plan a trip to get some wedding wrapping paper with a nice big bow to match the size of this gift.
I discussed this with my friend Wendy over tea and contemplated my selfishness and anxiety. Verbalizing my story really put my feelings in check and confirmed my desire to go through with His plan. I'm so thankful for this friend that God has put in my life to uphold me to His standards instead of encouraging me to allow my feelings to consume me or dictate my actions. She was so excited about this opportunity of reunion with my sister and even wanted to see the painting.
I took it over to her house while several other friends were there and they all got to hear my story about overcoming my selfishness and anxiety to allow His grace and glory to shine. I've never been so excited to wrap a gift and give it away!
I gave it to my sister a few days later and she marveled over it immensely. I know she was really marveling over His grace and love in that I reached out to her though and I marveled over His glory in this great plan.
Thank you God for never giving up on me even though you have to risk letting me make my own choices. What a great God we serve.
