Skip to main content

3 gifts painted, 3 gifts full and 3 gifts smelled

June 11: 3 gifts painted

  • My favorite gift painted hangs in my office. It is a picture that was painted by my maternal grandmother Helen McCarthy and I received it as a final gift from her after her death. Grandmems painted this picture of her studio space and it specifically focuses on her potter's wheel. I love this picture because of its' warm colors and the subject of pieces of clay in process. This is similar to how I think of my work as a counselor. Every one of my clients is a unique, piece of God's art that is in process. Every day that I work, I sit down before Him and ask Him to take my hands in His and move them to shape and impact the person before me in just the right way. I hang this picture as a reminder to me that this is His work and that I am only a partner to the master potter and as an encouragement to my clients that they are in process and there is One who oversees each step and carries them to completion.
  • I have several small painted gifts that I have received from children who I have worked with over the years. A picture of a tiger, abstract and colorful lines on the diagonal, across the canvas and portraits of me. Each one is a precious painted gift to me.

June 12: 3 gifts full

  • A full Tuesday schedule: I saw 7 clients in one day!
  • My heart felt full when I prayed for the youth in this region. It was toward the end of the Tuesday night watch at R2HOP and God reminded me to pray for them. I prayed from Ephesians 3 and my heart filled up with love and compassion as I prayed. God shared some of His heart for the youth with me and I felt full of desire for them to know His marvelous love for them and that they would be rooted and grounded in that love.
  • I was full of laughter when I talked with my best friend from college, Sara. We took turns talking and listening. I have known Sara since the fall of 1999. She has become a witness of my life and the transformation that God has been working in me. I so appreciate her insight and observations about me and my life and I am so honored that she invites me to play the same role in her life. I am equally excited as I see the beautiful work that God has been doing in her and I eagerly anticipate what the future holds for both of us!

June 13: 3 gifts smelled

  • Fresh brewed coffee made by mom just for me!
  • Zoo animals at the Madison Zoo where we celebrated Kingston's first birthday. I love animals, but not always their smells.
  • The smell of Baby Magic when I hug and snuggle Ava, Noah and Kingston

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back to School

Well, after four years away from school counseling, I have decided to return. Yes, I'm keeping my private practice in counseling. I will be reducing the number of clients that I see on a weekly basis in order to work 20 hours a week as a school counselor at Rockford Christian Elementary School. This comes in the midst of conversations that I have been having with God about desire. In fact, pursuing this position kind of started those conversations. My good friend Mackenzie, who works in the business office at RCS, told me about the position innocently enough. She wanted me to have the information about the position in case I had any counselor friends who might be interested in applying. What neither she nor I could have known, was how desire would stir in my heart as soon as she started to describe it to me. There are things that I have come to absolutely love in private practice counseling. I love being my own boss, setting my own hours and having complete freedom over...
1 comment
Read more

When Creative Desire Stirs

The past 3 months have felt crazy. And during all these months of crazy, busy activity in my life, desire has been stirring in the background of my heart. I read things that other people write and feel myself come alive. I talk with people and hear things that God is speaking and want to write them down and share. I listen to music, sing to the Lord and long to create something that will help other people to connect with God in worship. It has been over two months since I touched our piano. Or any piano, for that matter. This is also my first blog post in almost 3 months. Crazy months, yes. But, 3 months all the same. I feel sad about these things. And scared to start again. What if I have lost everything that I had developed? But even fear of the possible frustration of starting again has not been able to change my desire. My desire has only been stirring and growing all this time. My desire is to resume creating. With piano. With words. This is week 9 of my training for t...
Post a Comment
Read more

31 Days to Keep a Tender Heart: October 18

  Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. I Thessalonians 5:16-18 Ann Voskamp quoted this passage in her blog recently. Then, I read it in my one-year Bible for October 12. Seeing it twice within a week caught my attention. Verse 16 is: Always be joyful. This sounds like a command to me and I don’t think God would command us to do something we can’t do. If He tells me to always be joyful, then I believe that it is always possible for me to be joyful and that this is what God desires for me. Verse 17 is: Keep on praying. I hear another command. And, it follows the first one, which I understand to mean that prayer is related to being joyful. The joy provokes the prayer; the prayer sustains the joy, or both. Either way, I like how God has placed these two directives right next to each other. Verse 18: No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for ...
Post a Comment
Read more