Enjoy the Adventure

That's my theme for 2012, Enjoy the Adventure.  There are lots of things coming up that I already know will be  classified as Adventure.

Leadership Course - Seriously, why would someone who struggles with criticism as much as I do take part in a course where basically no one teaches you anything, you just all take turns in doing the stuff and being critiqued by the rest of the people on the course.  Seriously why?  Because God said 2012 was the year to Enjoy the Adventure, and what is adventure if not a little scary, right?

Then there's another opportunity that is only a possible at this stage and I can't really share here.  A team I am involved in, was asked to consider this IF it does come up, and after talking it through with the team, I put myself forward.  I won't know until March now if I will go forward to do that, so I have to wait.  But if I do, it is going to mean a lot of work and a lot of responsibility.  Again scary and out of comfort zone.

Last week the church I am part of had a week of prayer.  Meetings every evening.   I had been to all so far, when on Thursday I was asked if I was going to be around on Friday.  When I said yes I was asked to lead the Friday evening.  Scary?  Oh yes!  But actually I wasn't as wound up as I had expected to be.  A little, yes, but not as much.  There was a time when even something like leading a small prayer meeting would have had me in the bathroom throwing up!  It's still scary, it's still stretching, it's not something I would want to tackle without God, BUT I did it and it went OK, and I came out the other side stronger.

Are you beginning to see a theme here?  Adventure, scary, stretching, hard, difficult, etc.  What happened to the Enjoy?  I actually asked God that last week in my Journal.  Yes, I know, OUCH!  But I was being real.

I know that there will be times in both those things coming up that will be enjoyable.  There are things, already happening that will continue through the year that are both stretching, scary AND enjoyable.  I am taking part in a year long online art class that has already had me doing my first 3/4 portrait, my first colour portrait, and my first profile portrait since discovering art as an adult.  They're not perfect, but I am having a blast while being stretched at the same time.  I also know that there is an element to this theme of finding the enjoyable within things that would normally seem hard to me.

However, God did not disappoint!  You see, when I first got my theme, and you can read about it here, the word Enjoy came first, on its own, and God had intended all along for that sometimes to be the case.  Monday was my birthday and in amongst the wonderful birthday greetings on facebook there were two that were so personal and so blessing that they brought me to tears.   One of them spoke of being thankful my mother gave birth to me, being sad for me that she is no longer around and knowing that she would be proud of me if she were.  Oh that made me cry, good tears.  I sat and thought of all I have been doing in my craft room lately, thought of the creative woman my mother was and KNEW, probably for the first time in a long time, that my friend was right.  My mom would be proud of me.

Then my dad phoned to sing happy birthday.  He said he'd been looking at some of the pictures I'd shared on facebook of my recent art work and asked me "Where did you learn to draw like that?" and was asking all about it.  That's a big deal to me, a seriously big deal and I am in awe that God would choose to bless me with that from both my mom who is no longer with us and my dad who is in less than 2 days!  Enjoy?  Oh YES!