Mothers As Artists

I found this little article on the internet, and just thought it was so good! I get bored and frustrated with the routines and other things we do as a mother... After I read this, I could totally understand since I'm an artist. Even though I'm not doing much painting and drawing these days, right now I'm an artist in a different way... I dedicate this to all those Mothers that I know... Keep on "painting!"

Mothers as Artists
By Jane DeLaney, founder of maketimeforfamily.org and E-Mealz

As I reflect on Mother's Day, I know that one of the greatest ways I can live out my gratitude for God's sacrifice is to simply love those around me. There is verse in the Bible that says, "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for each other." This is what it means to love my family: to lay down my life for their good – on a daily basis. It is not easy.
It often reminds me of when I took portrait painting in college. It was not like any other class. It took a lot of time, thought, and spending hours and days working stroke by stroke. I couldn't "cram" the night before an assignment was due. If I put it off, it would be too late. There was simply no feasible way to speed-paint a painting worth turning in. I remember the long, quiet hours alone in the run-down art building, sitting on the old wooden stool – painting, painting, and more painting. But that's what it took.
Raising a family feels like I am still sitting on that old wooden stool. Alone in the reality that I have to keep painting no matter how tired, no matter how insignificant each brush stroke may seem. It’s in the here and now, seizing every moment possible, knowing that a thousand days, one by one, will be the substance of who they become. It began the day they each were born, that first stroke on the canvas, and then thousands of strokes to follow.
Remember that all the things we do for our children, for the thousandth time, to us may be tiring and routine. Yet to a child, it's their very security. It is the repetition and routine that makes their world predictable, safe and secure. It's the being there day in and day out… waking them up, tucking them in and praying, helping with homework, and eating dinner together.
It all adds up. It adds up to what we are painting their portrait with – the very paint we are using – the oils of God's unconditional, sacrificial, unwavering love. Remember that every loving brush stroke you make will strengthen the canvas of your family – giving them a lifelong picture of God's great love.