Creativity

Today as I was making my youngest niece's blanket, I watch the older two (Zachary and Ashlynn) use their imagination and created what they called a "Chinese House Tent". It was interesting to see what their minds would come up with. I remember when Zachary was about 1 1/2 years old, we would drive out the road and in the same spot he would say "geen deno" -translation "Green Dino"

As the weeks went on and his vocabulary became more clearer, he would say things like "The green dinosaur is sitting beside me" and until last year, the green dinosaur existed in his mind. Ashlynn would fairies everywhere - can anyone say Tinkerbell overload? But in the past year it seemed to be their imagination was fading away a little - as the aunt, I was sad. I remember growing up and being outside building forts and playing in the woods - coming up with stories and acting them out with the neighborhood kids. I remember walking down the creek with my uncles and cousins and just swinging from a rope - spending time using our minds to figure things out and also to create things.

But this morning when as I began working on Laurie's blanket, I used half of the living room floor. I was waiting for a "Aunt Mimi!" (which by the way, my nieces and nephew call me MiMi)...but instead, they decide to push their work tables together and create a tent. They started grabbing blankets and pillows from everywhere and they created a tent. The propped open one end of the tent which reminded them of chinese - don't know how they came up with it, but that's ok :-)

As I sat there cutting the fringes, they would crawl out of the "window" and grab a storybook which is the TV, then crawl back out again and grabbed a pot from the kitchen because they needed to cook some stuff. They continued to do this for two hours and I became fascinated by their determination to keep playing. Normally, if any of the floor was taking up they would be a little upset and we would have to walk them thru that "it's ok, you have rest of the floor to play in". Instead - they kept saying every once in awhile "Mimi, I would really like a blanket for my birthday" or "That blanket is pretty, I wish I had one" Well, according to my last blog, I already created their blankets for them :-)

As I was cleaning up the scrap materials, the Lord began speaking to me - sometimes we forget to live and to enjoy life - even in those moments where God is using "elbow grease", we still need to enjoy life. We still need have fun - and when we start getting a little wild - the Lord will pull us back. We need to use our minds for creativity - we're all creative, but we're all on different levels of creativity.

Recently, I took a little over a week off at work and I knew it was for rest. I enjoyed the time I had off and met my goal of no schedules, no setting the alarm clock, no errands, etc and it was nice!!! So when I returned back to work, my mind and body was refreshed and rested - and I was welcomed back with my accumulated work that was sitting there, and rather that getting aggravated, my mind started thinking in ways of completing the work in ways that I never would have thought of - when we renew our minds daily and ask for creativity in our life, the Lord will answer. After this week and completing everything that I did, I was amazed at how creative I could be.

I think sometimes when we think "creativity" we think of being artsy - we don't have to be artsy....I think if we start praying for creativity we would be amazed at how things in our life will begin to look different and how those daunting tasks become easier - just maybe? I'm not artsy, but I want to be like my Maker - I want to be creativity!

Detailed Creator

Fall is one of my favorite seasons....the leaves changing color, a crisp in the air, fresh apples, hay rides, bon fires, traveling and my nieces & nephew's birthdays. I think over the last 7 years that has been my favorite part - watching each of nieces and nephew grow and discover their own personality. Here's the funny part, within a 3 week time frame, I will be celebrating my youngest niece's 3rd birthday, my oldest niece's 6th birthday and my nephew's 7th birthday. I've tried to do something special each year - and this year I decided to make each of them blankets.

I learned how to sew when I was five and enjoyed creating things. After I graduated high school, my life became very busy with church, college ministy, attending college full time and working part-time. I gave up, without realizing it, some of the things that I enjoyed doing - sewing being one of them. Here and there I would do some "fix-sewing" of a button or tear, but nothing beyond that.  Then a couple years ago, my parents gave me a sewing machine for Christmas - until this past weekend, it had remained in an unopened box.

I began shopping last week for material and wanted to make sure the blanket matched their personality, their interests and their color. I spent a few hours just looking at material and wanting to make sure I picked the right ones out.

As I was thinking of different patterns I could pieces together, the Lord began speaking to me and a familar Psalm came to mind....

Psalm 139

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand—
   when I awake, I am still with you.

As these verses were running thru my mind, it amazed me at how much detail that I was putting into these blankets and yet never really thought about all the details my Creator thought about when He created me. Each blanket I wanted to be unique and not the same pattern or stitch pattern - well God wanted each of us to unique. As I cut each piece and began pinning them together - I had suddenly remember how much time and details seweing entailed. I had completely forgotten how the pieces have to match perfectly, how much time it takes for this process. Then to sew each piece into the blanket and to make sure everyhing was lined up -quite a task.

I think sometimes we view God to have a factory when He was creating each of us - but thru this process, I realized that He picked out our material and created each pattern. He knew the material He needed to create us. He took the time make us each unique - He made us in His image....fearfully and wonderfully. How I looked each material and saw each of my nieces & nephews in each one, He looked at our unformed bodies and saw us - He saw us as He formed us and He knew the material He chose was best for the plans He had in stored - the material would hold up thru the storms. As I picked out fleece for each blanket, I knew this material would last for a long time - to go thru different seasons of their lives. And the material that was sewn into each of us, has gone thru so many seasons of our lives.

One of my goals when I first thought of their birthday presents was to show them how much I love them and wanted to make something special for them. I think and pray for my nieces and nephew often....and the last part of the passage amazes me....God's thoughts out number the grains of sand! Even though there's billons of people in this world, His thoughts about each of His children out number the grains of sand....He thinks about each of us that often!

It's amazing how much detail our Creator paid attention to when creating us - but He didn't stop there, He still is creating us, fixing the holes that we create or life creates, still thinks about us and the plans He has for us, wanting us to spend time with Him. I want my nieces and nephews to curl up in my lap and just talk to me - spend time with me...and that's all our Creator wants.

Attached are 2 of 3 blankets I made yesterday - still working on my youngest niece's....

A reversible one for my nephew - one side sports and the other camouflage