to be an artist

I am often inspired by Emily Freeman's blog Chatting at the Sky. She speaks frequently about what it means to be an artist and following the urges to write and create.

I think as a woman I have a special ability to appreciate and create beauty.

Sometimes the urge to create just overcomes me. I simply MUST write what I'm feeling or I simply MUST play the piano or I'm inspired to create something wonderful via photography or some other medium. I like to think it's God's way of expressing his creativity through me. He created me like this, to have this need to create and desire to write. It helps me to see and know him better. It helps me to express it, my praise, my thoughts and feelings and emotions, through song or verse or the written word.

May I endeavor to increase my ability to appreciate and accept the simple wonder of beauty. May I not be afraid to create and let my spirit sore through words and colors and beauty, for this is why I was made.

Mary Anne

Quote by Clyde Pilkington

'Here is the greatest lesson of life, what life is all about: Truly trusting Father in everything, to the point that we also are thanking Him for everything.' ~ CP

a powerful four letter word

I have been thinking alot lately about the brokenness of the world around me, about the broken hearts and broken lives and the blatant baseness of the world in which we live. Depressing thoughts eh? Yeah well, but then God reminds me of something else. He reminds me:

"But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." ~ 1 Cor 1:27-29

And I'm reminded that I have something more powerful than all the disheartening brokenness of the world around me and it's this four letter word: HOPE.


May I have the courage to fully embrace the HOPE that is within me.

Mary Anne

carry me ~ Audrey Assad

Pain is a forest we all get lost in
Between the branches hope can be so hard to see
And in the darkness we've all got questions
We're all just trying to make sense out of suffering but

You say I am blessed because of this
So, I choose to believe
As I carry this cross, You'll carry me
Help me believe it

Fear is a current we all get caught in
And in its motion faith can be so hard to find
And we all falter 'cause we're all broken
We're all just trying to turn the shadows into light but

You get glory in the midst of this
And You're walking with me
And you say I am blessed because of this
So, I choose to believe
As I carry this cross, You'll carry me

And I know Your promises are faithful
And God, I've seen Your goodness in my life
And oh, I've found Your mercy is a river
Your love is an ocean wide

You say I am blessed because of this
You get glory in the midst of this
And You're walking with me

And You say I am blessed because of this
So, I choose to believe
As I carry this cross, as I carry this cross
'Cause as I carry this cross, You'll carry me

You'll carry me, God
You'll carry me
And Your love is an ocean wide

~ Audrey Assad

the nature of truth

sometimes truth comes at you from the most inconvenient and un-sought-for unsuspecting places. you're going about your day and then suddenly...WHAM! It hits you. you realize all this time you've been striving after something that wasn't intended, that perhaps you should just slow it down, listen and hang out with God for a while. sometimes life forces you to slow down and take inventory of what you're doing and how you're thinking. sometimes my brain is spinning so wildly with plans/worries/excitement/pains/obsessions i can't seem to slow it down and just be. but God speaks in that quiet still voice that we have to slow down to hear. life goes so much better when we just let God drive.

"I died to set you free and that includes freedom from compulsive planning." ~ Jesus (Taken from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.)


thanks for the reminder God.


Mary Anne