Out of My Adversity

We have been really busy lately with anniversaries, a 6 Flags trip, children coming home, friends visiting, a baby shower, birthdays, etc. Saturday after having dinner @ Smokey Bones with my best friend Genie and her son Tony, I knew I'd still have enough time to work on the Sunday school lesson I was supposed to do the next morning. I had been so focused on 6 Flags that I just about forgot about everything else including my parent's 54th anniversary. Well, when we got home, I got comfortable in one of the recliners because my feet were swollen. I fell asleep. I couldn't find the folder containing the lesson. It wasn't in the house. It was not in my car. Then I remembered I'd left it at work on Thursday before leaving for 6 Flags! It was way too late to drive to work to get it. I could hardly sleep that night. I'd keep waking up thinking, "What am I going to do?" Katherine is going to be so mad at me not to mention the Lord.

I have this box beside my side of our Lazy Boy reclining sofa. Its where I cut out pictures, designs, & sayings out of magazines and catalogs I receive that I collage on paper, posters, make cards or magnets, etc. (as you probably already know if you have received them). This is what I do to relax. So I took my magic box with me to church. I figured we could make get well cards for W. C., a member who recently had a heart attack. Of course we talked a little about our 6 Flags trip first to let them get that out of their little systems. Then I told these 8 & 9 year olds that they are never too old to learn anything and how I learned how we watch out for each other as we did on our 6 Flags trip. I also told them to thank the people that watched out for them while we were there at the park. Then I begin demonstrating how to make a collage on a card. Savannah was my star pupil with this activity. She came up with some neat ideas that totally amazed me and blew me away. Rhett's was really good too. He gets that from me of course. But... they taught me! They taught me that a card is not just composed of a front and the message inside of it. Savannah placed a copy of a portrait of a little girl with blonde hair similiar to herself, picking something up from the sand on a beach which was in a beautiful gold, ornate frame on the back of the card and found the words "made with love". These words were glued directly beneath the portrait. Now I had to learn to part with some of my beautiful pieces of paper artwork so I learned the true meaning of sharing and that sacrifice can be a good thing. Besides I shouldn't hoard all the beauty, keeping it to myself anyway. I was just so impressed with Savannah's card that I showed it to her mother after class. She loved it and we ended up giving it to her mom instead of W. C. with the heart attack. In a way I wished I would have kept it so I could make a color copy of it. Then I told he mom I would love to have an artistic day with all the kids at church. She got excited about the idea and thought it would be neat also. So I asked two of our deacons if I could do this on 7/7/07 when the men are having their work day at church that same day. They agreed. Now I am SO excited! Out of my adversity came this...! I have been wanting to do something like this creative day for awhile now, but had not gotten up my nerve.

I was afraid Katherine, the preacher's wife, who normally teaches Rhett's Sunday morning class, would be mad at me for not using the lesson she gave me to use, but I learned so much more from all this and I wouldn't trade it for all the crab legs in the sea! I hope she understands.

Wish me luck this Saturday. My hair may be turned completely gray by the end of the day, but what the hay?

We have two families from church moving to South Carolina soon. I thought about doing a big collage poster or diptychs - one for each family to take with them as reminder of us and our church. I did this once before for a retiree at JCPenney's. It was first a graded art project that turned out really well and later became a gift. We might even do one to be framed for our church.

What did you do out of your adversity today?


Quotes of the Day:

Life is made of millions of moments,
but we live only one of those moments at a time.
As we begin to change this moment,
we begin to change our lives.
-Trinidad Hunt-

Remember, your relatives had no choice in the matter either.
-kitchen table wisdom-

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.
~Lena Horne~

Choose something to distinguish this from other Mondays.
-Peter R. Stone-