Zinnias from Mom

16 x 16Romans 12:4-6 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.

My mother lives next door to me in the home in which I grew up. She has a beautiful garden, in which, every summer, she grows different varieties of zinnias. My mother inherited my grandmother's love for flowers, and she is very talented at arranging them.

When I was a child, she often placed small arrangements of dafodils or camelias from the yard in small vases on my nightstand. I probably rarely thanked her for those flowers, but they always let me know she was thinking of me. Recently, when one of my children was ill, and I had been homebound for longer than I desired, she stopped by with a beautiful vase of zinnias. While the children napped, I painted the beautiful arrangement that she had put together. While I painted her kind gift, I thought of her and the ways she encouraged me growing up.

Since I can remember, I have always loved a creative project. My mom used to take me to buy acrylic boxes and paint pens so that I could make gifts for friends and family. I found one of them, recently, which my mom had saved all these years, a mothers day gift, I believe. I remember being so proud of that acrylic box and thinking that it was quite cute, but when I recently found it, I was shocked that it was actually rather plain and not really very cute at all. My mother made me feel like it was a masterpiece, though, so I was convinced that it was.

There has always been something in me that has desired to create. My mother recognized that desire in me and encouraged that desire in so many ways. She taught me to sew and needlepoint and always provided the supplies for me when I set out on a new venture. She seemed to know the directions in which to push me that would encourage my passions. When applying for colleges, she begged me to look at small liberal arts schools, so like a typical 17 year old, I applied only to two large state schools. Since I chose the University of Georgia, she suggested that I, at least, major in journalism and minor in art, so I decided to listen and started out in those schools.

Shortly afterwards, though, I switched my major to, of all things not suited for me, risk management and insurance, because I thought I could land a more steady job upon exiting college. My mother encouraged me not to change it, but of course, I refused to listen and graduated from the risk management and insurance program of the UGA business school and gave up four years of painting and writing. Ugh. It is painful to even type that. While in college and thereafter, I still attempted to teach myself how to paint from books and wrote in personal journals whenever I could find the time.

Several years after graduating from college, my mom encouraged me to take some art classes at the local college. Together, we took an oil painting class, and have painted together on and off throughout the last several years. I have often taken breaks from it because of the demands of young children, but my mother has always encouraged me to return to it. I am so thankful for her influence in that. She had a knack for knowing the things I had a passion for and for pushing me towards the things that she knew would bring me joy.

I chose the scripture above for this painting because God gives us each gifts that are meant to build up and encourage the body of Christ, the church, as we call it. If we are part of the body of Christ, each of us belongs to God and to the other members of the body, so that other members of the body can be built up by our gifts. My mother encouraged the gifts she saw in me, which in turn, I pray he will use to build up the body of Christ and encourage others.

My prayer is that God would give me direction and wisdom when guiding my own children towards their God given talents and purposes, not so that I can feel like a successful parent or my children can overflow with self esteem, but so that they would find their passions and purposes and use those things to build up the body of Christ. Our gifts are not for us but for the other members of the body.

I am thankful that my mother has encouraged me to perservere. It is truly a gift to have a mother that encourages their children in their passions and gifts. My mother is a gifted artist, and I am thankful for the bond that we share through painting together. Praise God for mothers and for His gifts.

Mom, thank you for the zinnias and, most of all, for your encouragement. Keep painting. I love you.