Beauty for the Broken

{Affiliate links used. Thanks for supporting this blog.}

As you work through your grief, you may have times when you simply need to get your mind off of what you're going through because you have done everything you can do about it. -Joyce Meyer

Healing from heartache and grief is hard work. Sometimes you just need a break from it all. That's why a few weeks ago I bought myself a simple set of watercolors and some watercolor paper. I am NOT a artist. Go ask my kids for verification on that! Or maybe you should ask my Spanish students about the drawings I do for them as I am teaching. They will validate my statement..."This girl doesn't have an artistic bone in her body!"

Playing with watercolor has been a release...a chance to make beauty, because when you have lived through the ugly you need something beautiful more than ever. That would be me...the non-artist trying to heal and create beauty out of the mess by painting. I am finding that by setting apart some time to learn something new and creative I am healing those broken places just a bit. I am thinking of colors and contrasts instead of conflicts. I am giving my brain a break from it all.

He has made everything beautiful in its time, {Ecc. 3:11} and He will give a crown of beauty for ashes {Is. 61:3}. 

God is the master {and unlike me a REAL artist} of taking the ugly and making beauty. When He allowed others to reject me He brought beauty in the form of kind words and affirmations of His love. When I have walked a lonely road He has walked beside me. When I felt beat up and scarred beyond repair He brought healing. God is in the business of bringing beauty to that which is broken.

So these days I am painting my way through heartache and learning about the healing process...creating beauty in the brokenness of a life. There are so many ways to go about this. It doesn't have to be watercolors. It could be...

Writing in a journal
Helping someone in need
Showing extra grace to a hopeless person
Walking in nature
Starting a gratitude journal
Reading a novel
Listening to music

There are so many ways to create bits of beauty in our hard lives. We just need to carve out the time to do it. I have discovered when we take the time to create or seek out beauty we come to realize that life isn't as dark as we thought it was. I have learned that maybe there IS a tiny artist inside of me...that the ugly I experienced wasn't who I am. It was just what happened to me. So how can you take time today to see the beauty that God is creating in your life?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All the paintings in this post I created, but like I said...I am NOT an artist. I have basically used tutorials I have found online. Here is a collection of them on my Pinterest board.

To display some of what I have created I am making these photo holders. All you need are these larger binder clips, ribbon, patterned paper, and UHU glue.

{Instructions here.}

So what can you do to heal? To bring beauty in the brokenness?

I am linking up here to Faith Barista...a great site that offers ideas on healing.