Video – Sunday’s ART of Truth – “You are Loved”

Video – https://youtu.be/oGAvrocDb_4

Hello friends, welcome to Sunday’s ART of Truth. Today I created the textural, collaged beauty on an 8 x 10 MDF board. This was so much fun and created from the depths of me during a grieving time. Every element chosen for this piece was on purpose. The tiny sparkly jewels (royalty) the butterfly (freedom), the little girl (innocence) the fabric and lace (soft and textural) the stitching (we are always being repaired) & YOU ARE LOVED!

Quote that inspired this piece – “You have been chosen by the one who won’t un-choose you”. This is a quote from a book by my favorite author, Charles Martin.

This quote profoundly affected me recently and came back to me in the midst of my mixed-up emotions about my mama friend passing. I began thinking about the beauty of the human love that we can experience on this earth. The gifts that we can give one another, as well as the depths we will go to in search of such love. Some of us who are wounded will pursue it to the ends of the earth and sell our souls if we have to. Some of us can’t tell the fake from the real. We often have expectations from people around us that are unrealistic. We measure their response to us as a failure of love and care, when it is not. We often see life through a lens of unworthiness. We are hurting and we feel broken.

I believe Jesus is my Papa. He is my everything. From so early, I clung to Him through my most broken times. As a child, I believed. When I read this quote, I made note of it and then it resurfaced while I was processing this recent loss. “You, Cara-Renee (Beloved – Reborn) have been chosen ‘by Me’ (Papa) I won’t un-choose you. I cannot un-choose you”

This reality took my breath away. As I still long for the arms of a mother. I still long to be held by a human. To be told I am precious and beautiful and worth fighting for.

It’s OK to need, it is.

We were made to need. We were made to love. We were made to give and receive it.

However, people will fail us. People can’t fill the hole. People can’t give us what we didn’t get.

It is up to us to find the truth. Sit with the truth. Nourish the truth.

What is that truth?

That we are loved! We are beautiful. We are precious. We are irreplaceable. We are beloved.

Often, we don’t feel any of those things. I often feel like too much, while at the same time, not enough. I feel like I am not pursuable, though I pursue. I long for relationships, but I get weary. I want someone to see me. I want someone to tell me that I am worth more than money could buy.

These are all normal feelings, aren’t they?

To deny them is to deny our hearts.

However, I have to ask myself…where does my true value come from?

It comes from the things birthed in me.

The things I have cultivated by allowing truth in. By allowing my heart to be healed. By allowing Jesus to heal me. By allowing Him to love me fully.

As I mentioned, this is my faith journey. This is where my hope and value are found.

I know, for some of us, the idea of God and Jesus can be difficult. Like, where was He? Why did bad things happen if I am/was so precious to Him? Why didn’t this God of love rescue me?

I have been there my friends. The struggle, the pain and the questions are real.

What I also know, even apart from Jesus, is that the early parts of the work were to identify the things that we believe that are not true and begin to embrace the things that are true.

THIS IS HARD! It was 30 years hard for me. It is still hard at times.

I am often the little girl still waiting for the magic kiss or the feeling that will satisfy.

Jesus satisfies me, every time.

My friends, if that is not your story of faith and belief, I want you to hear that it is ok. It is okay for you to be where you are. To feel afraid. To not believe. To not trust.

There is another starting place, my friends.

Inhale truth, gobble it up. Exhale the lies that say you are not enough or are unlovable. We are all loveable, every single one of us. It is baby steps. It takes time. For many of us, the lies are thick and nasty and hard to refute.

Back in the day, I had many times of merely being able to sit in a rocking chair and rock and say to myself over and over and over again, “breathe, just breathe”. As I gave myself permission to breathe, other permissions came. Other truths came. Slowly. It came slowly, but the truth began to replace the lies I believed. I was strong. I was brave. I could heal. I could live. I was making a way for my children to live abuse free. I was/am heroic.

Truth be told, I still fight this on some level most days, but it is ok because I am learning and God is speaking. I am listening.

“You’ve been chosen by the One who won’t un-choose you”

I hope this is encouraging. I know it can be so deep that the air catches in your throat and it is barely tolerable, but truth heals.

Be Blessed my friends until next time,

Beloved – Reborn

I hope you enjoy!

Supply list under photos!