This is a block from a cherished quilt made by my great-grandmother. I decided to embellish with color for the painting. The white lines are her quilting lines. Well, most of them are. She did only about half of them in the outer area. This is the same great grandmother that took her organ in the covered wagon to the prairie. (Emma's Organ Book)

My thought about this is what kind of inheritance am I leaving for my children and grandchildren? Not just stuff, though it is kind of fun having something my great grandmother made. The main thing I want to pass down is my faith. My greatest desire is that they would love Jesus most of all in this life and end up in heaven someday. ‘Forever in heaven’ is the greatest legacy anyone can leave.

With the Olympics going on, I thought I’d try painting a track event. The sun represents a gold medal with the birds representing the lanyard. The outlining is done with Inktense pencils. I like the ‘less is more’ approach, but I am still working on how to make that into a good painting.

I Corinthians 9:24 came to mind when I thought about running a race. It says ‘Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.’

We are encouraged to put our best effort into running this Christian race. While we can’t save ourselves by living a ‘good’ life, He has saved us to do good works, and not just get by until we get to heaven, Ephesians 2:10.

I put a hurdle in because life doesn't give us a smooth path, everyone has hurdles to overcome in life. Becoming a Christian doesn't take those away, but there is Someone going over them with you all along the way.

Our church reading plan has taken us into the book of Judges in the Old Testament. It is the story of the cycles the Israelites went through after they entered the Promised Land. The cycles go like this:

They begin by serving God, then they become comfortable in the blessings God is showering on them. Instead of being thankful to the One True God, they begin looking at the gods of the peoples around them and worshipping them, turning away from God.

Well, of course, God doesn’t like this. He is a jealous God but He also loves them, so much so that He wants what is best for them (which is a right relationship with Him) and He brings oppression to help them begin to think in the right way again.

They realize that there is only one God and He called them to be His special children. Perhaps they remembered the miracles He performed for them in their history, among them bringing them out of Egypt where they were in slavery, and into the Promised Land.

Then they cry out to God to forgive them.

He answers by sending a deliverer, a judge, to save them from the country that is currently oppressing them. Then they love and serve the Lord God again.

Judges that God used to deliver them include Deborah, Gideon, and Samson.

Are you and I in this cycle somewhere?

The Art Guild I belong to is having a Spring art show and the theme is Spring Into Dreams, and I thought I would try to make something I could enter in the show.

This is a type of collage. The sky is watercolor. The leaves are watercolor, too, but I just put paint on paper, then cut out the shapes and attached them to the sky. After some helpful comments from art guild members, I added the grass and changed the butterfly and caterpillar to Prismacolor pencil. 

While I was making this I thought of the wonderful change that will take place for believers in Christ when this earthly body will be resurrected and transformed in heaven!