I have just posted the two self portraits of myself. The first I painted when I was fifty. The second I just finished it yesterday age 84. I find it a little harder to steady my hand anymore when working with oils. But I still enjoy painting as much as ever. Its always a challenge to start a new portrait as I cannot always get the brush to say what I want it to say. Stubborn is the word. Sometimes everything just goes on the canvas so smoothly till I almost think I’ve finally learned the trick. But the next time nothing seems to agree with me, and I spend hours, even weeks, trying to satisfy my eyes. That one last touch of satisfaction is slow in coming making it hard not to give up. I have learned not to linger on the same painting for long.
The weather here has cleared off nicely, and I am waiting for the crew to clean up our broken limbs. Some people were without power here for a week. They had no heat and it was very cold. I was fortunate to just be without power for twelve hours. I offered my home for a friend to come and stay with me, but she wanted to stay home. I think she stayed in bed most of the time. I thought about all the plagues God put upon His people when they grumbled and complained about hardships they were having to deal with after leaving Egypt. This is probably because I have been reading the Old Testament when the children of Israel were being led out of Egypt. They faced many desperate times when they didn’t even care if they died. God put some terrible plagues on them including deadly snakes that bit and killed many. I get real depressed when I read the Old Testament, but its still part of God’s word that He included with the New Testament. We cannot count it as a horror story. It is as real today as it was when God delivered his children out of Egypt. Of course we as of today have Jesus blood to help us, but we do not have the right to treat Him disrespectfully. I have to believe God still sends hardships to warn His Children about getting too possessed with easy, careless living. I also believe punishment is still in style just like in days of old. The ice storm was an act of God, no doubt. Some will say that’s nature. Of course that’s nature, but who controls nature? I can say this, God will always judge His children according to their deeds. He will not, not forgive anyone who asks for mercy and seeks to live a better life. I suggest when we have bad things happen to us, let us examine our own lives to see if we have missed something. A daily repentance is a good habit to form, and reading the bible daily is the icing on the cake.
God Bless
Myrtle Jean Sharp
No comments:
Post a Comment