I am a BIG fan of good,
sound, prayerful, Christ-centered counseling…now. Prior to the year 2001 you would have never
seen me near a counseling office.
Counseling was for the weak…for those who had problems…for people who
had “issues.” In 2001 God did me a huge
favor…He showed me myself in all my pathetic weakness and need. Guess where I ended up? Yes, indeed…in counseling.
I had a wonderful Christian
counselor who was really quite a saint.
First thing I did when I walked into her office was make it very clear
what I would NOT talk about. (And I
thought I didn’t have issues:). God bless my sweet counselor…she simply
smiled at me and said, “OK.”
One afternoon just as I was
getting up to leave she said, “Cherri, I want you to work on something for me
over the next two weeks. I want you to
draw a line across a blank piece of paper.
Above the line at the top write ‘HAPPY.’
At the bottom of the page write, ‘SAD.’
Then I want you to remember back to your very first memory and graph
that memory above or below the line to the extent that you felt happy or
sad. As you think back over your life,
graph your memories on the line and bring it to our next counseling session.”
Two weeks later, I handed my
counselor my graph and she thanked me then promptly put it into a file. A bit anti-climactic after two weeks worth
of work, but at my next appointment, she answered the door with my paper in her
hand. Just about the first words from
her mouth were, “Cherri, did anything jump out at you while you were creating
this graph?” I had to be honest…nothing had
“leapt from the page.” Even as she
showed it to me again, I did not see one thing that would make me say, “Ah! Ha!!!!” For the next hour we talked about this graph
and for the first time in my life I understood myself with a clarity I had
never experienced. She noticed that
nearly every good memory I had happened outdoors…summer vacations camping, working in the
woods with my dad in our family firewood business, or time spent playing
outside in the neighborhood where I grew up.
Most of my bad memories happened inside four walls: some inside the small
house where I grew up. As I think back on that timeline, my life…my
childhood was trying to tell me something about the art in my life and what
fuels it.
In the book we are doing
together, our author tells us that sometimes we need to “look back” and
“rescue” the art we were making even as children. I can tell you that in my life, a lot of my
art happens outside of four walls.
Whenever I can, I am outside. I
don’t even have to be “far out.” A
backyard will do just fine. My favorite place to write and do my Bible studies
is outside at the table on my backyard patio especially around sunrise. At this moment I am outside typing away and
this is the beauty God has given this morning at Lake Tahoe where I
am visiting my sister!
I was talking with my
granddaughters one day about beauty. I
asked them what they see as beautiful. Their list was much like my own: sunsets
and sunrises, wind blowing in treetops, poppy covered fields, billowing
thunderheads that fill the sky. God’s
creation fills me and inspires me to create art that I hope with all my heart
glorifies the Maker of all good things.
I hope pictures of sunsets, and forest paths, descriptions of sunrises
and a valley covered in wildflowers, or a waterfall cascading down a
mountainside, fill people with wonder and turn their eyes to an incomparable
Creator.
Do yourself a favor. Sit down with a blank piece of paper and your
memories. Graph the happy and the sad
and see if your art peeks out at you from behind those lines. Rescue your childhood love for ____________ (whatever
you might find) and bring it out in the open to bring joy to others and glory
to God.
Look back and rescue what God
gave you from the beginning!
Love to you, my dear gifted sisters!
Cherri
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