I remember back when I was a little girl (many, many moons ago) and the pastor announced that a group from the all girls high school was going to do a visual dance at the opening of Christmas Eve services next week. There was an audible gasp. I looking at my father’s face, I thought he might make us all get up and walk out right then and there. Dancing in church was such a crazy radical concept back then that it was hard for people to understand that was a form of worship. The dance up the isle the next week was really lovely and lasted only during the first song. So here I am so many years later finding that my form of worship is also a bit non traditional. I doodle and draw while during my quite time. As I’ve noted before this really slows me down and its such a deep and refreshing time just being int The Word and being with Our Lord. This really makes my time more meaningful.
Doodling every day?I know some of you are wondering how much time I spend on this. I try to be the word every day and normally I spend 10-15 minutes a day. For more involved spreads I may spend 2 hours, but I don’t do that every day – although that is a lovely thought. In future posts in this series I am going to show you how to doodle a verse in 5 minutes or less. But the point is no matter how much time you can devote to your bible study and prayer time, doodling your thoughts is worship. Spending time with your Maker is going to be the most important minutes of the day.
Your creativity is an instrument of worship. First words of the bible tells us that God is creative. He made the world: Genesis 1:1 God created the heavens and the earth. God made everything. Since we are made in His image, it is reasonable to think that He gave us all some creativity. Creativity is really just problem solving. So we all have been given the ability to develop our critical thinking skills to solve problems. Sometimes these solutions are out of the box and we label that creative.
There’s a great article by Thomas Terry and Ryan Lister that explore the concept of creativity as worship. The article is an excerpt from their new book Idols and Images. I have not read it yet, but it’s on my reading list. I love what the article has to say and I can’t wait to read more. My calligraphy in this article are quotes from the article. The article goes on to say that our creativity should be used to bring Him worship and glory. So its really ok to doodle during the sermon and draw during your quiet time. My posts are going to be focused on helping you develop your visual vocabulary and doodling techniques to help you have a deeper and more meaningful quiet time.
You can read part 1 and part 2 of the Visual Faith series here here
Your assignment this week is two fold:
- Download the printable for this project.
Your assignment this week is to illustrate Proverbs 3:5-6 here using only black and white shapes like this:
2. Share your doodle on our Face Book Group; Bible Journaling for non artists.
I’ll share my doodles on Thursday for this verse plus some really cool surfboards I did for Lake Williamson Christian Center in Carlinville Il. Can’t wait to see what you all come up with. Please leave a comment with thoughts, questions or other topics you want me to write about. I’d be blessed if you shared this post.
Blessings,
Marsha
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