Judy Barron

When your thoughts have torn at the lining of your strength, take heart. Hold on. There is grace for this.

There are seasons that do not merely wound us; they wear us thin. They unravel us strand by strand until we hardly recognize ourselves. The kind of sorrow that keeps us awake when the house is quiet. The kind of disappointment that replays itself like a song we never asked to hear. The kind of waiting that stretches across months and years and leaves our hearts weary from carrying hope.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, we begin to believe the lie that what happened to us has become who we are.

But beloved, you are not the sum of what happened.

You are not the betrayal.

You are not the divorce.

You are not the diagnosis.

You are not the failure.

You are not the grave you stood beside.

You are not the unanswered prayer that still aches in your chest.

You are not the chapter that broke you.

You are not the mistake that haunts you.

You are not the worst thing that has ever happened to you.

You belong to God.

And His voice speaks a deeper truth than your pain ever could.

The enemy would love to reduce your identity to a scar. To convince you that your suffering is your name. To make you believe that because the storm passed through your life, you have become the storm.

But God does not introduce you by your wounds.

He calls you redeemed.

He calls you beloved.

He calls you chosen.

He calls you His.

And perhaps you feel exhausted from carrying questions with no answers. Perhaps your mind has wandered the same dark roads so many times that they have become familiar territory. You have searched every memory for explanations. Turned over every stone. Replayed every conversation. Wondered if one different choice might have changed everything.

Oh weary heart, there comes a moment when analysis cannot heal what only grace can touch.

There comes a moment when God gently takes our trembling hands and says, “Enough. Come sit with Me.”

The Lord specializes in people whose strength has been torn at the seams.

Jacob limped.

David sinned.

Jeremiah mourned.

Peter failed.

Thomas doubted.

Paul carried thorns.

Yet God filled every crack with His Glory.

What if this season is not proof that you are falling apart?

What if it is proof that God is making room for Himself in places you once relied on your own strength?

What if these tears are watering something eternal?

What if this breaking is preparing a greater beauty than you can presently imagine?

The shattered places of your life are not wasted in His hands.

He is the God who gathers fragments.

The God who restores ruined cities.

The God who makes deserts bloom.

The God who steps into tombs and calls dead things by name.

Take heart.

Not because the road is easy.

Not because the outcome is guaranteed to look the way you hoped.

Not because every question will be answered tomorrow.

Take heart because Jesus is still Jesus.

Take heart because grace has not run out.

Take heart because mercy is still new this morning.

Take heart because the Shepherd has never lost sight of one wounded sheep.

Take heart because even now, while you feel weak, God is sustaining you with hands that never tremble.

Your identity remains untouched.

You are not the ashes.

You are the one He will raise from them.

You are not the valley.

You are the one He walks through it with.

You are not the sorrow.

You are the one He loves in the middle of it.

You are not what happened.

You are His.

And that changes everything.

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Promises Kept

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The Savior in our Grief

This was shared by Melissa Triplett  at the WW conference in Provo on Friday - she gave me permission to share it here :

Think about what others have said about your loss. Phrases that start with "At Least..."

"At least he isn't suffering anymore." "At least he is no longer battling addictions. He's free now"

Christ never said "At least." He has never edited my pain, trimmed it down to something more acceptable-more spiritually comfortable. He has never asked me to be grateful for my grief.  He does not rush my hurt towards a silver lining. He does not correct my tears or shame my questions. He does not flinch at my pain. 

He sits where hurts. He lets the silence stretch and tears fall without needing an explanation. He lets grief speak it's native language. With heave groans, sobs and wordless prayers that ache their way Heavenward. He doesn't say "At least this happened for a reason."

He says "Blessed are those that mourn"

He does not say "At least you are strong"

He says "Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

There is no minimizing in His presence. No pressure to be ok before I am healed. Only a Savior, acquainted with grief who never asked me to apologize for my raw and naked grief. 

How do we move forward? By reaching our hand towards our Savior and asking him to walk with you. By waking up each day and deciding to be a fireweed and not the ashes.

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Colors and Color Mixing

I created this for the watercolor class I teach.  It shows which direction the warm and cool of each primary leans.  For example, a warm red leads orange/yellow while a cool leans blue/purple.  When mixing a secondary, if both primaries lean toward that secondary color, it will be vibrant. If one leans towards and the other leans away, it will be slightly dulled.  If they both lean away, then the color is more neutralized and can look gray or brown.  For a vibrant orange, you need warm red and warm yellow. For a vibrant green, you need cool yellow and cool blue. However, for a vibrant purple, you need cool red and warm blue. 

As far as determining which specific colors or pigments are warm or cool, if I can't determine it visually I will typically look it up on the brand's web page.  I downloaded a PDF from Daniel Smith that lists all of their colors and whether they are warm or cool.

Cool to me would be a color with blue in it, I think of the sky, the water.  Hot, warm tones , I   think of the sun, yellows, oranges.  A cool red   (  alizarin crimson, has  blue in it.  )  A warm red  has yellow in it, more orange.  (Cadmium  red light.     Cadmium orange )

Take a look on this site, lots of good in depth info, http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html

If you have questions like this I find the www.handprint.com site is great for such information. Bruce Macevoy spent years researching watercolour pigments and their behaviour. He has info on a primary palette secondary palette etc. Pity he stopped quite a few years ago, so some brands and extra colours have appeared since then but it’s still my go to guide!

Easiest way to explain warm and cool colours...All colours in nature go blue grey in the distance and they go cooler...Warmer colors are closer to the viewer....  eg ..cool yellow will have a greenish tinge where a warm yellow will have a orange tinge...green brown is cool  ..a red brown is warm.

Mix burnt sienna with Ultramarine Blue for natural, non-muddy shadows.

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I use up left over paint on my mixing palette and paint onto watercolor paper or even cardstock. I use the painted papers for- 

Mixed media base 

Gel printing

Card components - use to layer,

   stamp images / backgrounds 

Tags - for gifts, altered books, 

   layers for greeting cards, etc.

Bookmarks (I like to buff with 

   art wax to keep the color from

   transferring with damp fingers

   onto the book)

Postcards (same buffing with 

   wax to protect image thru

   the postal service

Endless possibilities!

When mixing neutrals, I do it on a plastic cover or a small ceramic plate that I just reuse without cleaning. One part is cool neutral, and the other part is warm. I might even just clean my other palettes into this if I need to clean them. All useful for doing value studies.

Good Will store for pallets & cute brush holders!!

Great palette / color pans can be found at Asian stores. 

Have more than one pallet  so that you can save mixes you used for one project for a different project, so the paint doesn't go to waste. 

When you reach the point where you do need to clean the pallet, make pallet cleaning abstracts on cheap paper and use them for backgrounds for crafting or for note cards. Liquefy the leftover paint when it's down to a reasonable amount and wipe it onto other paper with paper towels in nice abstract smushes.

Never throw your empty tubes in trash. Take scissors, cut open the tube and place in a container with lid. Add a little water and mix. You will have a lot of paint coming out of the empty tube.

I have so many paint pallets that I have all the paint I have used so far. Let it dry and use those paints before adding more onto a clean pallet. I have paint tubes bc I prefer to have it already wet to start with…but i let them dry on pallet and then work from those paints till they are gone. Rinsing your pallet after every painting wastes a lot of paint. I buy smaller watercolor paper blocks to take on the go and I keep the larger paper at home for bigger pieces. Also cutting the larger ones in half helps conserve paper and paint. I only have one pad of arches paper that’s pretty large, so I cut those down, but the blocks are good sizes so I leave them alone.

Paint small paintings 4x4, 4x6, 5x7.  Cut them out of larger 100 percent cotton paper

I use the (clean) tops of pizza boxes as a work area to tape my paper to. They work great and are very sturdy. Can recycle them when (IF) they ever wear out.

Paint: 

- Instead of a full set, get only your favorite pigments across brands that you’ll really use. 

- Don’t fall for fancy pigment names, check pigment numbers and properties before buying a new pigment. The same pigment can have different names across brands. 

Paper:

- Even if you love Arches,  maintain a economical cotton journal/sketchbook (Bee Creative sketchbook, Etchr, ArtBeek, Baohong) for regular practice. It is freeing, encourages exploration (new styles/techniques/subjects) and painting more often. 

- Choose a paper that matches your needs of the project (styles, pigments and techniques you’ll be using). Makes painting enjoyable and yields better results. 

Ruling pen: 

- easy masking application and cleanup

Cut a foam drink koozie or pool noodle so brushes can dry tip down. Cut slits in the top and slide brush into slit so it hangs down. 

I buy Arches 10x14 and cut it to 4 5x7s