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Sunning on the side of Despair... where do you lose your happiness?



  ©Laurie Pace       Graphics One Design 2020

 Sunning

This is a beautiful painting on birch wood with layers of acrylic glazing! It is ready to hang and does not need to be framed.


“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

My father-in-law had a saying.. "You can get glad just like you get mad."  We find ourselves quoting him often. Between the headlines or...wait, the SCARELINES and the current pandemic, who really knows how to react or what to believe. 

1. Where did it all start to unravel for many of us?  When did so many stop believing in God? We like to claim credit for everything we do. "I" is a large part of our outlay to others. God works in all of us, and for 'I' to take credit for it all really is not going the right direction. Now sometimes "I" choses to do something we should not and we face consequences, but the stress stays with us. God will judge us later. You will find it in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV)  "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,  treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people." 

2. What do you do when you are faced with a decision or a problem arises and you are paralyzed by it all?  Do you reach out to your best friends and poll them on how to react to it and to life? You will find our second issue is not realizing when we truly do need help and then it is going to the wrong source.  Get on your knees and seek God.  Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

3. When things really get difficult, who do you trust to get you through it? Who do you turn to in stressful times? Or should I say what do you turn to?  Remember the Father God. He wants what is best for each of us. Growing up I had a Bible verse given to me at confirmation.  It was about trusting God for everything. Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths." 

4. Do you ever lose hope? The darkness can easily pull you down into it and when you lose sight of the light, you fall into despair.  God does not want that for you or for me. Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?"

We need to all begin to focus on things differently. Look away from the 'problem' and trust that God has taken care of you throughout your life, sometimes trying to take you on a better path but realizing you need to fall and fail to come back to him.  Right now I stay focused on God in the midst of Covid and politics.  There is much more joy in doing this and the stress and fear cannot surface.  It is your choice.  

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live" Deuteronomy 30:19


Laurie Pace - A Texas Artist 







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© Graphics One Design 2020
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