A watercolor printable for you, and a new, must-read book

So teach us

My site has been quiet this past week, partly due to technical reasons which I ended up ignoring, because honestly, life is busy in a good way.

In case I haven’t mentioned it, we’ve got snow here, people. Six feet. And with it—rain in my kitchen. Insurance adjusters are coming our way soon and we’re thinking that we’ll need to replace ceilings in two rooms.

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The storm has afforded me extra time to read, paint, and have friends over.

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I told you I’d post the watercolor I designed on my way home from A.I. DuPont after Addy’s first surgery. I’m posting it here so you can print it out and enjoy it. Please consider it a thank you for praying for my niece.

I’ve entitled it “Teach us to number our days.” It’s a picture of a primitive style cabinet in my kitchen.

This is the cabinet this past Christmas.
This is the cabinet this past Christmas.

I filled it with all of the things of a woman’s life: quilts to represent security, rest, and hospitality; dishes to represent the important task of feeding bodies and carrying on family traditions; books for the imparting of wisdom. There are other “life”” things tucked in the cabinet, including baby shoes, flowers, tea cups, photos, needle and thread, etc. Yellow beeswax tapers hang on the side to represent light. Now we see darkly, as by candle light, but some days we’ll behold our Savior and see Him as he is. Amazing thought.

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These things are all crude and necessary, but imagine heaven some day. No need of blankets for warmth or security, because we’ll be in the presence of the holy, triune God.

No need of books. We’ll be with the Word itself.

Even our best china dishes will pale in comparison to the table the Lord sets before us.

Until then, we’ll rejoice that we are strangers and pilgrims here, and use our time to worship the Lord through our work.

When you see all of life as worship, the job you’ve been given to do no longer matters. Faithfulness matters. Sometimes we get this wrong. We pour our energy into “big” things to the neglect of the everyday things. This is a serious mistake. Our lives are lived in the mundane moments, and most of our opportunities to serve come in micro-events, not mountaintop moments.

We can serve pancakes and tea to our family behind closed doors and God sees it as service to Him. Don’t make your kids fend for themselves, but then kill yourself for a church ministry. That’s backwards, and honestly, not uncommon. We can embrace washing sheets and dishes with as much gratitude as standing on a stage speaking to hundreds for the cause of Christ. If our heart is worshiping God, we’ll happily serve whether on the stage or in the sick room cleaning up after children.

So teach us 8X10
One book that I want to make sure you know about that releases today on Kindle is From Good to Grace: Letting Go of the Goodness Gospel.

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This book is not a loosey-goosey feel good book. It’s not a call to let your hair down and live as you want.

It’s the secret to a powerful Christian walk. It’s letting go of the try hard life and forgetting self all together, so that you can depend on the Holy Spirit to get a hold of you and change you.

For those of you who live with self-condemnation which keeps you from really loving and serving others, this book is for you.

For those who feel like no one appreciates all that they do, this one if for you.

For those who feel like a failure as a Christian, you are so close…because you are… and that’s exactly where you need to be to grasp the grace that God provides for you.

For those of you who are doing good things for all the wrong reasons…trying to get God to like you or trying to get others to think you are a good person, this book is for you.

If you’ve spent your entire Christian walk worrying about what other people think of you, pick up  From Good to Grace: Letting Go of the Goodness Gospel.

This is one of my favorite reads of 2015 so far. (Disclosure: I received it free from the publisher. I’m purchasing it for several friends–it was that good, and it’s out today in Kindle format. Paperback is available March 3.)

Have a great week, ladies!



4 thoughts on “A watercolor printable for you, and a new, must-read book”

  • Can’t wait to print out the watercolor, can’t wait to read this book, can’t wait to see Jesus face to face at the table He sets before us 🙂 Will pray for your kitchen/ceiling work!

  • Sarah, the entire post is wonderful — but the print is absolutely beautiful. I love all of the precious, meaningful symbolism you have built into this. That is one thing the Lord has definitely showed me over the course of my Christian life — that all of life can be, and is intended to be, lived as service to Him. I have never seen one of these, but I’ve read that sometimes people would put a little plaque over their kitchen sink that read “Divine service rendered here three times daily”!

    Thank you so much for sharing this gorgeous, meaningful print. And the book sounds wonderful too!

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