Homemade tomato soup!
I ended up buying a bunch of tomatoes the other day by mistake and decided I would make use of them.
Didn't follow a recipe for this just winged it for the most part 😅 it was delicious!
Ever since God revealed to me that I don’t have to run, but I can WALK with Him.. my mentality/feelings have changed.
Every day (for the most part), I spend time with God.. not because I HAVE to.. but because I genuinely WANT to. I’m falling in love with Him FAST and I’m so SO thankful. He is my best friend. I talk to Him about EVERYTHING and one thing we’ve discussed recently is anxiety.
I’ve struggled with anxiety for years and despite knowing I need to fight against it.. I just let it control my life freely.. as if “this is just how it is”. It became a part of my identity and I more or less viewed it as something I can’t get rid of but just have to “put up” with. Reality is, as a follower of Christ I don’t have to just “put up with” anxiety.. I can overcome it through Christ. So I recently went to God and asked Him how I go about overcoming anxiety and He said to me, “baby steps.”
My sister in law was looking for someone to go to a Zumba class with her.. I’m overweight for one and self conscious.. dancing with a bunch of strangers did not sound like my cup of tea. But I felt a pull to put myself out there so I went despite feeling anxious. Baby steps.
My car is having troubles and I’ve been stressing about it because I don’t know how much it will cost to fix it. Someone gave me a rough estimate and it really discouraged me as I was SO close to paying off my credit and this now would put me further in credit debt. I made an appointment for my car but was so stressed about it that I went down a spiral of “stress spending” putting me more in the hole. I messed up for sure but was giving another opportunity to put my focus and trust in God in this situation as I had to rebook an appointment for this coming Wednesday to get the problem fixed. I don’t know how much it’s gonna cost me, but I’m not stressing about it like I was before. I know I’ll be able to pay it and I thank God for the credit card that enables me to. I’m trusting Him with it all and am confident I’ll get out of credit card debt soon despite this happening. Baby steps.
An old friend reached out to me letting me know them and some of their friends will be evangelizing downtown this Saturday and they want me to come join them. I’m not confident in doing just that quite yet and was honest with them about this.. they were encouraging however and I really feel God is telling me to at least show up and meet their friends etc. It’s making me anxious.. but I have peace this is what God wants me to do. Baby steps.
Even though these things are relatively small in comparison, they are all teaching me and training me to fight anxiety when it arises. Teaching me to let go of fear and put all my trust and hope in Christ. They are baby steps, but progress nonetheless.
Don’t beat yourself up if you’re not where you want to be or where you feel you should be. I recently was told that (I’m paraphrasing) “If you miss the mark when it comes to doing something God wants you to do, remember that you are not that important. God doesn’t NEED you to accomplish things for Him.. He can get things done with or without you. If you mess up, dont stress about it, repent where needed and keep focusing on Him.. letting yourself be open for Him to move through you”. This was incredibly encouraging to me because it takes the pressure off of me when it comes to my relationship with God. It’s my job to believe and trust in Christ and be willing and open for Him to move.. and God’s job to move. At times I will mess up… and if I mess up it doesn’t make me a failure. I am a work in progress and progress takes time. In time you’ll find yourself so much farther than you were before, just by taking baby steps.
Having A Blast
Watercolor On Black Cotton Paper
2022, 22"x 30"
Blue Purple Chinese Asters, Callistephus chinensis
Titanic: Project 401 allows you explore a jaw-droppingly authentic recreation of the RMS Titanic, from first class all the way down to the engine rooms.