I want to talk about something today that I believe is really important to reflect upon for those of us who engage in creative worship. I have lost count of the amount of times I have read comments from people on social media, often commenting on my artwork, that express worry or fear about doing something artistic in their bible.
These kind of comments make me sad because fear should not play a part in our creative worship of God. I've thought a lot about what is behind those fears, and the main driving reason for fear seems to be fear of making a mistake, fear of failure, fear of 'messing up' the bible. In response to this I want to share a little of my journey and what I've learnt about why we do what we do when we draw, paint or stamp in our bibles.
I started Bible journaling over four years ago with simple stamping and stickers. I look back on the pages I did then and some of them I like, others of them I most certainly do not. There are even a few I wish I could tear out because of the disaster they were artistically! But for me this has been a journey in overcoming perfectionism. My natural disposition is one that never wants to make a mistake, is petrified of failure, of looking foolish. This would be the case even if I wasn't sharing my art on social media, but with that added factor the perfectionism tendencies are even more of an issue. But as I've consistently created in my Bible, I've learned a few lessons along the way...
1) It's about the heart before it's about the art. The purpose of this artistic activity is not primarily the production of beautiful artwork. It is about spending time meditating on God's word and hiding it in our heart. It is about creating time for God to speak to us through his Word and for us to respond in praise, prayer and obedience.
2) Mistakes remind us that we are not God... and that is a good thing. When we hold on to the desire for perfection we forget that only one is perfect and that one is God. We are most certainly not perfect, whether artistically or behaviorally! This is good to meditate on because it keeps us humble and it reminds us of the grace and love of God, who loves us unconditionally, despite our glaring imperfections.
3) Skill in anything takes time to develop - time and a lot of practice! I know this with playing and teaching the piano. Many people would like to play beautiful piano music but are not prepared to put in the practice required to be able to do so. The same goes for art. To colour beautifully, stamp accurately and design pages with balance and creativity requires practice, practice and more practice. Often we learn best when we make mistakes and we realise that certain things don't work. That's all part of the journey of increasing in knowledge and skill!
I used the sweet Be a Flamingo set for the images on this page, and combined the Sweet & Simple Alpha and Walk by Faith sets along with some tiny alpha stickers for the verse. I couldn't resist adding some Faith Wordfetti for finishing touches! I used Inktense blocks from Derwent to colour the images, using an aquabrush to pick up the colour. The background was also created using these blocks by spritzing some water on my glass mat and rubbing the block into the water to create a little coloured ink puddle. I then picked up some of this colour with a piece of acetate and 'smooshed' it onto the page until I was happy with the overall effect. Here are the stamp sets used on this page:
Can I encourage you to say 'no' to fear when it comes to expressing your faith in creative worship and instead to embrace the process of learning about God, yourself and creativity?
With every blessing...
x Amy x
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