The Place of Gratitude

*A note before you read this. After doing an audit of my blog in 2022, I have decided to leave content that speaks to the Christian I was at the time this was written. I no longer identify as Christian (and haven’t for a very long time.) I chose to leave these posts because it is who I was then and it is important to me to be honest and true with every iteration and evolution of self that I experience. I may decide to add comments to the end of posts like this as well

All too often I come to this place with my pain, my hurt, my spiritual battles, my sadness.

Thank you for listening to me and carrying me with your prayers. I love you guys for that.

I forget to share my joys

and I don’t want to keep doing that. The forgetting the good.

  • My art. I’m humbled and brought to my knees that people like it, have emotional reactions to it, and want it for themselves. God moved in this in ways I’ll never comprehend.
  • Visual Prayer. monthly workshops. taking over an entire coffee shop for May to make it a private event. in-home workshops. a retreat weekend being planned in Colorado Springs in September. all because a girl couldn’t pray in her head and needed paint and paper and glue.
  • being invited to Mo*con with my art.
  • new relationships forming with like-minded, homeschooling moms.
  • Amazing connections being made from this experience. God has been confirming over and over the hard decisions I’ve been making since deciding to wipe clear all monitization from this blog and focusing like a laser on being a leader for Relief Journal and The Midnight Diner.
  • I’m honored (and yet again, humbled) to have received an invitation to write for a site I’ve admired for years. The Master’s Artist. I will be sharing my art and stories of creating it with God’s fingerprints in the paint.
  • Going here in May for a much needed respite with an old friend. We’ve not had a lot of time together and I miss her. Looking forward to being completely unplugged, on the beach, fru-fru drink in my hand.  Well, I’ll take the camera.

I don’t even want to take my phone, but I’ll need to check in. I don’t want to check email or Facebook or anything for these few days.

That’s a lot of humbling, amazing stuff. I’m in awe.

I’m keeping up with my One Thousand Gifts photo journal, too. I haven’t uploaded the most recent photos, but I will soon.

I’m just flat out thankful today.

3 thoughts on “The Place of Gratitude”

  1. YOU deserve all the PRAISE in the world!!! You are AWESOME!!! and one day, may be the next big thing! LOVE you girlfriend, LET IT ALL IN!!!!!!!!

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  2. That’s so awesome Michelle! You deserve a little break, and all the kudos for your art too. I love your spirit. 🙂 If you are being prompted to remove monetization it is so that God can do even bigger things with the avenues he’s taking you on. I wish my path was that clear!

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