Lessons from the art room
Last week, for three days, I was a substitute teacher in art, for grades third through fifth. As always, being in the art room was an interesting experience. I had subbed in there before, but not for three days. Three days spent doing anything, can give you a new perspective.
Their assignment was simple. They were supposed to create either a pumpkin, leaf, or funky turkey to help decorate their school for the Thanksgiving Feast. They had some examples to look at, but they were given a white sheet of paper, the size of their choice, and a pencil. After drawing, and then tracing in Sharpie, they could color in any way or design they saw fit. The turkeys could be dressed in any crazy costume that the kids could dream up.
After three days, I noticed a pattern. The third graders were super excited about the assignment. They gleefully took paper and got busy. My challenge with them was to get them to keep drawing and stop sharing their creations with their friends. They were also very encouraging to each other. I witnessed a lot of kindness.
The fourth grade, just one year older, tended to play it safe. They tended to choose the pumpkin more than anything. They would sometimes trace a perfectly round circle and they tended to simply color it orange. They were more self-conscious about their art. There wasn’t as much sharing.
The fifth grade had two distinct groups. There were those who loved art and knew they were good at it and those felt they had an hour to kill. The ones who loved art and creating, always went for the turkeys. They dressed them in a wide array of outfits, from Bulldog jerseys to pearls and earrings. There were fat ones and thin ones. The ones who enjoyed creating were focused solely on their creation. They didn’t seem to care much what the other kids were drawing.
It was the ones who didn’t feel like they were, “good at it,” who seemed to spend the most time looking at what their peers were creating.
As I thought about the art classes, they seemed like a perfect example of people in general, and our creativity as well. When we are young, we feel like there is nothing we can’t do.
When was the last time you attended a high school graduation? That valedictorian gives his/her speech and those graduates believe there is nothing out of their reach. But, as the invisible door silently closes on high school and life begins, dreams and aspirations tend to get lost.
Life happens. Like those fifth graders, we begin to compare ourselves to everyone else in big, and sometimes dream destructive, ways. Our dreams get lost, forgotten or put away. Some were meant to die, but some were planted by our creative Creator.
Once life happens and we have a spouse, kids, and a mortgage, we feel it’s too late. But, the bottom line is that it’s simply never too late to chase a dream. If God is behind it, it can happen at any stage of the game.
But, how do we know if it’s from Him? We have to pray a lot and spend a lot of quiet time listening. Perhaps the most important step is spending time in His Word. He would never have us pursue something contrary to scripture. It’s also really helpful to have some other Christian friends to bounce ideas off of.
Once we do all of that and that nudge is still there and that dream that we’ve locked away for so long is still calling to us, it may be time to take a leap of faith.
Stop comparing and worrying, like the fifth graders, just jump. Don’t play it safe like the fourth graders. If God has called you to it, you are in for a wild ride. What are you waiting for?
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂