All posts tagged: #CreativeMotivation

Waiting for Your Eggs to Hatch: 3 Things To Do While You Wait

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*Revised from November 18, 2014 For many years now, I have been likening my creativity to that of motherhood. I often speak of my creations as my children, each with their own personality, some more giving than others, while some are just outright unruly. Through the span of the years, my creativity has produced many fruits that I cannot help but be grateful for. My spirit, soul, and mind have truly been fed and exercised which is why I created this platform for in the first place. But there have been seasons, and will likely be others that come, that as if everything is at a sudden standstill. These are seasons where you feel like you have nothing to say or give but at the same time, you recognize that you have so eggs in your creative basket. I will admit that I have experienced this anxious feeling while sitting in my creative silence. What to do? What to do? What to do? If I could compare this feeling to anything, it would be the …

Claim Your Outcome: Choose Your Own Adventure pt 3

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The choice is yours’. We’ve heard that in many different scenarios but often times we tend to shun away from that conceptual truth when it comes to our faith-walks. Yes, we as children of God, creatives seeking His divine purpose for our lives, have surrendered our lives and eternity to Him. Yes, we like Christ Jesus, should daily be in submission to His plan with a not our wills but Yours ever on our lips. In short, His will should always be our will…but we do have a choice. THE CHOICE TO TRIUMPH “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil,  in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.” ~DUETERONMY 30:15-16 From the onset of creation, our Heavenly Father has given us choices, choices that would dictate the course of our lives. It is never …

Get Out Of The Box!: A Challenge To Be Creative

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“You’ll never think outside the box if you are constantly looking inside someone else’s…Sometimes the most incredible imagination sparks from nothing.” ~CANDICE COATES We are all inspired by something or someone. This is the chain of life and it is a good thing. As King Solomon put it, “There is nothing new under the sun.” (ECCLESIASTES 1:9) The beauty of life is that with each passing of generation to generation, what was once ‘usual’ to the person stepping into eternity, becomes something ‘unique’ for the person who experiences it for the first time. The old and forgotten becomes new again. It is a beautiful thing to glean from the creative wisdom of others, but when we no longer allow our own imaginations to spark with new creative fire, because of the shackles of fear which tell us to play it safe, we are doing nothing more than regurgitating ideas. Our Lord Jesus spoke and created from nothing (HEBREWS 11:3) and in His goodness, He gave us the DNA to do the same. Creativity takes chances. Imagination …

Treasures in Transition: Discovering the Glory of Changing Seasons

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“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” ~ANNE OF GREEN GABLES There is something so magical and wonderful about the changing of seasons. For me, I especially love when Winter turns into Spring, or my absolute favorite when Summer puts on her comfy clothes and dresses up for Autumn or Fall. Greens that have been scorched by the heat suddenly burst forth with a new vibrancy and dancy on the limbs of trees in fiery rays of ochres and reds. The scent in the air shifts to something sweet that smells of apples and smoke. The chill that kisses away the heat teases with a fresh effervescence. The season of Harvest is upon us. TREASURES IN THE TRANSITION Harvesting one last time: As I have mentioned before, there is something grand that I love about this season. It’s a moment of pause, a time to pull up from our soil the last seeds planted and turn the soil once again in preparation for another season of sowing that will come in …

Change Your Response: Choose Your Own Adventure pt 2

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It was a kneejerk reaction!” “I did it subconsciously.” “It was muscle memory.” I am sure that all of us have used these phrases more times than we can possibly count. They are the things that we say when we are able to, for the good or the bad, give a response or reaction in any given moment without thought. It’s what we do by rote. We’ve done it so much that our flesh knows what to do without even being told to do so. Having worked in retail, I had gotten to a place, that without thinking, or even looking, I could easily push in the computer function for a credit card payment. On the one hand, being able to do so was very efficient. On the other, it was a hindrance especially if I had asked the customer what for of tender they were using to pay and their choice was not credit. Still, without fail, my fingers would jump ahead and punch in the function for credit and I would have to …

A word on Contentment

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“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”    ~HEBREWS 13:5 Be content. The statement can be seen as a command or a verbalized form of permission. Be happy. Be wise. Be joyful. Be content. One of the biggest mountains that I face is the mountain whose shadow attempts to cast its darkness upon my garden of contentment. Lack of contentment, for me and I am certain many if not all of you, comes from the need to “do more.” I seem to be in a constant state of growth as I divorce myself from this out ‘need’, but there are a few straggly roots that are still present in my heart. The need to do more makes me measure and count and compare, as if my life is on some scale. And we all know that comparison kills. This attitude and mid-set, like that mountain, stands in opposition to my faith. …It is a hard …

Confronting a Crisis of Faith by Briana Lassiter

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” ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” ~JEREMIAH 33:3 We all experience a crisis of faith at different times in our life. During that crisis, we can do two things. We can stifle the questions out of learned religious behavior or the fear of being rejected by God, or even of fear of what we may find. Or we can ask those questions, and allow things in our faith to get ugly for a time until our questions are answered. If we ignore our crisis of faith or our doubt and unbelief, not only does it leave the door open for more doubt and unbelief to fester, it also closes off the possibility of our questions being answered if we refuse to ask. As He says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). If we just allow ourselves to ask God our questions, it opens the door for Him to speak the answers we need to hear …

Refusing ‘Fake’ but Feeling Through Faith: Faith Emotions pt 1

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“God can’t do anything with our ‘fake’, but He can do all things with our ‘faith’.” ~CANDICE COATES Not too long ago, I was surfing through my social media feed, and like many times before, I came across several posts saying, “Fake it til you make it,” or, “I’m just going to fake it til I make it.” I am sure, that you, like me, have seen or heard that saying before or have maybe even made it your mantra a few or more times during your life. This particular day, however, the Lord interrupted my social media perusal and said, “Candice, I can’t do anything with your ‘fake’, but I can do all things with your faith.” You see, we have been cultivated in a culture that has taught us that our true feelings and emotions are not only disturbing to others but sadly and falsely, unacceptable to display, especially before God. We have subconsciously embraced the ideology that says if we express any sign of fear, or anger, or pain, that we are …

Fire Through The Window: The Season of Preparation

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  The Fall By Candice Coates, written September 28, 2015 The world looked like fire from the view of her bedroom window. The leaves on the trees had been set ablaze by the match called Fall. Life as she had known it, of thin layers and barefoot days, was slowly burning to smoke, leaving behind ashes of leather boots, sweaters and the scent of earth in the air. “I love the fall,” she said. “There is something lovely about it. It reminds me of the perfect kiss; sweet and intimate, zestful with the shock of chilled lips that slowly ebb into a warmth that leaves you hypnotized, never wanting to let go.” She closed her eyes to the warm caress of the sun’s rays sliding over her eyelids like the softest silk before she pushed away from the window. She wrapped herself within her own arms and smiled brightly. No one was there with her, no one except God, the One who had created the Fall with her in mind and heart. The Beginning. THE BLESSING …

What It Takes: A Message For Success

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“It takes time to be a success, but time is all it takes.” ~UNKNOWN What we desire in this life, what we aim to achieve if it is truly a worthy and honest endeavor it is worth the time it will take to make it manifest. Don’t allow the progress of others to discourage you in your journey. You are in a race against only one person; yourself. The prize at the end of this race is having achieved your highest potential. This crown only fits your head. The choice is yours. Time is in your hands. Determine to take one step at a time. *Revised from November 6, 2015 *Photo by Leon Macapagal on Unsplash