{"id":916,"date":"2009-07-06T22:11:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-06T22:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/?p=916"},"modified":"2020-07-02T12:13:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T12:13:41","slug":"am-i-doing-what-im-called-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/?p=916","title":{"rendered":"Am I Doing What I&#8217;m Called To Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href=\"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_8.JPG\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>A few weeks ago, at a wedding reception, a friend from way back asked if I was still doing any artwork. He had a miniature painting I had done twenty years ago, which he still admired.<br \/>A loaded question for me. I ponder it often. I have art supplies galore but take no time to paint or collage, or draw with my pastels, do a watercolor, or quilt. My energy these days goes toward working at Hallmark (and am involved in Stephen Ministry and Comfort &#038; Care).<\/p>\n<p>Now I love working at Hallmark, love my co-workers &#038; my manager, love 98% of the customers:) <br \/>But&#8230;which is my calling, my God appointed calling as I look back on close (very close) to 60 years?<\/p>\n<p>I have said often enough, and believe it, that if a person doesn&#8217;t use a God-given talent, God will take it away. Then again, I believe being invested in people is the only lasting, eternal, thing we do here this side of Heaven. So, I try to evaluate my priorities every now &#038; then.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday, Andy preached on the 4th commandment, &#8220;Honor the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy. Six days shall you labor but on the Seventh day, you shall rest.&#8221; <br \/>This week he focused on the labor part. <br \/>He said, in summary, &#8220;Work is a sacred activity, a holy, religious, activity. <br \/>Work enables us to be imitators of our Heavenly Father. <br \/>Work enables us to be producers, to be creative. <br \/>Work enables us to be givers. <br \/>Work is a way to love our neighbors.&#8221;<br \/>I soaked it in. <br \/>Good stuff:) <br \/>True stuff:)<\/p>\n<p>Andy quoted from Jacques Maritain of Christian Art: &#8220;If you want to make a Christian work, then be Christian, and simply try to make a beautiful work, into which your heart will pass; do not try to &#8216;make Christian'&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>So, work is an honor and a joy if we do it unto our Heavenly Father, and to bless our co-workers, friends, and neighbors. <br \/>And, if the Spirit nudges us to be creative, we better do it as well, for the work of art blesses God and those around us!<\/p>\n<p>SO, to all my family &#038; friends, encourage me to pick up those paintbrushes and pastels, or my needle and thread&#8212;on my days off.<\/p>\n<div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href=\"http:\/\/picasa.google.com\/blogger\/\" target=\"ext\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/pbp.gif\" alt=\"Posted by Picasa\" style=\"border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;\" align=\"middle\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; A few weeks ago, at a wedding reception, a friend from way back asked if I was still doing any artwork. He had a miniature painting I had done twenty years ago, which he still admired.A loaded question for me. I ponder it often. I have art supplies galore but take no time to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1302,"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/1302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisper.rps.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}