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“Hope” • 24″ x 24″ oil painting • ©2017 Marie Scott Studios

When all else fails…

Do what you know how to do.

I know how to paint. I wasn’t BORN knowing how to paint. It is a skill I have spent the past 15+ years developing. Sometimes with great purpose. But more often than not in the midst of shooing off all the “WHY I am I doing this?” thoughts that buzz around my head, like tired flies looking for a place to rest.

I had nothing better to do.

So EVEN THOUGH it felt like I might be getting-back-together with an old boyfriend who made me feel really bad about myself — I started up again. Doing the one thing I really KNOW how to do.

I started painting. 

With caution. And little expectation. Or even HOPE. (Which is not really like me. At least not the Old-Me.) 

And then surprisingly… (to probably nobody but the Lost-Me.) It returned.

My old HOPE came back for me. 

It wasn’t so much the act of painting itself that found me. It was the familiar discipline of acting with purpose that helped to push the ReStart button on my brain.

My ONE purpose was simply to finish this ONE last painting. Because it was the ONE thing I knew how to do.

And within a day or two of “acting” like my old-self, I started to actually feel like my old-self. To the point that I ended up telling Ms. Lost-Self she better move on down the road because now I had some real work to do. It was time for her to find another mind to camp out in now.

Then the next thing I knew… a new, happy painting had somehow come to life inside my studio. And by the end of that week… I had four new paintings planned, drawn out, wired, and ready to keep me busy for the next six weeks.

There was no magic in painting. It was simply doing what I KNEW how to do.

But even more important than what I did with my hands, is what I started to do with my mind.

Instead of letting my mind listen to those tired, yet oh-so-persistent flies who sometimes will just NOT LEAVE ME ALONE, I listened to my heart.

If there is one thing I cannot emphasize ENOUGH — it is this:

Remember what you know to be True…

You might not believe this exact thing — but in MY heart of hearts, there is one thing I know to be True.

No matter what happens all around me, the one place I can find true HOPE is in the knowing, and then resting, in the fact that GOD is in Control. OF IT ALL. 

“Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?  Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” 
— Isaiah 40:26-31

If you would like a FREE copy of my painting called “Hope” to use on your device for the month of October — CLICK HERE.

May it bring you HOPE as you REMEMBER what you know to be TRUE.

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”
— God (Isaiah 7:9)

To view more of my paintings and read about WHY I keep on painting, visit www.remembergoodness.com.