Design Dabble or Do

I dabble.

I dabble in art, pretending there is talent there when there is not. I love to sculpt. It is therapeutic for me. It allows me to slow down and just be creative in a different way than writing.

Often, I begin to believe my own press and think of myself as a “sculptor” but I am not. I am a dabbler.

Sometimes I see a beautiful work of art and wonder to myself “why can’t I do something this amazing?”

Art for art’s sake is usually not good art. Usually it looks more like a craft project from summer camp more than something a curator of the modern art museum would put in the sculpture garden. I was not made to be a great artist. It is okay that I say this, because it is true. 

Some of my attempts at Art.

So why do I sculpt? I do it for me. It is the same with writing.

I will win no Pulitzers. I will not appear on The Today Show celebrating my award winning book turning into an award winning manuscript or tween movie.

I write for me. I write because I was made to. I write because when I wake, my mind is turning over phrases and sentences. I write because I am a writer. I was designed with this in mind. Pen and paper are almost holy to me: they are the tools God gave to me to do what He called me to do.

I am a Writer.

You are what? A singer? A dancer? A musician? A photographer? A ________?

Why do you sing? Why do you dance? Why do you play? Why do you capture the world in pictures? Why do you ________.

Artistic By Design

You were designed to create. After all, we are made in God’s image. He is a Master Creator. He drew the stars and the sunsets. He crafted the fish of the sea and the birds of the air. He sculpted us, and then He breathed His Life into us. His Creative Force is part of our very DNA. We are made to make stuff. 

You may think, I don’t have a talent like that. Do you cook for your family? Do you sew? Do you create creative ways to teach your children new skills or ideas? Then you have a talent. You just have not learned to value it yet.

God created you for a reason and your gift, that thing that makes you spark, is there for a purpose.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

“Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me, you are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor. ” Isaiah 49:1-3

Now Do

Do what you were made for. Do what you were designed for. Do not doubt. Start where you are. Serve where you are. Create where you are. There is purpose in you and a purpose for you. Be faithful and just begin. 

What is your gift? Share with us in the comments section below.

Design Specs

Dayna Hackett Bickham at age 16 

The Younger Version of Me

I was sixteen, working as a waitress at a locally owned fast food restaurant called Dean-o’s. Think Mel’s Diner with me as the teenage version of Alice.

I loved that job because my best friend worked there too.

Now I grew up in a small town, only about 3000 people lived there, and it seemed a large portion of those citizens were either kin to me or knew my family. I often could not “stop by” the grocery store without my parents knowing before I ever got home. So there were very few opportunities to pretend to be someone I wasn’t: except at work.

See what happened was….

Girls like to flirt and at 16 and I was honing my flirting skills. Add to that a cute out-of-town boy and my flirt would pick up an accent. (I was such a drama queen and a bit of an Anglophile, so I always picked either a British accent or an Irish accent.)

With (bad) accent in tow, I would take his order, flirting with my eyes and smile and wait for that question, “where are you from?”

And so my story-telling would begin.

See, I have always been able to spin a good story, even when I used it for something as pedestrian as flirting.

I bet you are no different.

You may not be a story teller, but somewhere, in the back of your mind there is a memory of you doing something silly as a kid. That silly story probably has a connection to who you are at the core of you.

For me I was 1) quirky 2) imaginative and 3) light-hearted.

Now, over 20 years have passed and I am not much different from that 16 year old girl, though now I leave the flirting for just my husband. Those three traits are still at the core of who I am. God designed me that way.

Now Your Turn

Close your eyes and think of a time when you were a kid and you had a moment that was fun and carefree. Now answer these two questions:

1) What about that moment was fun or made you happy?

2) What does that moment say about who you were and are at the core of you?

Finding our purpose is not wrapped up in mystery. It has more to do with how God designed you in the first place than you know. Don’t discount yourself. Who you are at the core is who God wants to use. The Manufacturer always knows what they made the “thing” for and how to use it the right way. God made you for a purpose and He did not get the design wrong.

Discussion Question: Did you ever pretend to have an accent?