Ready to bust loose from the prison of sameness and begin to explore the creative genius God has placed within the core of your being? It’s time for creativity to be a part of your Life Palette so God can paint your life with colors you’ve never even dreamed.
Outside the lines
As all four of my kids first began to color, I encouraged them to be expressive and free in their coloring. I knew it would affect their Life Palette positively if they saw themselves as being creative. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a teacher, children’s pastor, or some well-meaning person leading a class talk with me critically about my kids’ inability to color within the lines. I kindly and patiently explained how and why I’d never taught my kids to color within the lines, and I would appreciate it if they would not limit them in that way.
The more you were told to stay within the lines, the more you began to shift from being creative to confined, from artistic to analytical, from laughter to logic, from imagination to routine and ritual. It’s not that there is anything wrong with boundaries: God created many boundaries for your good, but you can’t allow them to trap you in areas of your life where He designed you to live without limits. Being analytical is not bad; you may need to be better at analyzing situations. But without creativity, you often cannot see beyond the problem you’re trying to figure out. It’s not that logic is inappropriate: quite the contrary. But when logic kills the creative seed within, it will also put to death the imagination that inspires you to try to do the thing that seems impossible and is fueled by faith. Routine and ritual are not wrong, but to allow them to steal the creative potential on your Life Palette is to live in a rut leading to a dull and lifeless existence.
Conformity Kills Creativity
When you were taught as a child to color within the lines, the intent wasn’t to purposefully squelch the creativity God put within you, but it did. It was as though you were being told you needed to conform and be like everyone else. You are a masterpiece waiting to express the very nature of God creatively through your life choices: career, relationships, all of life. Everyone is telling you to conform to their standard, not wanting you to get ahead of them or be better at something than they are. God wants to free you to express His greatness through your creativity.
Break free!
So what’s keeping creativity from being a major part of your Life Palette? Perhaps no one has ever helped you realize the creative potential that’s lurking deep in your heart and abilities. Or maybe it has been driven out of your life, banished starting from a very early age. Much of life for children is about conforming to the norm, whatever that may be. Yet masterpieces are never conforming or normal.
Over the next few days on the Life Palette blog we are going to explore 6 ways to release the creativity that God has placed within you.
(Adapted from my book Life Palette, Chapter 7, Creativity. Maybe you have a friend or loved one who would benefit from this blog, take a moment and share with them! They will be glad you did!!!)