Up To The Rivers Edge
What is it that makes some people a success at something and others not as successful? It’s not always the most talented, whether in business, sports, medicine, ministry, or any number of career choices. Nor is it those who just happened to get lucky, or are at the right place at the right time. So what is it? What makes the difference?
It’s this: each of us is given a palette in life. We make the choices that will develop our Life Palette. From this palette the color and composition of the life you live is determined. How you develop your Life Palette will cause those around you to take notice, to pause and consider the beauty of a life lived with direction and destiny compared to one lived aimlessly and without effect.
You can choose to do what you wish with your life. You have been given the privilege by your Creator to completely mess up your life and make it a disingenuous forgery of what it could be. Or you can do your part to become the masterpiece God has created you to be. The palette He has to work with is up to you.
To create your Life Palette you need to discover:
- The things currently on your Life Palette keeping you from being the masterpiece God created you to be.
- The right life choices to mix on your Life Palette that will allow God to paint the canvas of your life as the true masterpiece He designed you to be.
- The values necessary for a healthy foundation to build the rest of your Life Palette upon, so regardless of what life brings your way you can continue to live as a masterpiece.
- The character, relationship, relational skills, creativity, consistency, priorities, and attitudes needed for God to dip His brush into and paint your life.
- The importance of keeping your Life Palette clean and fresh with the knowledge and abilities that will perpetuate a life lived as a masterpiece with an ever-increasing value.
I was recently painting in beautiful Yellowstone National Park and realized the limitations of the palette I’d developed as an artist. Living in the desert southwest, I don’t normally paint the incredibly vibrant greens that I found in Yellowstone; the greens in the desert are much duller, eliminating the need for a bright yellow on my palette. Until I found an art store I simply couldn’t capture the greens of Yellowstone. My palette was limiting me. (I have since painted several times in Yellowstone and love to paint from my Yellowstone references. I continue to master the beautiful greens as seen in Up To The Rivers Edge at the beginning of this chapter.) The colors on an artist’s palette will vary based on style and the desired end result; but make no mistake, what’s on the palette either limits or empowers the artist as they paint.
The same is true with your life. Make the choices today to empower the artist who created you and declared you as a masterpiece. Take some time and consider the 5 things listed in needed to discover how to create your Life Palette, which of these do you need to focus on first to get started?