Kintsugi of the Soul, edition 21

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Today’s Kintsugi of the Soul* features singer/songwriter Ryan O’Neal of Sleeping At Last. He is currently creating a series of songs based on the Enneagram, a system of nine “personality types” (that are actually so much more). If you are not familiar with the Enneagram, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with it and perhaps take an inventory to see if you can identify your own type.

Ryan is in the process of releasing a song with an accompanying podcast for each of the nine Enneatypes. I have found these very helpful to not only understand myself but also those I love. Also I love hearing him talk about his creative process as a deep-thinking artist. The podcasts can be found on iTunes here. You can also find them here. I CANNOT recommend these podcasts ENOUGH!! They are amazing!!

Here’s one of my favorite Sleeping At Last songs with lyrics proclaiming “You’re enough!” In a world of comparison that makes us feel as though we can never measure up and consumerism that plays on making us feel inadequate on our own, I know many of us struggle with feelings of being not quite enough.

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Kintsugi of the Soul, edition 10

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On today’s edition of Kintsugi of the Soul*, I am referring you to a trUly BEaUtiful blog called Beauty Beyond Bones and a specific post called Glorious Wounds. The Beauty Beyond Blog shares the story of a young woman as she chronicled her battle with an eating disorder. Calling herself an ED Warrior, she writes openly and transparently about her fight for survival. The author admits her blog posts can be very graphic. However, she hopes that by shedding light on the dark battle she fought, it will help guide others (and their loved ones) on the path to recovery from disordered eating.

Beauty Beyond Bones writes:

“Jesus endured the greatest suffering of all: the Cross. And when He rose again after the third day, He greeted His loved ones and showed them the scars on His hands where He had been pierced. Thomas even put his hands in the holes. His wounds weren’t infected, but glorious and glowing. They were a victory.”

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity — Year in Review

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Create-A-Day
In December 2014, God pressed on my heart an idea that would take a year-long commitment and some serious sleuthing. And now, 253 posts and over a year later, the project is done! That project was Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity!  A play on One-A-Day® Vitamins, the idea was to refill, replenish and renew your creative soul. My goal was to provide you, the creative Christian, with resources to help develop ARTistry, CREATivity & your capacity for BEaUty.

Over the course of the year, I connected with some amazing folks doing creative ministry in many different ways and places around the world. In connection and conversation, I learned that there is a movement of artists and creatives on the leading edge of what many believe will be the next Great Awakening, as artists rise up to take their place to reveal God’s glory on this earth. Will you join those artists and creatives in making his praise glorious? Follow the Spirit’s leading in your life and reveal Christ through the BEaUty you create!!

If you’ve enjoyed Create-A-Day, be sure to like me on Facebook as I will be using that as my main platform for sharing resources of ARTistry, CREATivity, and BEaUty in the future.

In case you missed the excitement, here’s the Create-A-Day 2015 year in review:

Top series:

Top 20 individual posts:

If you’d like to explore resources from the past year, I’ve grouped them so you can explore by category:

Or you can simply click here and work your way down through wonderful plethora of creative resources! I hope you’ve enjoyed our year of creativity. If you find any dead links, comment and let me know so I can keep these resources as current as possible. Don’t forget to visit again and please use these resources for your church or ministry.

And don’t forget: Make His praise GLORIOUS!!

Blessings of ARTistry, CREATivity & BEaUty, Jody

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God's Creative Gift by Jody ThomaeJody Thomae is the author of God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You, a devotional book with Bible studies to nurture the creative spirit within and to serve as a resource for creative Christians, artists, musicians and worshippers. She has been involved in worship arts ministry since 1997, coordinating artistic involvement in church services and regional worship events through dance, drama, poetry and fine arts. She performs, teaches, choreographs, preaches, coordinates and leads workshops in the area of creativity, spirituality and embodied prayer. JodyThomaeCDcoverart_FA_printShe has also recently released a devotional CD, Song of the Beloved. Her passion is for the revelation of God to be made more real through the prophetic use of the arts in church and formational ministry. It is her desire to portray the message of Christ’s desperate and unfailing love for His people to help sustain the hearts of the broken and weary. Life scriptures include Psalm 27; Isaiah 50:4-7; and Zephaniah 3:14-17.

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #245 — There… Amazing Grace Extended

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S x manger3Want to explore resources from two writer / poets today.

First, we’ve explored the work of artist / author Tom Graffagnino before. Today I want to direct you to his page where you can read and meditate on his poem There… Amazing Grace Extended, complete with many BEaUtiful names of Christ WITH scripture references!! It would make a wonderful way to meditate on God’s word today. Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #179 — 31 days of Living Art

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31 Days of Living Art is a blog series from Emily P. Freeman, which includes 31 posts (originally planned for the month of October but could be done anytime). These wonderful posts are designed to help you realize the artist within you, the artist God created you to be!

It was also designed to go along with Emily’s book, A Million Little Ways. And speaking of books… October is National Book Month so I’ve been saving all the book resources to feature in October. Trouble is, there’s more books than days! That’s a great trouble to have though because that means there are many great resources for your creative library. So the book feature starts tomorrow. By the end of October we’ll have over 35 books for creatives, artists and worshipers!! So dust off your shelves and get ready to load them up with books all written with YOU, God’s creative gift to the world, in mind! Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #178 — Take Better Photographs

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pipafineart.com

I don’t necessarily consider myself a photographer but I do like to capture moments. And who doesn’t want to capture those moments in an eye-pleasing way?

Today’s feature is a short and simple article on compositional balance in photography. It was posted by PI Photography and Fine Art (PIPA): a site where you can find galleries of wonderful nature-inspired photographs. Head on over to find out how to improve your images with balance, and while you’re there check out the Portfolios and Galleries to “find the extraordinary in the ordinary.”

If you want to keep exploring, PIPA also posted another article recently called Photography Mistakes: Stop Screwing Up Your Shots with professional photographer Joshua Cripps. This one includes an entertaining video to help you stop making “stupid” mistakes! Great tips and some chuckles for free!! Enjoy!

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #172 — Healing Power of Art

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Today I want to connect you to a powerful article entitled The Healing Power of Art by Dr. Dianne B. Collard. She quickly admits she is not an artist but her story of healing through the arts leads her to implore believer-artists to keep creating:

“Please,” I concluded, “as a non-artist believer, I beg you: Do not stop engaging in your art. Don’t stop exercising your creative gifts. Especially don’t abandon the church—no matter how hard it might be. The world needs your gift, the church needs it, but most of all, I—a non-artist sister in Christ—desperately need it.”

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #171 — Art Lessons from God

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ALFGToday I want to direct you to Tony Snipes who lives to “help creative people discover their purpose.” Sounds like a man after my own heart!! He offers many resources and ideas for artists and creatives.

First let’s start with Tony’s Facebook Page: Art Lessons from God. Here you can find quick links to the latest offerings from Tony. Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #167 — Teachers & Art Making a Difference

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Art TeacherConnecting you to an article entitled Teachers, Art and Things That Last Forever by author Michele Bledsoe, author of The Secret Kingdom, a children’s book of paintings and poetry celebrating the world of dreams. This article is short but it sure packs a punch!

If you are a teacher, especially an art teacher, never doubt for a moment that you make a difference in this world!! And if someone hasn’t told you this lately….THANK YOU!

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #153 — Vonda Drees Art Journaling

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Beloved  (c) 2015 Vonda Drees

Beloved
(c) 2015 Vonda Drees

We’ve looked at art journaling several times this year (you can check out last week’s post with links to the other posts by clicking here). Today I want to direct you to the blog of Vonda Drees: Journaling the Spirit’s Stirring. Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #120 — Vulnerability in Creativity

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In this article entitled “Keys to Creativity: Vulnerability” by Diana Pitaru of Unleash Your Creativity blog, she encourages the reader to step into a place of vulnerability in their creative process. Yet she recognizes that’s much easier said than done:

“Vulnerability can be a hard to reach place because we’ve been trained to bury it and stay away from it. It feels uncomfortable because this is where all our demons hide: the things that marked us, terrible things we’ve felt and parts of us that we learn are unwanted. . . “

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #119 — Creativity A’Blaze’

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Maddy prom selfieToday’s post is dedicated to my daughter Maddy in celebration of her birthday. You are Madelyn Ruth, Magnificent Companion of God! You are my BEaUtiful daughter, ablaze with adventure and life!

I’ve posted the work of artist Colleen Briggs of Fragments of Light before. Want to direct you there again! This artwork and her accompanying story will certainly bless your day. As you read the story, you will quickly see it is an analogy for something much larger.

colleenbriggs.com

colleenbriggs.com

So click here to head over to her post entitled Blaze, and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you as you read and enjoy her work.

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #103 — Create a Better Life

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D Weiss Creative

Need some creative inspiration and practical tips to get your new idea, dream, vision, project, or product up and running? Then check out this latest offering on DWeiss Creative! He’s been working on a 48 day project since mid-April called Create a Better Life: finding your creativity, putting it to work, building a better life. With 48 days of posts, he’s been creating a webinar for people who want to…. yes, you guessed it….create a better life by bringing their ideas to life! As you watch the project unfold through the postings, you get to see step-by-step what it takes to bring a creative idea, brand or product to life!! This journey of creativity ends May 30th with the release of Dave Weiss’ own project: the Build a Better Life webinar! It’s been fun watching this project develop!!

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WordPress Family Award

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WP Family AwardThank you Ellie of New Creations Ministries here on WordPress for nominating me for The WordPress Family Award. I humbly accept! Ellie writes about lifestyle and nutrition from a Biblical perspective. I love her insights! She is an author of several books and she offers “Life’s Too Short to Eat Bad Cheese” Seminars for women’s groups.

And yes indeed, life is way too short to eat bad cheese!! Continue reading

Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #95 — Wonderful Ache of Beauty

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O rainbow-eyeNot wasting much time here today. Want to direct you to an amazing article called The Wonderful Ache of Beauty (Why We Need Art) by writer Jeff Gions.

Head on over—it is very much worth the read. And make sure you listen to the song—it is very much worth the listen!

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #87 — Redemptive Art

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As a Christian artist or creative, it is important to consider the redemptive value of your work. When viewed from a worldly perspective, we think of art in terms of monetary value—have we sold original pieces, prints, copies, songs, albums, scripts, . . . ? And we limit the value of our work to units sold. However, when we open ourselves as creatives to a heavenly view of value, we come to realize a whole new commodity. Are we changing lives, healing hearts, revealing beauty, seeking justice, claiming hearts for Our Creator? We begin to realize that there is a greater redemptive value to our work.

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #80 — Creative Awakenings

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God has spoken into the heart of many creatives I know saying “2015 is the year of CREATIVITY!”  Today features one of those people!

b BoultonCreative Awakenings is the blog of preacher, teacher, pastor and author Bernard Boulton. On his blog, he offers encouragement and wisdom to artists and creatives of all mediums and forms. With the heart of a pastor, Bernard is committed to helping build the kingdom of God in and through His creative people.

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #78 — Interactive Prayer Stations

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P praying sunriseReferring you to the Interactive Prayer Station tab of Still Waters blog today. Still Waters is the blog of Pastor Theresa who is a self-described second generation Korean-American Pastor and Mother. On her blog she has posted instructions and photos for well over 50 different themed interactive prayer stations focusing on everything from Epiphany, Lent, and Advent, to various Gospel stories, social justice issues, as well as light, love and baptism.

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #75 — Creative Writing Prompts

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by Louis crartist FlickrToday’s post is for writers of all types: authors, bloggers, script writers, playwrights, songwriters.

Christian Creative Writers offers two sets of writing prompts to help get your creative juices flowing:

Christian Writing Prompts

Creative Writing Prompts

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Create-A-Day: your daily dose of creativity #73 — Being Creative & Sustaining Creativity

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thecreativeepiphany.wordpress.com

thecreativeepiphany.wordpress.com

The Creative Epiphany is the blog of artist Jo Ann Brown-Scott. I want to point you to two specific posts:

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