I Call Myself an Artist To God's Glory

• Ruth E. Robbins

  Lover. Mother. Daughter. Friend. Artist. Live the passion and creativity hidden deep in your soul and in that your heart will sing. Soli Deo gloria!

Original art by Ruthie Robbins

On my profile page of Instagram I have dared to call myself an artist. I grappled with even coming to terms with what that means or if I had earned the right to be such a thing. Do you have to wait for someone else to give you that distinction? Do you have to have gone to art school or practiced your craft a certain number of years before donning that title?

I believe the answer to that question and all the other questions I have surrounding it have to do with feeling worthy or capable. I struggle to be confident in who God has made me to be. I doubt the strength and gifts I have and their use in the world around me. My qualifications in the other areas can be written out in resume form. It can be attested to that I have served as a faithful love to my husband for 18 years. I am a mother to 4 wonderful boys. I am indeed a daughter born into an earthly family and daughter to our Heavenly Father by adoption on the cross. And I am a friend, just look at how many Facebook friends I have! Ok, just kidding on that one, that is no actual measure of being a friend. I have a sarcastic side that permeates much of my speech and too often my parenting. But ARTIST, can I say that I am an artist just because I paint? I see it much in the same way I would be leary of calling myself a writer. Though I have written many things, I have had nothing published.

Are you starting to sense the problem here? This is all about me and what I am qualified or not qualified to do. It is about what I can do. My strength. My gifts. Me. Me. Me.

This is a big problem.  

1Peter 4:10-11 says, "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen." 

 

We are clearly shown even our gifts are not about us, they are for God's glory and the benefit of others. So to this end I desire to offer my art as a gift, a testimony to the gospel and the hope that is within me. Selfishly I want the fame and accolades, but deeper still is the desire to make it not about me. That is really hard to do. It is part of a daily prayer asking God to conform my desires to His, to make me want and seek after that which He seeks. It is a prayer of confession for all the ways I have made it about me, that I have wallowed in self pity and doubt and even jealousy. It is a prayer for God to let me see who and how I can bless others with my art. It is a prayer of contentment, asking God to make me satisfied with where He wants my art to be used.

Do you have a passion or gift that you desire to use for His glory, but aren't sure how to? Are you timid in sharing it with the world or even your family because you doubt it's usefulness or your ability? You are not alone. It is far to easy to make things about ourselves whether in our pride or timidity, but by His grace daily we seek Him in prayer and study of the Word. I believe that through these means God changes us and frees us to live a life for Him and not ourselves.

So what does this mean for me as an artist? I will challenge myself to grow in my craft, to be willing to take chances and to share the messy process of creating with people who are interested. I can share my paint and space with the young college student who needs an outlet. I can give a painting to a friend for her birthday. I can sell my paintings at affordable prices. I can let the Word inspire what I paint because whether I paint a sunset or geometric shapes or a fun graffiti piece it is all an overflow from my heart, a heart seeped in the truth of God's Word.

All to His Glory,

Ps. If you are interested in checking out more of my art you can find it here on my Instagram page www.heartsongstudiova.com