Get Out Of The Boat |Don’t Settle For Comfortable| Starting My Painting Career

October 1, 2018 by Kate Matthews Leave a Comment

“Get out of the boat.”

It is funny how God brought an uncomfortable message “Get out of the boat” and “Don’t settle for comfortable” to me in the sweetest way.

This piece is very special to me because it was my first prophetic painting.

Prophetic sounds sketchy and had only heard term prophetic painting the day before I painted this.

Sitting in a womens worship gathering and listening to the different prayers covering the different mountains of influence and callings a familiar thought crept into my head… “where do I belong?”

I have always been somewhat envious of others and there knowing of their calling or their life’s purpose. They seemed so sure and focused on what they were supposed to do with their life. I on the other hand have struggled and searched to find my calling. I have had many different careers and degrees but always came up empty until that night.

Women whose calling was in art or media were asked to stand up at the meeting so that they could be prayed over. I remained seated thinking I would not stand up the entire evening because I do not know what my mountain of influence is or has ever been. Head bowed, praying for the other influencers I had no idea my life was in for a big change.

My friend Ashley, whose calling is ministry, got up from her chair and walked over to me. She knelt beside me and whispered to me a question. “Do you paint?” “I have before.” Was my reply. Ashley continued “I just had a vision of you painting.”

I kid you not when I say that I started to get a warm feeling in my stomach and heart. A spark had ignited my purpose. Ashley told me about some prophetic art she had seen and what it was and then went back to her seat. Up until this point I had never heard of prophetic art.

God is such a gentleman. He did not yell at me or grab me, he leaned in close and whispered sweetly.

The next day I painted this picture. I had no idea of what I was going to paint but the message God gave me at the end was “Get out of the boat.”

I have been staying in the comfort of my boat. I have been isolated from people. I was not able to help anyone including myself. So WOW! The message resonated with me so much! I knew it was from God because I would not say that to myself. My own thinking had kept me stagnant for so long.

This piece was the beginning of a beautiful journey for me. God bought color into my dark world and not only gave me a way to hear Him speak more clearly to me but also gave me a way to have a voice!

Grow Your Focus Accomplish Anything

April 9, 2017 by Kate Matthews Leave a Comment

Focus…
Many great things have been accomplished because of one thing…Focus.
When we are able to focus our minds on one thing and provide energy to a task we are rewarded by the results. Grow your focus, accomplish anything!

Focus is an easy enough concept but the practice of this simple word is extremely difficult. This word requires action and learning how to tame distractions. Like any muscle in the body the brain also requires exercise to stay strong and function properly. Focusing is like lifting weights. In the beginning it is best to start with low weight and slowly work your way up to increasing the amount on the bar. Focusing is skill that can be developed and honed to help you succeed in pretty much whatever you decided to do. However starting small is key in having small successes that will build confidence enough keep going instead of being completely overwhelmed and disappointed.

Life happens in the small moments we do everyday. Our habits shape our future. What do your habits look like? Take a moment and evaluate a typical day and what positive and negative habits show up. Eliminate the bad and enlist more of the good by emigrating from your old mind set to the new. Then you will be emancipated or set free from the chains holding you back.

Evaluate
Eliminate
Emigrate
Emancipate

Again all that sounds good in theory but if you are like me you want some practical ways to make this happen. So here are a few steps in growing your focus that you can start doing right now.

1. Write It Down

It is simple and easy and takes the thought from just a thought to an action. It is has been proven in many studies that we are much more likely to remember, complete, work on, finish, etc… our goals if we WRITE THEM DOWN. So find a pen, pencil or crayon in my case and jot those list down. When ideas are taken and put down on paper it gives more validity to them and also helps us focus.

2. Tame Distractions

As a mother of two toddlers I am well aware of distractions, my life is full of them and make focusing at times an even more difficult task than it already is. However distractions will always exist and our goal is not to eliminate them but to tame them enough to accomplish the goal. ( I started writing this blog two months ago, distractions, we are in the process of selling our house and moving so give yourself some grace on those big temporary distractions. At least that is what I am doing. )

3. Make or Set Reminders

In our world of technology this has been made so easy for us. Before smartphones I would have to leave post-it-notes everywhere or write on my bathroom mirror. Now it is so easy to press one button and tell Siri to remind me of any task I need to complete. Reminders are huge in helping us maintain and grow our focus over a long period of time. Humans are forgetful and simple reminders can provide much-needed support in this area.

What areas of your life are you wanting to improve? What are some things you would like to focus on? Ask yourself these simple questions, write down the answer, minimize distractions, and set reminders of your goals and task you would like to accomplish. Start small but your results will be big!

Self-Esteem Killers To Protect Your Child From

September 2, 2016 by Kate Matthews Leave a Comment

Lets face it, we are all human and all fall sort in the parenting game. Sometimes the list of “shoulds” seems daunting and impossible to live up to, because it is.

Parenting is not about perfection it is about relationship and teaching, two things that are messy and come with lots of mistakes.

The purpose of these is not to heap guilt on you or add to an already overwhelming parenting check list, it is shed light in a few areas you might not have thought about.

We often times get so caught up in the daily struggles that we forget about continuing our goal of improvement and modeling progress instead of perfection for our kiddos. These red flags were taken from Dr. Dobson’s book Hide and Seek and when avoided can help your child’s self-esteem take flight instead of plummet.

I am sure there are more Self-Esteem Killers To Protect Your Child From, but here are a few that we can tackle.

1. Parental Insensitivity

Children understand and pick up so much more than what we give them credit for. A huge lesson for parents to learn is to filter what they say when their children are around. Children grow and bloom when they hear positive things about them but shrink and wilt when overhearing negative. “Sensitivity is the key word. It means “tuning in” to the thoughts and feelings of our kids, listening to the cues they give us and reacting appropriately to what we detect there.”

2. Fatigue and Time Pressure

Children do not fit into our list of things to we are trying to accomplish for the day very well. In fact some times they are even able to obliterate our list. It takes time and patience to be an effective parent when children are small and many times are lives our so “busy” we create stress and time pressures. So often “crowed lives produce fatigue-and fatigue produces irritability and irritability produces indifference and indifference can be interpreted by the child as a lack of genuine affection and personal esteem.” Prioritize your time now. Minimize those “time spenders” like social media, tv, movies, or anything that puts you and your family on auto pilot. Pick carefully the commitments you agree to and allow your children to agree to. Quality time spent together is huge in your child developing a healthy self-esteem.

3. Guilt

Guilt takes the joy out of parenting, makes parents become too permissive, and child can sense something is not right and might conclude it is their fault. “The best way to handle guilt is to face it squarely, using it as a source of motivation for change, where warranted.” None of us are perfect parents or will ever be but as long as we keep doing the best we can and moving in the right direction our children will reap the rewards.

4. Rivals for Love

Having multiple children is such a blessing but also a challenge. Each child needs to feel special and loved. A healthy way to address this issue is to acknowledge the child’s feelings and help them verbalize them. Let them have special privileges that only big kids can have like a park outing or a fun ride. Be consistent and fair.

You are doing a great job at this parenting game! Keep moving forward and enjoy the time you have with your kids.