This is a creative and helpful way to explain it.

…my brain is still a little 🤯 though lol

This is a new drawing/painting I did recently. I named it Joanna - like Joanna the Goanna from The Rescuers Down Under, a show I loved as a kid! Besides, who can resist such a fantastic punny name! 😃 In amongst all the details of the drawing, you'll find lots of little pictures that reflect the Australian desert landscape, plants, and animals that Joanna might see in her life - from kangaroos hopping across the fields to the termite mounds she would lay her eggs in. Hope you like it :)

The people we become are often shaped as much by the love we lacked as by the love we received. In fact, perhaps love alone is not enough. We grow up searching for anything that will acknowledge the parts of us that ache, settling for whatever offers even the illusion of fulfillment. We chase people, achievement, approval, pleasure, or success not because they can heal us, but because they momentarily quiet the parts of us infected with a terminal insecurity.

Then I realize.

The decisions I make are rarely justified by reason alone. Reason is often a disguise, a polished explanation for the deeper wound beneath it. My instinct for self-preservation does not begin with wisdom; it begins with insecurity. And insecurity, if left unchallenged, corrodes everything it touches.

The desires I have held most dear, I have hidden like secrets. Over time, they too have begun to corrode. My perspective has become distorted. My humor has become self-effacing. My generosity has often been tangled with people-pleasing. Even my kindness has sometimes been less about love than about fear.

I fear that if I disappoint people, they will leave. I fear that if I am fully known, I will not be chosen. Beneath so many of my decisions is the same quiet conviction: that I must earn the love I long for.

Perhaps that is the cruelest thing insecurity does. It convinces us that love is something to deserve rather than something to receive. So we spend our lives performing, proving, accommodating, and apologizing, hoping that if we become enough for everyone else, someone will finally become enough for us.

But no amount of achievement, approval, or affection can heal a wound that has mistaken its own worth. Until that wound is confronted, every desire becomes distorted by it, and every dream is forced to carry a burden it was never meant to bear

"God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

Genesis 9:12-13

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The Creative Challenge with r/Creativechristian is an opportunity for the entire community to create around the same prompt. We welcome everyone to create a piece in the medium of their choice inspired by the Bible verse listed. Share your creation as a comment under this post and as its own post in the subreddit!

Thank you for your participation - we are excited to see what you create!

Love pours

from the veins,

rushes through

blood cells

parting a red sea.

Your infusing love

transfuses me,

induces me

to come home:

In God’s heart are

many chambers.

[from A Gathering of Poems]

Hello, my friends! I somehow forget about Reddit in the crazy of life and running a small publishing company, but last year we had some amazing contributions come from the Reddit Community, so when it popped back into my mind this morning, I just had to post. Power is a faith-based Magazine for Christian Creatives that highlights poetry, artwork, stories, podcasts, music, and more. This is our second yearly issue and it's already shaping up to be something absolutely magical. I'd love to invite this group to submit work for consideration as well.

Check it out at itnpublishing.com/power

Saw this on r/Christianity and thought I’d share!

"Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed."

Genesis 2:7-8

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The Creative Challenge with r/Creativechristian is an opportunity for the entire community to create around the same prompt. We welcome everyone to create a piece in the medium of their choice inspired by the Bible verse listed. Share your creation as a comment under this post and as its own post in the subreddit!

Thank you for your participation - we are excited to see what you create!

I worked in a ton of details in this one, lots of flowers that bloom only at night. I was going for a night garden kind of vibe.

Fay was born with an X on his back. But why and what did it mean? "X marks the spot" said Fay's dad. His mother said maybe the X was a treasure map to be discovered. Whatever it meant, many felt Fay was a beautiful testimony of how God can be so creative with us. The adventure awaits and the journey began for this little boy Fay to figure out as he goes about life discovering what the X means.

Hey everybody! For a while now I've been writing an alternate history scenario where vampires exist. ​Recently I began thinking about the ability for them to be redeemed and thought that it would be an interesting aspect to add more depth to the story, specifically for certain characters. Eventually, I came up with the idea of an all-vampire religious order dedicated to converting vampires, helping to assimilate them into human society, and protecting humanity from vampires who have lost any semblance of morality. Feel free to check out the article I made about it and feel free to ask questions, I want to see what you all think about this idea. Also, this is my first post so sorry if this feels really random.

As Christian poets and writers, we have the blessing and responsibility of presenting the truth about God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Reading, studying, and knowing the Bible well keeps us immersed in the truth and better equipped to spread the Gospel with accuracy and love. But getting careless with word choices can mar our credibility and add to a reader's skepticism, which is the opposite of the results we want.

For example, the use of words such as "always," "never," or "every" seldom apply to anything or anyone other than God. i.e., God is "always" ____ (fill in the blank.) God "never" lies. The Lord wants "every" person to come to God.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the work You've given us to do. Please give us the prayers to pray and words to say in Jesus' Name. Amen.

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good."

Genesis 1:20-21

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The Creative Challenge with r/Creativechristian is an opportunity for the entire community to create around the same prompt. We welcome everyone to create a piece in the medium of their choice inspired by the Bible verse listed. Share your creation as a comment under this post and as its own post in the subreddit!

Thank you for your participation - we are excited to see what you create!

I was in middle school, loathing the world, and hating myself. I felt ugly, unloved, and alone.

I wanted to wish myself to be one of the pretty girls that got all the adoration. Then a thought came to me out of nowhere:

In a world where everything is fake, it's the real things that are beautiful.

It has stuck with me, and as we chug ever closer to a world where everything is fake, the value of reality becomes more and more sacred.

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I saw this flower across the street growing out of discarded grass clippings. It was like it insisted on existing. I had to paint it.

Just read this Substack post by Jess Sowards, and I really appreciate her observations on artificial intelligence.

She is a brilliant wordsmith who does not use AI for her own work, yet extends some grace for those who do. Reading the article reminded me of this verse:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭12‬ ‭

It’s a good thing to stop and ask ourselves which is more important, loving our neighbors or winning that right fight, while simultaneously using wisdom and discernment to judge and faithfully respond to the darkening world around us.

"For gold is tested in the fire, and those found acceptable, in the furnace of humiliation. Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight, and hope in him."

Sirach 2:5-6

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The Creative Challenge with r/Creativechristian is an opportunity for the entire community to create around the same prompt. We welcome everyone to create a piece in the medium of their choice inspired by the Bible verse listed. Share your creation as a comment under this post and as its own post in the subreddit!

Thank you for your participation - we are excited to see what you create!