4 minute read
WHATEVER YOU DO by Lynn Downham
I love to teach—ART. Not that I love teaching in itself so much, but because that’s what I do. ART. In fact, on the “spiritual gifts survey” that most of us have taken at one time or another, teaching is not one of my “dominant gifts” but was on there under “subdominant gifts”. However, because I LOVE what I do, I enjoy teaching it to others. Hence, whatever you do really well, (ie, your gift), you would probably or already do teach it to others or help others to develop the same gift, whether it’s writing, cooking, woodworking, caregiving, the list goes on and on.
“There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:5-7 NIV)
Teaching does seem to be in the family though, as my mother ran a fantastic daycare for twenty years, which was more like a school and called Good News Day Care. My grandmother was a schoolteacher, “par excellence”, who taught me French when I was little, and her mother was an accomplished piano teacher. This is all helpful, for if left to my own devices I would probably just stay in the studio and work because that would be easier. Satan never wants us to go out and fellowship or help anybody! But are we not commanded in the last verses of the book of Matthew to “Go...”? So, the Lord will not only reveal to you what your gifting area is, He will also equip you to perform it and share it wherever He wills and provide everything you need along the way. Amazing.
From reading my articles, you might get the idea that I have unlimited time to work only on ART. Not true, in fact, last year it was extraordinarily difficult to find the time to draw and paint because of other demands on our time. Seasons come and seasons go, but after you have seen a number of them, you learn patience and I hope this year will see me at the easel more than last year.
This month’s painting is called Animal Beach and I don’t think I’ve explained the “little animal pictures” yet, but when I was a child, I played with these little rubber animals that would fit on the top of pencil erasers and I had a whole collection of them. I played with them instead of Barbie dolls. Well, they’re in my head and I still have them. I tried to get rid of them once by passing them on to a niece who DID like to play with Barbie dolls, but one day in Florida I received a little package from my mother with a pink heart on it that said, “We’ve missed you!” You guessed it, there they were, and now they live behind my easel on their own little shelf. I also like birds. Our daughter and I are avid “birders” and my brother’s family rescues greyhounds. So that’s where the animals come from but notice the greyhound. Just giving him a cursory glance, the world would think, “Oh, he’s the lifeguard. He’s probably giving them a safety lesson.” But I’m a Born Again Christian and everything I do is through the lens of the Christian viewpoint! More likely, with that Cross on his chest, he is acting like a Lifeguard and spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ and then they’ll all go be baptized in the ocean like the mass baptism I saw at the beach before we left Florida! Whatever you do, do it for the Lord!
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Matthew 28:19&20 NKJV)
Lynn Story Downham is a fourth generation artist who returned to North Carolina in 2014 after twenty-six years on the Florida panhandle. Her seventh family tree commission was for a “family tree for Jesus.” Twenty years later she is a bornagain believer with a best-selling print, a beautiful family and a passion for sharing Christ through her art.
Animal Beach (Top) Animal Beach detail (bottom)
Animal Beach
by Lynn Downham
Animal Beach - Detail
by Lynn Downham
Lynn Downham
Lynn Story Downham is a fourth generation artist who returned to North Carolina in 2014 after twenty-six years on the Florida panhandle. Her seventh family tree commission was for a “family tree for Jesus.” Twenty years later she is a bornagain believer with a best-selling print, a beautiful family and a passion for sharing Christ through her art.
