Dad was a cabinetmaker…a good one. He taught us how to pound nails, saw boards and sand them smooth.

“Hold the hammer like this and hit the nail square on with even strokes”, he would tell us. Of course everything was a contest, so I’d look over to see how my brother was doing (or if he was ‘following dad’s instructions’) and at that moment, my eyes weren’t focused on my nail and I missed the nail or struck it at an angle and bent it. Then I’d have dad help me learn how to straighten it back up and hit it again. This happened many times. Sometimes the nail was so bent, we had to begin with a new nail. Same with the hand saw…one look watching my brother and my saw got off the line or jumped out of the groove and I had to begin again.

Even fairly recently on a table I was sanding a scratch out of…got carried away, wasn’t fully paying attention and sanded right through the veneer. Fortunately I knew how to fix it so it didn’t show, but…

Focus can be difficult unless you hold yourself to look at what you’re doing. It’s easy for us creative folk to have lots of thoughts and ideas going on at the same time…planning the next project, what’s for supper, did I pick the right stain color, how would it look if I painted it instead, how would so and so have done it if it were her project.

I read when our attention is broken, it takes 20 minutes to get back into the groove. 20 minutes times 6 interruptions a day is 2 hours lost time on our initial project.

For me it works best to decide what needs to be accomplished before allowing myself to take a break. Then the full power of my focus is on the project for that time, and when break time comes, my mind can rest and reflect on other things until I start on the next piece of work.

OK now. What’s next?

What does deface even mean???

Without using a dictionary, deface means make without a face. Unrecognizable…don’t know who the person is or don’t know what something is…to destroy, change, make the look of something so that it does not reflect it’s original intent.

God is the one who made us. He gave us our ‘face’, our looks, our body, our purpose, our tastes, likes, dislikes, loves and hates. He is a God of order, beauty and purpose. So how is something defaced?

Let’s narrow it down.

First, God gave you property. He gave you you!

We deface ourselves by:

• Not respecting who we are
• Not liking who we are
• Talking bad about ourselves
• Not taking care of our bodies
• Not keeping our minds clean
• Trying to be something we’re not
• Conforming to what we think would please others
• Becoming who we don’t want to be – because we want to be liked or fit in…

Could we see these acts of ‘defacement’ on the property given to us, as an attack upon God who made us? … An attempt to destroy the beauty and purpose of God in us?

We become defaced so we don’t even recognize ourselves and neither do others.

(and when this happens it’s very easy for other people to try to tell us who we are)

Let’s wash our face. Take a good look at ourselves and where we’re headed…do a little course-redirect if needed and move forward.

August 17, 2020, we talked about capturing your image… letting that be your guiding compass. Here we are 2 years later still tackling the same thing…who am I?

We’ve got a real identity crisis going on. People don’t know who they are because they don’t know who God made them to be. When we don’t know who God made us to be, we don’t know who we are in every other area of our life…right down to the basics. Am I a boy or a girl? Am I supposed to be strong or weak. Do I do this or do I do that. We have people telling us in the name of God who we are and what we should be doing. Why can’t we just let God speak for himself and tell us? He knows best.

We need a clear voice of direction assuring us there is a stronger power involved for good than the magnamonious (apparently this is not a real word anymore, but is has been used in the past 🙂 ) voices of fear bullying us to impulsive and later regretful thoughts and deeds. We need a standard.

What is a standard? A standard is a measurement; it is a guide; it’s like an anchor. A standard lets us compare what we see and hear—all that is going on around us—with who we’re meant to be. A standard is a reference point…something we can look at and say, OK, this is where I’m headed, this is what I am aiming for. We can keep our eyes fixed on it and know we will end up at the right place. It’s like a goal.

A standard is also like an anchor. It will hold us on course and when the wind,  hail, debris and chaff are blowing around us, we will not get caught up with it and blown away, but we will be held steady.

We will be held strong in God and He said we will do exploits!….Great Things!

Get ready. Get God. Get going!!!