A Mural Lesson: Become Love & Spread it Like Wildflowers

As many of you know through posts on social media, my mom and I have embarked on a creative journey of painting murals for local communities in the midwest. How this came about? Only by an act of God. How they have turned out so well? Only by the grace of God. We walked into this on blind faith.

The world talks all the time about chasing your dreams, but only if it is contained within the narrative that our culture requires. They tell you that you can do anything you want, be anything you want, but only within our guidelines. It is foolishness to follow this voice, yet you will be considered foolish if you step out.

I figured I'd be a fool either way so why not go all in?

You see, people are going to tell you all the time what they think- what is best for you, what is best for your children, what is best for your marriage... but people only project their opinions of what is best for you because they are still trying to figure out what is best for them. It's a test.

That's okay, we've all been in that boat, you just need to decide which voices you prefer to listen to and learn from.

In painting our murals, every brush stroke stretched me. I had to learn patience and stability, I had to become flexible and more loving. To think I was loving before! It had all turned to my own gain. When I think of getting paid for our work I lose sight of the truth, but when I focus on the good that is happening around others and inside of me I remember that I am here for one purpose and one purpose only: to become love and to spread it like wildflowers.

My reminders of love were found in the older gentlemen passing by daily for their dose of excitement to distract them from the fears of a pandemic. It was found in the smile of a young girl with no parental supervision, who we discovered was a young artist as well as she spent every day with us, drawing with our chalk. It was in friends who were struggling with anxiety and depression that could leave their heavy burdens on the wall of paint. It was in all the hearts of these people that I found it was never about me to begin with.

You see, there will be a season to pour out just as there is a season to be filled up. Chasing your dreams is not about chasing your dreams at all. It is about becoming them so that, through you, others may be reminded of the possibilities in their own life.

Isn't that just like God to use you and me in that way? We all know that he uses the pain in our sufferings to teach us lessons, but may we be reminded that he has also established the desires of our hearts as well? In the valley of your struggle and in the height of your success would you never forget the purpose you are here right now: to become

love and spread it like wildflowers.

I love you all xoxo -M