Wow, what an adventure this whole DRAWN IN series has become. These past several months been very rewarding, and at the same time, very stressful.
REWARDING – experiencing the pure joy of CREATING (in all its aspects) and hearing from you how DRAWN IN has been helping. I especially love hearing how your kids (and you parents) can be laughing AND learning --- how humor/fun/even silliness –AND- doctrinal/spiritual/solid gospel teaching CAN coexist together! Yea! These kids need to experience that the Holy Ghost can be manifest in both styles.
And STRESSFUL - trying to keep the pace of creating 2 entire videos per week,in addition to running the regular business of selling my Jesus artwork/books online! Many a full days work (with some late night, early mornings thrown in). But it feels RIGHT. Feels like consecrated time to the Lord to help in building the kingdom… and one can’t help but feel joy when they are actively striving to fulfill their mortal missions (as Sister Wendy Watson Nelson has described)
SO, in a way it all feels kinda like serving a mission: Didn’t really know what I was getting into when I signed up, hardest I’ve ever worked in my career/but most rewarding as well, consecrating efforts to the Lord, and with a loving wife and kids back at home, 6 minutes drive away, whom I get to skype with from my gallery once a week (Haha. Just kidding. I do get to go home each day)
One of my all-time favorite scriptures is D&C 58:26-27. It talks about being “anxiously engaged in a good cause” and doing “many things of their own free will” and “bringing to pass much righteousness”. I am so inspired by people who did that in the scriptures and who do that today --- who MAKE righteous things happen, not wait around for someone else to make something happen. Who take the initiative, are proactive, who get inspired with God-given promptings and then see those ideas through to fruition (and usually not without lots of struggle): Moses freeing Israelites from bondage, David and Goliath, Rebekah and watering all those camels for Abraham’s servant, Sons of Mosiah and their “what-were-you-thinking??” mission to the Lamanites, Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty, and Nephi and his… EVERYTHING!
And then there’s you and me. Just trying to make our little, proactive, God-inspired ideas a reality. And especially as parents in our FAMILIES! That is the ultimate challenge sometimes, although it seems like it should be so easy. As you know, its not! In today’s world, it requires the ultimate in “Anxiously engaged-ness” … or my as my wife always says (who is a aweomse at this, by the way)- “Deliberate Parenting”. Its not easy. Its not natural for most of us. But I believe we’re doing better than we think, and Heavenly Father is so pleased with and blesses our simple efforts.
So, keep being “Anxiously Engaged”, my friends! God Bless ya! Would love to hear your thoughts on any of this below.
-Dave
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