What are you taking time to build? Whatever you constantly feed/build will eventually manifest. That’s why you keep wondering when you are going to stop some bad habits/ addictions. You keep feeding them and get surprised when they grow, blossom and produce fruits! Everything has a foundation, a starting point. The foundation of something, be it a house, a chair, an electronic device, is very important. One thing I have come to learn is that a foundation is very fundamental. A tall building can do without painting or glass doors but it cannot stand without a firm foundation.
My hubby is an artist, he draws, and he can also paint sometimes. I love all his pieces even the ones he thinks are not good enough. I am not an artist myself but I can tell a good piece from far. I love art. So my husband (let’s talk about him for a while..), has been working on something lately. He is drawing a picture of a guy, his friend, he tells me. And out of curiosity and my love for art I ask him how long it’s gonna take to finish up. He says a week or so and am like that’s easy…although I can’t draw leave alone drawing, my hand writing is the worst, I even prayed to God to change it some time back…may be God will answer my prayers one day. I remember struggling to draw those cat pictures our strict lower primary teachers used to tell us to draw, I couldn’t draw even a chair, I used to trace them. And when the drawing was complicated like the human heart in high school, I used to apply oil on the actual text book drawing so that it becomes so transparent and tracing was easier.
He tells me that it will take him like a week, full time drawing without even a break to watch an episode of one of those movies he likes watching that have strange titles, you know, like mowgli. As he begins on this art work I get a chance to observe from far, when I am taking him a cup of tea coz am a caring wife. You don’t want your husband working while hungry, else he will start asking you one of those questions that you will not want to answer. Like “leo ulisema hatukuli? And I will be like ‘nikasema saa ngapi’..in my heart though. So I stand at a distance to watch as he draws, he has all the necessary equipments, which are mostly pencils and rubbers, I don’t know the names of the rest, perhaps I will ask him. He starts with the outline and he tells me that that is the most important part coz you don’t want to make somebody’s mouth look much bigger than it is, they will not accept that drawing and they will say their moth is not that big.
So he’s very careful with the outline. The foundation. Eventually the outline is done and now he gets into shading. This is the stage I discovered that those HB pencils we used during KCPE exams are different, a particular pencil has a different shade than the other. I knew a pencil is a pencil as long as it is well sharpened. He tells me that when he’s done shading I am not going to see any outline. Am still waiting to see the final piece.
What is my point? My point is that we should take time to build that which defines us. Let’s focus on our outline. On whom God has really called us to be. Let’s build ourselves and allow God to work on us inside out. Let us give Him a chance to make an outline for us. Let us not be lost in building our outside (careers, families, relationships) and forget that our inner/ spiritual beings matter.
Between my fingers and my kidneys, my kidneys are more crucial though you can’t see them, you only know they are hanging somewhere in your body. You can do without fingers and God forbid that you lose any, but you can’t live without both of your kidneys or your heart for that matter. Yet, most times we find ourselves taking care of our nails or our hair, that which is outside and we have to be reminded over and over to take water coz it’s important for the kidneys. I hear there is an app that reminds people that it’s time to drink that glass of water. We even watch YouTube videos on how to shape our eyebrows like a pro but you will rarely play that video that teaches you how to detox your body with some green juice with funny smells.
We have to keep working on our spiritual beings as Christians. Some people want to stop watching pornography but they can’t let go that x-rated movie. They are not willing to make the sacrifice of letting go and letting God. As I begun by saying what you constantly feed will manifest. So, let’s constantly feed our inner man through daily fellowship with God. There is nothing that just happens. That great preacher, teacher of the word or a worship leader you greatly admire has sacrificed many things in order to be where he/she is. Nothing happens overnight but with persistence, commitment and consistency comes great achievements in every sphere of our lives. Let us allow God to work on us, give Him a little bit more time than you give Him. Sacrifice that lunch hour and seek Him. Some of us need to wake up a little bit earlier than we do and just fellowship with him…am speaking to myself on this one. Lay out your foundation well and know that it takes time, persistence and consistency is key. GOD at the CENTER.
dorcas tom 
Wonderful pieces
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