Behind the Design | Dwell

I'm starting a new series today called Behind the Design.  So many prints that go up in our shop grow in my heart before they ever make it to paper.  I keep a list in my phone of things I want to paint, & sometimes I have to let the ideas soak in for awhile before I know how to adequately put them on paper.  Most have a story behind them.  So this is the place where I want to share some of those stories.

This was one of the very first prints I added to the shop.

Dwell.

It's just one word, but with so much meaning.  Learning to dwell is one of the biggest lessons I've had to learn.  It really started after college.  I moved back home & it took me a long time to find a job.  And even then, it wasn't the job I wanted.  It was just a job.  Looking back now, it was never just a job; it was the job that moved me to Woodstock, got me involved in a church I loved, & brought me right to my husband.  But that's another story.

In those months without a job, I got very discouraged.  I felt like I'd worked hard & had this college degree, & it still didn't matter.  My mom told me one day that I had to stop living "in the meantime."  I was waiting for my life to start.  I was waiting for a job.  Waiting to feel like a grown up.  Waiting to have a purpose.

We all go through phases like that.  We're not where we want to be, but we don't quite know how to get there.

So dwell comes from Psalm 37:3.  Trust in the Lord & do good; dwell in the land & enjoy safe pasture.

No matter what phase we're currently in, God wants us to dwell there.  Plant ourselves there.  Make roots there.  It doesn't matter how long you'll be in that place.  Kind of like Jim Elliot's words "wherever you are, be all there."  At this point in my life, I didn't want to settle because I was afraid of getting too settled.  But we can't live that way.  We need to immerse ourselves in whatever land God has put us in for however long we're there.

So I got involved in our little church.  I led a high school girls' small group.  I started my first Etsy shop.  I learned to dwell.  And I was so much happier that way.  And not long after that is when I got a job & moved & had to learn to dwell in a whole new place.

I'm glad I learned that lesson then, because without it, I wonder how I would be living across the country from everyone I love.  I'm not afraid to dwell in California even though I eventually want to move back to Georgia.  I'm not afraid to put down roots here.  I'm not afraid to have a community here & friends here & be all here.