Your Masterpiece

Imagine your life as a big canvas. It's blank, and you've got plenty of paints, brushes, and everything else you need to paint a masterpiece. You're the artist, here. You make the painting what you want. Each decision you make, each path we choose, each sin we commit, or good deed we do is another brush stroke.  Often times, we find ourselves painting something we never expected. While we may have wanted to paint a self portrait, we find ourselves painting someone else. Or are we? When we find that the painting we're making isn't what we intended, maybe it's not because we're messing up: maybe we're trying to paint who we want to become instead of who we are now. As we work on our painting, it's important to realize that sometimes, we're taking on a pretty big project and will need some help. There are others out there who are pretty good critics, and can help us know the best way to paint our portrait. They can help us find just the right color we need, or what kind of brush we should use. They can help us decide how things should be situated, what kind of lighting to use, and how we should be positioned in the painting. This help can be very beneficial to us. People want us to have the best painting possible, and that's what they're doing: helping us. If we accept their help, we can improve our painting. And of course, there's one who knows exactly what we should be painting. He knows the potential we posses, and how good of a painting we can paint. He knows what it should look like, and He knows how you can make it look that way. That is, of course, our Heavenly Father. We're making our picture to present to him. Do we want it to be a beautiful masterpiece, or a stick figure drawing? As we progress, and use the right colors and brushes provided us, and avoid those dreary colors and old brushes, we can paint the ultimate masterpiece of our lives: something we can be proud of, and something our Heavenly Father can be proud of, and hang in His mansion.