There's a Time for Everything...

Season of change will run through your life building your faith. Strength does not grow unless pressure is applied to a muscle...so when pressure runs through your days, know God is building you for better. You are becoming more like your Father. Faith is based on what is unseen, so when you cannot see what His plan is... You must be humbled in obedience to trust something bigger that you cannot control. 

There are times in life that you are comfortable and rooted... Feel blessed and delight in this place. But know that at any moment, God may uproot & move you to experience a new adventure. This mysterious journey to your new soil may be uncomfortable, but it is faith building. Not having a place to plant leaves you exposed at the root, so make sure you are guarding your faith from anything that may destroy you. Hold onto the Rock, knowing that Earth is not your home...

Hebrews 13:14"For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come."

He says so... 

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11

Our hearts should hunger continually for a home that does not sit here. An eternal home cannot flood, rot, burn or crack at foundation. 

"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Matthew 6:20

Use the eyes of your spirit to see your Heavenly Eternal Home that He is preparing for you... 

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 

If you are stripped of the ground beneath you here and are moved to a new place unknowing what lies ahead, find comfort in knowing that God does not allow pain in our lives without promises of something new... 

2 Corinthians 4:18

"In the same way, I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born.” Isaiah 66:9

All artwork by Tabitha Seaton

Think of... Philippians 4:8

Turn Turn Turn...

The Bryds sing it well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ga_M5Zdn4
But the Bible says is best...

A Time for Everything

1There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

4a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

9What do workers gain from their toil? 10I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^a no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

15Whatever is has already been,

and what will be has been before;

and God will call the past to account.^b

16And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,

in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

17I said to myself,

“God will bring into judgment

both the righteous and the wicked,

for there will be a time for every activity,

a time to judge every deed.”

18I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath^c ; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

22So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

UnContainable Dreams

I had dreams in the past

That I held onto tight.

Like a child waits for a star

To shoot through the night, 

I waited & wished for it all to come, 

With my heart strongly beating like a drum. 

Then life brought a change, 

Surprising seasons age...

Now Dreams seem too far to touch, 

And my wrinkled hands loosen their clutch. 

My dreams I once tightly carried

Were bottled, corked & buried

Where the light no longer shines bright...

Forgotten and out of sight. 

My hearts became jaded 

As old dreams felt faded. 

Fear forcefully pushed the dirt tightly on top, 

To trap the dream's seed and produce no crop. 

I thought it better to suffocate the seed, 

That to live lonely with doubt & watch it bleed....

But the drumming dream beneath can't be hidden long, 

With it's everlasting joyful song.

The dream's drum cracks the bottle that contains, 

While the sun shines down and Heaven rains. 

Preparing a surface for my dreams to be reborn, 

Where roots grow up and soil is torn. 

The star shoots down and pulls the stem from below, 

Giving life to my dream and making it grow. 

The star I once waited for like a child each night, 

Is giving my dreams a new promise of light.

Art and Poetry by Tabitha Seaton

* A young widow's dreams can not stay bottled up. 

Inspired by new love & hope. 

Up in the Air...

Grieving is such an emotional roller coaster. It's been over a year since Shannon, my husband of 10 years, left for Eternal Paradise. There is peace in knowing that it was all part of God's plan. I know Shannon is up there with our Father preparing a place for us to go after here... But the part that grieves me the most is mostly self pity in whats left here on Earth for us to sort through. Just because the biggest bump in the ride is behind us doesn't mean we won't be thrown for loops ahead. They seem to come from nowhere... 

Ok... So just when I am starting to feel "happy" again, I am struck with panic and fear! New love is here with words of comforting promise... But I can't seem to shake a fear of moving forward in life. Right now my life is so "up in the air" and I am deeply desiring a place to land and re-root. It's hard to relax at times when you know your life is in a sort of transport stAte and there's nothing beneath but air just whisping through your dangling roots. Even scarier is knowing there's young life in the basket with you that is depending on you to comfort them in the time you are feeling craziest of all. 

The sad part is thAt through this life I've grown a little tougher & realer... And in the process grown to fear happiness. It seems that at that sudden moment in life when your heart takes a snap shot of all you hold and grasps the true meaning of happiness in life... Well, it all kind of crumbles away. Happiness is fleeting and temporary. It's a glimpse you soak in and remember in contrast to the crumbles. I was happy and know I will be again. But I realize too, that when happiness is only a worldly & temporary emotion... Joy is an everlasting spirit deep reality that is soaked so far into the root of me... That no matter where my life floats to, this Joy can never be removed from my spirit. Planted or plummeting... It follows me everywhere. My life is not defined by my circumstances that come and go, but is defined only by what my spirit roots eternally contain. 

Poem below & styrofoam breakfast plate art wAs created in a meeting that I lost control of my emotions in. Roller coaster emotions can not be planned out. You may cry in the middle of the check out line of a grocery store and have to abandon a cart of frozen food to get it all together in a private stall of a public bathroom! Who knows... But the point is that if we are "afraid" to cry loud in a crowd... Then we are cowards. It is those thAt cry in the midst of pride that find an unexplainable strength and power in just letting go.

So, after my panic attack... Roller coaster loop... Freak out session... Pity party...Or whatever  you want to label it, I had no choice but to grab the empty white things around me and fill them up with my mark, my art, my voice, my spirit, my faith, my feelings... I just let it all out. 

Take it from me... A young widow, single mom, starting life over lady; 

Don't be afraid grieving souls to Just take a cry... Take a breathe! When living day by day is too much , live breath by breath. When you can't breathe... When you feel like your drowning, Ask Him that rotates the Earth to breath for you & on you. Let Him give your spirit CPR, take you where you need to go. Let go of life and let Him carry you with His invisible love. For it is the things that we cannot see here on this EArth that will remAin in eternity. Joy, peace, love. Have faith in things that are beyond sight. Test your trust... In the breath of the One who gave you your first breath. 

Passion for Hot Air Balloons spills over into my classroom life.... 

see art lessons plans on this top here. 

http://tabithaannthelostsock.blogspot.com/2014/11/hot-air-balloon-unit.html