23 Oct Creativity – Blank Page; Make it Work! – October 2014 – Part 2: Our Finished Product
Life App: Creativity – using your imagination to do something unique.
Theme: Blank Page: Make it Work!
Date: October, 2014
Creativity Love!
This has been such a fun month. I can’t believe we are heading into the final week of Creativity. I have loved every minute of what we’ve been doing, and our interactive set has certainly been a win for us! I’ve had leaders and parents alike, tell me how much their kids have enjoyed when it was their groups’ week/turn to create the backdrop. It’s been so much fun hanging their work each week and seeing them feel good about what they created together. You can read more about what we did to create an interactive backdrop here.
In the meantime, I hope you are having the same results with your environment and your teaching of this -oh so important, Life App! Be sure to share your wins and stories (and of course photos) in the comments section below.
Running Out of Time!
You’ll notice that our set looks a bit different in these two photos. Same set, just a bit different. That is because our vision from the beginning was to have the paint cans hanging on either side of the easels, but our schedule and time frame did not allow for that on week 1! We ran out of time during set design week. In addition, we were waiting on some special magnets to be delivered. These magnets would help us hang the paint cans in a “portable” way so we could take them down easily each week. Our Student Ministry shares our space, so we have to always think portably. Read more about that here.
At any rate, since we were under the gun, one of my volunteers (aka my sweet friend Shannon!) placed the paint cans along the ground as if paint was spilling out of them and we loved it… so we went with it for Week 1. Once the magnets came in, we hung some of the cans up as planned going into Week 2, but we loved the effect of some on the ground, so we left a couple in place.
Editing the Picture in My Head
My nature and personality does not like things unfinished. I have a picture in my head and I like the finished product to look like what I see in my head. It’s months like this, however that teach me valuable lessons. Lessons like this: “The picture in your head is not the only picture!” I was so grateful for that volunteer that used her imagination and creativity to come up with a great solution in a pinch… one that we ended up loving just as much as our original idea. I love that God (and my teammates) continually stretch me to think bigger, to be flexible, to open my mind to what else could be! What first felt like I did not accomplish my goal or did not finish the way I wanted, quickly turned into a great lesson from God about how He can use others to help me solve problems and come up with better solutions than I could have ever come up with on my own! So, this month our environment turned into far more than just decor for me. It was something God used to help me see that I sometimes need to let go of the picture in my head, in order to make room for the pictures others might have in theirs. My picture alone is okay… but tapping into the creativity of others makes everything more beautiful.
Below is our gallery that includes photos of our process and our finished product.
How did your environments turn out? Have you had a blast with this Life App? Jump into the comment section below and tell us all about your month!
