My Painted Pieces E-Book

Audrey Bailey

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 133

Beschreibung

God paints your broken pieces.   You may believe anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses deem you unworthy of peace and purpose, but these lies don't have to control you any longer. Jesus designed you intentionally and makes even the messiest parts of life beautiful.   In My Painted Pieces, artist and entrepreneur Audrey Bailey shares biblical truth and her mental health journey to empower you to always bring life's burdens to Jesus. With Scripture, reflection, and original artwork, this forty-day devotional reveals that even in your darkest days, you can   - lean on Jesus' loving presence, - heal from shame and sorrow, and - embrace God's extraordinary plan.   Rest in God's truth: you are not alone, you are loved, and you are his masterpiece.  

Leseprobe

These heartfelt words from Audrey will set us free from the chaos and convincing thoughts we all have. She meets us where we are and reminds us that anything we would rather erase from our story is actually the very thing God wants to redeem and use for his glory.

Hope Harris, @hopereaganharris

Audrey Bailey brings incredible relief as she intertwines our inner feelings of brokenness with Jesus’ heart for the weary. I feel seen throughout this entire book.

Cami Jones, @camireneejones

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

My Painted Pieces: 40 Devotions to Nurture Your Mental Health

Copyright © 2024 Audrey Bailey

9781424567102 (faux leather)

9781424567119 (ebook)

This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of licensed therapists or physicians. These devotions are intended to give comfort. You should regularly consult a medical professional in matters relating to your personal mental and physical health needs.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NASB1995 are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB). Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked CSB are taken from the Christian Standard Bible®. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIrV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®. Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIrV” and “New International Reader’s Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Cover and interior by Garborg Design Works | garborgdesign.com

Interior illustrations by Audrey Bailey

Printed in China

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Thank you to my husband, Val, for your unwavering belief in my talents and dreams.

To my little ones, Alaina and Emerson. I love you.

Thank you, Jesus, for the faithfulness you have shown.

Contents

Foreword

Day 1

He Paints the Broken

Day 2

Shamefully Anxious

Day 3

Beauty in the Chaos

Day 4

The Mental Health Bridge

Day 5

To Sit with the Broken

Day 6

He Holds the Brush

Day 7

If He Calls You, He Will Equip You

Day 8

Anxious Thoughts and Spilled Pains

Day 9

The Inbox Intervention

Day 10

Today’s Glories and Tomorrow’s Worries

Day 11

A Sound Mind

Day 12

The Anatomy of a Rainbow

Day 13

The Community We Choose

Day 14

Trauma and Grief

Day 15

Worship through Creating

Day 16

Abandon before Abandoned

Day 17

All about the Aesthetic

Day 18

Envious of Sunsets

Day 19

A Change in Routine

Day 20

He Is Not Mad

Day 21

The Burden We Didn’t Deserve

Day 22

An Empty Cup

Day 23

The Moon, My Friend

Day 24

The Young Sunflower

Day 25

Flourishing Is the Journey

Day 26

The Upside-Down Bible

Day 27

Intentional Honeycombs

Day 28

The Enemy Won’t Silence

Day 29

Choosing to Trust

Day 30

Our Jesus Time

Day 31

Paralyzed in the Mess

Day 32

Rest Is Productive

Day 33

The Paint Isn’t Wasted

Day 34

The Wheel of Emotions

Day 35

The Restoration of Hope

Day 36

Worldly Weight

Day 37

Surrender in the Shallows

Day 38

Opportunity or Blessing?

Day 39

The Painted Rainbow

Day 40

A Final Prayer

About the Author

Foreword

When I first met Audrey, I felt as though our hearts were connected. I can’t explain it. I just knew she and I were kindred spirits. Audrey and I found one another on social media, where we both create content. There was such a sweetness in our conversations, and before we knew it, we were sharing testimonies with one another and realizing our stories were so incredibly similar. I loved her vulnerability and willingness to share about things that people didn’t often talk about on social media. I admired her ability to bring her creativity and bold art to the internet in a way that honored the Lord as well as showcased her talent. She truly blew me away.

Audrey and I have both struggled with nurturing our mental health, finding joy and freedom, and stewarding large online platforms—all of which have made us who we are today. Audrey stands firm on the foundation of Christ while recognizing and voicing that you can love Jesus and still wrestle with your mental health. (Yes, you can love Jesus and struggle with mental health. Both can exist. And they do!) Audrey has made thousands of people feel less alone because of her willingness to be honest. In my personal life, her creativity and vulnerability have done more for me than I could ever explain in a simple foreword.

While she is incredibly talented and gifted as an artist, Audrey’s encouragement online has to be one of my favorite things about her. This is why I am so excited that she has written My Painted Pieces. Her beautiful writing paints a picture of the way the Lord loves and sees us, even in the thick of mental health battles. We don’t have to “get over it” or “be better.” These devotions show us the importance of depending on Jesus in the middle of it all.

So whether you consider yourself an overcomer or find yourself right in the middle of the struggle, My Painted Pieces is for you. You’ll be encouraged, challenged, inspired, and, ultimately, changed.

Social media influencer (@abercrombielacy)

DAY 1

He Paints the Broken

Make me to hear joy and gladness,

let the bones which You have broken rejoice.

PSALM 51:8 NASB1995

I remember when the term painted pieces first came into my mind. I was reflecting on how best to explain finding Jesus again in my adult life while still struggling with the thoughts that said the broken pieces of my life defined me. Even though I had seen goodness in our Father, I still struggled with feeling as if my past wrote my story. When I saw the compilation of my flaws, I saw them as broken pieces that were useless and needed to be gone to make me whole again. I didn’t see them as evidence of the storms God had carried me through or as a battle won.

At the time, I had undiagnosed ADHD and still had lingering postpartum depression. I was opening up about these experiences on social media because I had this longing to help fellow believers who struggle with mental health. I wanted them to know they were not alone and that they could run to Jesus rather than feel shame.

One night I was painting Christmas ornaments on my kitchen counter. They were round, wooden ornaments that I call mini tree trunks. One of the ornaments had a small crack through the center. The crack wasn’t too big but was big enough that I wanted to toss the ornament in the trash and move on to one that was perfect in my eyes.

As I got up quietly, trying not to scoot the chair beneath me and wake up my one-year-old just a door away, I heard a quote over and over in my head. He took my broken pieces, and he painted them. In a matter of seconds, I had a notebook out and was writing this sentence down. I picked up the ornament and started to paint it, crack and all.

As I painted and watched the paint seep into the grain of the wood, I saw only beauty. This is how our Father sees us. He does not see broken pieces. There is nothing broken he cannot turn into a masterpiece. We are so often willing to throw away the “broken” versions or pieces of ourselves that we miss out on God’s plans for them. We simply can’t avoid what may be broken within us. We can’t ignore the crack in our car windshield because eventually that crack will grow larger and be even more of a headache than it would have been if we addressed it immediately.

Living in a broken world around broken people, we are not immune to broken pieces, whether they are our own pieces or pieces from others who have forever impacted our life. What we do know is that there is nothing that our Father cannot redeem. No crack is too deep or too wide that the hands of our Father cannot paint it. He is the ultimate craftsman. He is the artist whom we must trust with our brokenness.

What a beautiful testament to be able to see our broken pieces painted and made beautiful again. We are meant not to be ashamed of our past but to know that we have a Father who loves us enough to make those broken pieces into a masterpiece.

Reflect

What broken pieces are you asking God to paint and redeem?

DAY 2

Shamefully Anxious

Anxiety weighs down the heart,

but a kind word cheers it up.

PROVERBS 12:25

When we are experiencing anxiety, even if we have struggled with anxiety our whole life, we have to battle some lies. So many myths exist about mental health in general, especially anxiety, that sometimes we can start to believe the lies from the Enemy and the world. I know what it’s like to be in a toxic thought cycle or to panic when we can’t rationalize the anxious thoughts we’re experiencing.

One of the first beliefs that we have to battle when we are experiencing anxiety is that we are weak people, bad friends, or simply incompetent. It is easier for us to give in and believe that we were just made this way and deserve it rather than processing the anxiety. I will be the first to tell you that you are not experiencing anxiety because you are weak. Everybody and anybody is susceptible to feeling anxiety because we live in a broken world.

I also have to add here that it is not for the weak to have to deal with anxiety on a daily basis. Facing the world, however we are able, when anxious thoughts cloud our mind takes great strength, courage, and competence. Choosing to show up on days when we essentially want to hide away is strength. Deciding to text that friend and let them know they are on our mind even though so much time has passed is courageous. We struggle with feeling weak while facing anxiety when, in fact, these times are often when we are the strongest. We are strong when we choose to simply get up each day and face what is to come. The more we believe the lie that we are weak, the more we will stay within this toxic thought trap.

In some cases, we believe that we struggle with mental illness and anxious thoughts because we don’t have enough faith. Then when we experience anxiety, we feel shame for not having more faith, which only increases our anxiety. This becomes a toxic and exhausting cycle. We start to punish ourselves because we believe our mental illness is punishment. It is almost as if we believe God has a tally system, keeping track of our levels of faith and giving the most anxiety to those who may not have a certain level of faith.

All these things simply aren’t true. Giving more power to these misconceptions while we are suffering with anxiety is not going to help release us from anxious thoughts. We have to start recognizing how the Enemy can disguise his attacks. For example, we can take “advice” from those whom we think we can trust, and it actually may only send us into a shame cycle, increasing the anxiety that goes with it.

A truly never-ending cycle can occur when we believe these misconceptions, but staying trapped by these false ideas isn’t our only option. When we start to feel shame for experiencing anxiety, we are only keeping Jesus away rather than inviting him closer when we need him the most. We can get so scared or worried that he will see us in a broken state that we keep him further away. But Jesus wants us to invite him into the chaos. We just have to acknowledge his knock at the door.

Reflect

Recognize the shame you are feeling when you have these anxious thoughts. Ask God to come into your heart and free you from any shameful emotions. Denounce the shame and invite God into the conversation.

DAY 3

Beauty in the Chaos

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look,

God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

EXODUS 3:4

I remember this one day vividly. Unexpected chaos engulfed every aspect of my day. It started when my car dashboard nicely informed me of the low pressure in my rear tire. Meanwhile my son was battling some sort of cold that had been lingering for a month, and I just could not get caught up to a sense of normalcy in what felt like forever. Chaos reached its peak when I started boiling water for dinner because, once again, we had not made it to the grocery store. Mac and cheese was the only dinner choice for the night. I was staring at the mail piled on the counter when I heard the dreaded sound of blocks dumping onto the living room carpet. This sound still has the power to wreak complete havoc on my nervous system. I was at my stimulation limit for the day.

Every single hair on my body was standing up, and I had two choices. I could let all the built-up stress from the day escape in ways that would only give me mom guilt later, or I could pray. Now I know what you’re thinking: Audrey, you know praying is the last thing on my mind when tiny screams, crumb-covered floors, and a full dishwasher are clouding my every thought. I also thought it was silly to pray over things like this, as if it weren’t worth the time and God had bigger things to help others through.

However, these moments are exactly when we must lean on him. These messy and chaotic days are perfect opportunities to hand it all to Jesus. We underestimate just how much we do need Jesus during the days that are taking a toll on our mental health. I could have easily let the messy day turn into a messy and overwhelming week if I kept trying to do it on my own. But in these times, we can open the door for God to reveal something to us.