Practicing Lectio Divinia

Yesterday was National Handwriting Day, so I thought that I would share about practicing Lectio Divinia. I frequently find myself painting text with this practice. No matter how much I want to paint a fancy script, it’s basically my handwriting and, very often, poorly painted hands.

This is from today’s lectionary. No lie. Aka not fake news.

I first started in mid-October, I was looking for a daily devotional that was biblically based. I really wanted to paint more, or just paint, period. So when I heard about this practice in my Servant Leadership Class, I went straight to Shelflife and bought two pads of watercolor paper. Then I found our watercolor sets and downloaded the Pray As You Go app for my iPhone.

I think the key to any daily practice is to make it short, sweet and easy. I knew that I could fit this in the morning – between getting Lucy off to school and sending Oliver to preschool an hour later. That doesn’t always happen. It’s something that I can do with the kids around. Otherwise I have never found a way to practice art daily without getting really frustrated with them.

Early this summer, I purchased two more of these little Japanese watercolor sets. I had received one for Christmas and I wanted to expand my color palette. Of course, the kids really wanted to paint with me. They quickly take over my paint set anytime it is open and brushes are present. So I decided that it was worth it to buy two more. Even though this is more expensive than any set I will get my children otherwise, I fully believe it is better to have resources you would actually use over then cheap art supplies that you never get out because they make too much of a mess. Definitely quality over quantity. And so far that instinct has paid off. We do a lot of painting together and we are on our third watercolor notebook today I really need to buy a fourth.

So while the kids free paint, I listen to the 15 minute devotional. The practice is to take a few words from the scripture and then paint an image or the text that strikes me. These are a couple of examples from the last few weeks.

As you can see from the paining above, the scripture can often be extremely poignant.

Sunday I also painted the main image from our reading at church. It would behove me to follow this advice. It seems to follow me everywhere.