Hello everyone! I’m SO EXCITED to share this next post and introduce you to one of my mentors , Terry Murillo! I’ve been inspired and encouraged by Terry since I was 15 years old, and I am beyond thrilled to have her as a contributor in this series.

There is something special about hearing the point, “Create during Funky Seasons”, especially when it’s brought to us by someone who truly lives this message and speaks life to people daily. What’s even better? This message incorporates one of my favorite subjects- the creative arts! Enjoy!-liz

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You Are Creative
Are you that person that is continually saying “I am not creative”?
I am here to encourage you otherwise.
In the book of Genesis, chapter one verses 1-27, we read how God is a creative God, and that we are made in His image.

His creativity doesn’t stop at creation week, nor is His technique limited to just verbal. In Jeremiah, He is a potter:

In Psalms, He is a knitter:

We must know full well that we have been given talents. Talents connect us to God, others and even ourselves.
I know we are not all artists, but I truly believe that we are all creative. I think the issue is we tend to confuse the word creative with artsy.

You see there are actually eight different ways we live out our creativity, they are known as Creative Intelligence:

Spatial– drawing, painting, web-design, cooking
Social– conversations, things that build relationship
Musical– concerts, karaoke, playing an instrument, dancing
Bodily– sports, any form of moving, reading body language
Logical– using numbers, schedules, budgets, apps
Intrapersonal– journaling, self-help books, meditation
Naturalistic– gardening, walks outside of a busy city, going barefoot, zoo’s, beaches
Verbal– story telling, essay writing, interviews, podcasts

God has given us all eight, just like we speak all five love languages, but there is one or two we tend to gravitate to more.

Let me tell you about my two friends; Risk and Routine.
Sometimes risk puts us in a rut and we need routine to get us out. But sometimes, routine puts us in a rut and we need risk to get us out.

What if in 2019 you choose to revisit an area you may have put on hold, due to routine?

In October, my mom sent me a picture of a sketch I did while studying fashion in high school. Little did she know, a few days prior the Lord was telling me to revisit my passion for fashion. I had done some t-shirt designs over the years that did pretty well so receiving that text was a confirmation to put a name on it and make it official. I designed a logo and announced a soft launch of WVN Apparel. A few weeks later I saw a contest requesting dress designs for the 2019 Dressember campaign. They are a non-profit organization fighting to end human trafficking. Without hesitation, I pulled out a sketch pad, drew out three ideas, took pictures of them and entered the contest. I didn’t even tell my family. On Christmas Eve I received an email, my dress made it to the top 4 and voters would determine the winner. Then on January 2nd I received the email that my dress had won by a wide margin. My dress will be available for purchase in the fall.

It’s a good thing our talents don’t have expiration dates.

Another option you can choose is to explore a totally uncomfortable creative outlet. I am choosing, bodily. I am being intentional about moving more and looking for creative outlets to do this.
Let’s say you choose music, start with listening to it more often, maybe explore a new genre, maybe make karaoke the end goal.

Or what if you choose to give to others the knowledge of your talents. My daughter Bethany is studying film and raising money to go to Spain this year to minister through the arts.

The idea is, whatever it is you choose to do, whether in a career/ministry or just for downtime, set out do it in a creative way. Begin each day asking the Lord for a dose of creativity.

I pray you see yourself as creative, if you didn’t already. And if you did, I pray you stretch your creative intelligence. -T

Meet Terry: I was born in New Mexico, raised in Denver and my favorite place I have lived is Hawaii (duh):). If I had to pick just two action words to describe me they would be teacher & maker, actually my son chose them, but yeah very accurate. I have to work at shutting those off. This year marks 30 chapters into my forever love story with Johnny, whom I met in College. We are so proud of our 3 adult children, our daughter-in-love and future son-in-love. After 20 years of full-time ministry, God sent us to Hollywood 10 years ago. We run a production company and believe that Hollywood is a Ninevah, not Sodom & Gomorrah. After 27 years of homeschooling I am slowly coming into my next. Connect with our family on Instagram @terrylouise_ifyouplease and @socalmurillos.

It’s Liz again:), what an incredible message on how to create while in the midst of funky seasons! A huge THANK YOU to Terry for sharing with us today! I am personally challenged and inspired to try new creative mediums. What will you choose to try? What creative gifts do you feel rising to the surface? I hope you’ll share them with us in the comments below!

I also wanted to share an opportunity to empower someone to use and share their creative gifts. As Terry mentioned, her daughter Bethany is a college student and will be heading to Spain to minister through the creative arts. This is going to be such an amazing opportunity for her and her team! If you would like to invest in Bethany’s upcoming trip, please click here.

Thank you everyone for checking out the blog today! The encouragement from this series is gonna stick with us- I just know it! peace-liz

Go the Extra Mile: Check out this brilliant song that is a new fave of mine! I hope it encourages you today!