What Stifles Your Creativity?

There are many days that I LOVE what I do. Being able to share my thoughts with the world in hopes to bring them closer to God and encourage them in their individual walks with Him. However, there are other days that I’m just not feeling like doing much of anything. Some days I run into a really big snag, wake up on the wrong side of the bed, feel down, discouraged, or just plain tired and grumpy. As a result, I end up spending the vast majority of my time on worthless things (Facebook, music videos, vlogs, etc.).

I used to think that the time that I spent doing these worthless activities was just something I had to get over. It wasn’t really that big of a deal. I just couldn’t do those activities before or during work hours. But I noticed something today. Those worthless activities, the time that was wasted doesn’t just affect my mood or my thought processes; it also ZAPS my creativity.

Sometimes I can get SO caught up in living other people’s lives that I just forget about my own. I become so caught up in their joys and stresses and become blinded to the blessings and joys of my own life. I’ve noticed that even on the days that these worthless activities are done in abundance; even at the “right times” still have the power to zap my creativity.

Now, what do I mean when I say that they zap my creativity? I mean, that it causes me to feel far from God and I spend less time with Him as a result. Therefore, I am running on empty most of the time and just surviving instead of thriving. God wants us to live an abundant life (John 10:10). He wants us to be aware of how He is working in our lives and ways that we can love Him and others better.

I used to think that I just needed to find myself some sort of hobby. Something that I enjoyed so much I wouldn’t want to spend time on worthless things. But if I sit down and really think, I have plenty of hobbies; cooking/baking, coloring, taking pictures, reading, and spending time outdoors just to name a few. Getting a new hobby won’t make the desire to waste time on worthless things go away. Sure, that desire may lessen for a while until the “newness” of the hobby wears off but eventually, I’ll be back in the same boat.

So, what’s the solution?

Training our thoughts and replacing the worthless with the worthy.

As Children of God we are commanded to think on “what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8). If something that we are spending our time on doesn’t fit those qualities we need to reevaluate if that is something we should really be doing.

Life is not easy. It’s stressful and sad, and there are just plain hard days. But we need to make sure that even in the midst of the crazy we are taking time to fill ourselves up with good things. Spending time with God and reading His Word, and spending our time on things that encourage us and lift us up, not things that stifle our gifts and creativity.

Until next time,

Bailey Sue