So very often when encouraging moms to craft with their kids or cultivate an artistic hobby, I hear reluctantly: “But I’m not creative. I can barely draw a stick figure, and my three-year old fingerpaints better than I do!”

And the thing is, I get it. Just a few short years ago I was even on that same team, making those same claims.

In high school and college I watched friends take art classes, guitar lessons, and participate in drama club–and wished for the courage to join them. But making art was for talented people, I thought, and privately doodled and daydreamed in dozens of journals while taking “practical” classes and an after-school waitressing job.

Teaching elementary school helped me rediscover some of the long-lost childhood creativity as my views became tinted with the fresh perspective of first graders. Creating bulletin board displays, student portfolios, and sample art projects were a bonus, not a chore and I loved that part of my “job.”

Then I left the classroom to become a mom. I’d take my newborn baby to the craft store for an afternoon of reading creative magazines and picking out pretty scrapbook papers. Still, though I loved creating pretty things, I never considered myself creative or an “artist.”

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It’s almost default to feel if we’re not an expert, earning income from original creations, well-known for our innovations, or “abundantly blessed” with that “creative gene,” that we can’t claim the creative title. And so we minimize ourselves and our abilities, cheating ourselves from owning that we (simply because we are living, breathing, human beings) are creative.

I’m saying this because I believe inside every one of us is a spark of creativity. We all have that creative potential because we were made in the image of the ultimate Creator–to be like Him.

My perspective has changed over the past couple of years, and once I got over the fear of creative failure, developing my creative side  began to feed my soul.

If you feel you’re not creative, I invite you to consider why you feel that way.

Is there an experience, or series of experiences that influenced these thoughts?

Continue the conversation by letting me know your thoughts in the comments section (scroll back to the top of the post), or comment on the Facebook page.

 

So what do you think? Do you consider yourself creative? I know I do … NOW, but this was not always the case. Actually, perhaps I should clarify. I always liked to create things (growing up I sewed, knit, made friendship bracelets, you name it) but I never considered myself creative because I associated “creativity” with “artistry” and I most definitely didn’t consider myself an artist! Now that I have been practicing my creative artistry (see what I did there?) I consider myself both creative AND an artist.

Go and create something today – a card, a layout, a killer cookie, a wickedly organized pantry. We are ALL creative! We are ALL artists!