We are so thrilled that you have clicked on to our blog! One Accord Market is a multi business storefront-we have almost 20 businesses under one roof! It's incredibly exciting and rewarding to see retailers and artisans thriving and growing in their gifts.
Everyone has a story. We thought the One Accord Market Blog would be a great place for our retailers and artists to share their story. Hopefully you will be able to connect with their stories and find it interesting to know why they do what they do!
Our first artist is Leanne Lovice. She paints animals...and she is amazing! I hope you enjoy her story.~Stephanie
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4
My experience has been that going to out of town conferences gives me the opportunity to grow and hear from God in ways that may not happen in the busyness of everyday living. Last May my daughter asked if I would attend a two-day conference with her that her church was sponsoring. She really wanted to go but did not want to go alone. Not only was I thrilled she had the desire to go to a conference (and bring her mother); I was intrigued that it was a conference focusing in on the arts. It was just a recipe for fun! Three things that strike a chord in me; spending time learning more about God, time with my daughter, and ART! Not to mention eating out in Charleston!
The speaker at the conference was a woman who shared her journey as an art student and spoke about that moment she hit rock bottom and opened her heart up to God. Because she had major areas in her life to work on, she laid down her art for a decade or more! When the time was right she started again. The difference when she picked it back up was that she was now fully walking with God. She became extremely successful as an artist and has a strong desire to stir up passion in others to bring their art and their walk with God together. She asked us to confess anything that was holding us back from walking freely with God and to lay it at His feet. There were strips of fabric in the middle of the table and a loom set up in the front. The strips of fabric represented letting go of that thing that was holding us back. Each of us was asked to bring our piece of fabric, our perceived shortcoming, to the loom. And in so doing we created a work of art. Hmmmm…. I searched myself. Could I admit to myself and to God that I had a fear of failure; that because of that fear I tried so hard to not make mistakes; that I held myself accountable for every dumb thing I said, every mistake I made; every moment I could not control; that I held myself to such a high standard that it shut me down, meanwhile, beating myself up? “Perfection” was my, self imposed, middle name. I walked forward toward the weaving loom and as I did self-condemnation dropped away and in its place my Savior’s healing hand soothed an area inside of me that had been festering for way too long. Sigh….
To close out the weekend our group was sectioned off in threes and we were to pray over each other. During a break just before the last session a woman from another table joined our table. We had not had the opportunity to know anything about her and she knew nothing about us. She was one of the three in my group. It felt a little awkward to have someone who we didn’t know much about to be thrust into a prayer time. (I guess my habit of wanting to “control” things hadn’t fully gone away. Definitely something to work on.) In any case, we all prayed for each other and it was really nice. At the end the woman said she had a mental picture in her head while she was praying for me. She said she didn’t know if I were a painter or not. (Suddenly she had my attention because this was a conference for all the arts, not just for painters.) She said she saw a blank canvas and that God kept trying to hand me some paintbrushes. I kept saying, “No, no, that’s not me.” On the third time I took the brushes from Him and started painting. Soon I made a mistake and tried to lay the brushes down. That’s the moment God came up behind me and took my hand and used my mistake to make something beautiful. Wow! I was amazed. It was and has been the mental image I carry in my head every time I face a blank canvas, every time I say something dumb and every time I think I will… or ever could be perfect. I am human. I am flawed and I am imperfect. He loves me anyway…. Flaws and all! I have truly been set free by a loving God through my Savior, Jesus Christ. My heart is full.
I had always been drawn to art, but never felt worthy of being called an artist. I am an artist! So, with strong encouragement from family and friends, I have started painting pet portraits. I have learned so much through putting myself out there in a vulnerable place. I continue to learn and grow and love the process! I encourage anyone reading this to seek God in all you do. There’s a verse, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all things will be added to you.” It’s true. He is a loving God who cares and really is in the details of our lives. So, delight yourself in Him, and He will give you too, the desires of your heart.
Leanne Lovice-Ruff Designs
