From my recliner

Joy Is the Flag Flown High
20" x 16" acrylic on paper, $560
Available by contacting me directly. 

If you follow me on social media, you may know that I am sidelined with an injury these days. I have to sit with my ankle either elevated or in an ice bucket, and it is curtailing most of my activity, as you can imagine, so this painting that you may have seen before will be my feature for today's blog post. 

First, I am choosing to share this painting that is so joyful just because it has been challenging to find my own joy the last week or so. Not only am I grounded, but I have a close friend who has had serious difficulties from a cancer surgery at Mayo clinic, a friend who is walking away from his faith, and several other somewhat urgent prayer matters. (Well, one good thing is that I have plenty of opportunity to pray right now!) In response to, or maybe in fighting against some of these things, I am choosing joy. (Click here for the original blog post about this painting.)

 

There are bright spots of glimmer in this painting that show in great light, and the texture is lively and just plain fun! The original post contains a link to a song with these words, but here are a few of them for today's post, too:

...

Joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart

When the king is in residence there

...

Let it fly in the sky, let the whole world know

That the king is in residence there!

by Frank McConnell

I hope that you feel the warmth and celebration in this painting! I invite you to contact me via email or comment on the blog post if you are interested in seeing it in person or bringing it into your own home to enjoy. I also invite you to spend some of your online browsing time on my website Brenda Stichter Fine Art (brendastichter.com) . There you can see many of my paintings that are available, my current event schedule, blog posts that are different from what I post here, and quite a bit more! 

Standing (figuratively) on this principle today: Nehemiah 8:10 Then he said to them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, because the joy of the Lord is your stronghold.”