Icicles

Icicles- Beautiful designs of frozen water in the frigid cold.

Longing

Longing. This is what I believe this photo signifies.

The definition of longing is a yearning desire. This year I have a longing, a yearning desire, to know my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ more. I have a longing to be able to see and spend time with my sister Marissa more. I have a longing to be rid of my medical conditions. I am weary and tired. I want to be at peace with whatever the Lord's will is for my life.

I am reminded of a hymn called All Your Anxiety. I hope it comforts you.

Is there a heart o’erbound by sorrow? Is there a life weighed down by care? Come to the cross, each burden bearing; All your anxiety—leave it there.

Refrain: All your anxiety, all your care, Bring to the mercy seat, leave it there, Never a burden He cannot bear, Never a friend like Jesus!

No other friend so swift to help you, No other friend so quick to hear, No other place to leave your burden, No other one to hear your prayer.

Refrain: All your anxiety, all your care, Bring to the mercy seat, leave it there, Never a burden He cannot bear, Never a friend like Jesus!

Come then at once; delay no longer! Heed His entreaty kind and sweet, You need not fear a disappointment; You shall find peace at the mercy seat.

Refrain: All your anxiety, all your care, Bring to the mercy seat, leave it there, Never a burden He cannot bear, Never a friend like Jesus!

A New Year

As this year draws to a close and a new year begins I can see how the Lord has grown me in my love of capturing children on camera and God's beautiful design in the nature I see around me. This coming year I hope to grow in learning how to better capture these on camera. My goal is to be able to spend 30 minutes a day photographing nature. I will be posting more regularly on this blog. Thank you to everyone who have been an encouragement to me in regards to this. Thank you to my dad who I truly believe first started and helped develop a love for photography. Thank you to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has given me eyes to see His beautiful creation, ears to hear the melodious sounds and hands to touch. I am forever grateful. Here are a few photos I took yesterday of our Winter Wonderland in Davenport, IA. Enjoy and I hope you all have a Happy New Year!

Day 10- Do Not Worry

Matthew 6:25-34- New King James Version (NKJV) 25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Day 9- Fishers of Men

For those of you that don't know I am a full time preschool teacher aide. I found out yesterday that I will from here on out be in charge of the Sunday School lesson on Monday's, Thursday's and Friday's in my classroom. I will be leading them in prayer, reading the Bible story to them, time of music, and an art project related to the Bible story. I'm excited but a little nervous. This upcoming week is about Jesus choosing His disciples. I was wondering how I could do an art project for this but I remembered how Jesus said He would make them "Fishers of Men." So my art project is going to be having my students paint on some fish that I drew and cut out for them. After the paint dries I would put "Fishers of Men" and the Bible scripture on the fish so that the parents would know what the children learned. During my time of devotion with the children I will talk to them about how they even at the age of 4 can follow Jesus and what that looks like in a school setting. I pray that God blesses this hour each day that I have to teach them. So I decided today's photo would be the fish that I prepared for this coming weeks lesson.

Day 8- O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded is one of my favorite hymns.

 I can't wait to learn how to play this on the keyboard. My favorite rendition of this hymn is by the group 4Him:

Day 7- Yes It Rains Here in Southern CA

To all my friends who think Southern CA never gets any rain. Yes it is a rare thing to have a rainy day in CA. But when it does rain, it is a downpour. We actually had rain two days in a row. I love the rain. To quote the Winnie the Pooh song "And the rain rain rain came down down down.."

Day 6- Keyboard Lessons

I was given this keyboard a few years ago and now this year finally I get to start taking piano lessons again starting in February with a good friend Kelly Axen. I'm really excited. I hope God blesses this and that I will find/make the time to be able to practice every day even with a full time job.

Day 4 and 5- Behold Your God

The title for Day 4 and 5 of my 365 day challenge is Behold Your God

I've been doing this bible study called Behold Your God with my family and using an old Precious Moments NKJV Bible given to me by my grandmother that I've had for 15+ years. We've been doing it for the past 6 weeks It is a 12 week study. I strongly recommend it. It has been very convicting and made me realize that I had a small view of God which I'm trying to correct it. I've also seen things I need to work on in my spiritual walk. I need to work on spending more time with God through the reading of His Word, the Bible, and spending time with Him in prayer.

Behold Your God through Creation. Even the clouds declare God's glory and majesty.

Day 3- Male Belted Kingfisher

This bird is called a Belted Kingfisher. It is a male. Females have a brown belt where a male has entirely white. I don't normally see them around my house but today God blessed me with finding this one and being able to take a picture of it perched on a branch. He was just about to dive head first into the water for some food. They are commonly seen in Southern CA during the winter otherwise they are in Northern CA. Enjoy!

365 Day Challenge

Happy New Year Everyone!! A new year means a fresh start. This year I'm focusing on improving several things one of them being my photography skills. I plan on posting here daily as well as on my facebook page Here are the first two:

January 1st- Day 1: I caught this squirrel scurrying up a tree. It stopped at this particular branch and started to eat some sort of food it had found on the ground below.

January 2nd- Day 2: This male Mallard duck was showing off. I've never been able to capture this type of shot before until now. You have to take the shot at just the right moment or you'll miss it. I'm so glad I was able to capture this. The funny thing is I might have never gotten this photo at all. You see I had just gone out about a half hour earlier to take today's photo when I got home after taking a ton of photos and realized that I had forgotten to put my memory card back in my camera. You would think that my camera would have given me some sort of warning or message saying there was no camera card but no I didn't. Drats! Oh well. God has a sense of humor doesn't He? Well all I can think is God didn't want me to take those photos and He wanted me to go out again. I did and this was the end result. I'm so glad I had to go back out. God is good and His creation is amazing!!!

A Rose

During my walk yesterday I saw this beautiful rose. :)

Charlie Brown Tree

Yesterday I hiked up to the top of Mt. Pinos.  A total of 4 miles there and back.  When I got to the top I saw this tree.  It reminded me of the Charlie Brown tree and the line that Linus says "It's not such a bad little tree.  All it needs is just a little love."

Blue flowers

What are these lovely flowers? So tiny and so dainty.  Anyone know?

Psalm 23:4- Shadows

Psalm 23:4

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

A Beautiful Flower

I saw this beautiful flower the other day but not sure what type it is. Does anyone know?

Prayer

A couple months ago I was able to capture these precious moments of prayer. Prayer is crucial to our walk with Christ. We can not have a relationship with Christ if we are not communicating with Him. This couple was praying outside the abortion clinic as my dad was open air preaching, begging the women not to murder their unborn children. I stood beside them praying this as well.

To All Who Come To This Happy Place: Welcome.

To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America; with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.

- Speech on the opening day of Disneyland (17 July 1955)

Disneyland is one of my favorite places to go.  So much happiness comes from this place it's just busting with it.  So what better way to get this blog up and running again than a post about Disneyland with some pictures from there. :-) 

Cynthia and Ian's Wedding

This was my first wedding photo shoot that I did for a friend/coworker of mine. I was really nervous about it but she loved the photos so that's good. I was so worried that it wouldn't work out because the lighting in the room was horrible and there was no flash allowed. These are my favorites from that day....

Needs a Name...

Contest time!!!! My dad and I need help picking a name for this photo that I took of him. Whoever picks the best name for this photo will receive a signed copy of his book "Take Up the Shield" and a pack of his "Are You Ready" gospel tracts. :-)

This photo was taken on Resurrection Sunday in Neenach, CA.