Bubbles of fun

Filament light

Filament is my new favorite word. Filum in latin means thread. It is used for several thread like structures. Such as the wires in a lightbulb that glow. It's really cool if you think about it. The lamp beside my bed has always fascinated me, but it is even more intriguing when I look at it from the ground. Don't ask me why I was laying on my floor looking at my light because I won't have a reasonable answer; I just was. Therefore, I took a picture of it and I cannot stop looking at it. 

     The second picture is of the street light coming through my kitchen window tonight. I've never noticed it before, but I enjoyed the fact that it illuminated the window frame. 

Extravagant Beauty

Every time I go to a field and take pictures I am refilled. I am reminded why I love life. I smile very often, but I smile the most genuine when engrossed in natural beauty. I capture things and give them immortality. A picture never changes; it is still and true. For christmas I received a AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:4G ED lens and I now know what love feels like. I can see things differently through it. It's like my own personal telescope. I see tail lights, feet, detail, and patterns from over 100 feet away.  So this means I can spy on all my neighbors and know all of their secrets now, right?

I took my brother into a field I recently found and made him a model. I love that boy in a very special way that I cannot begin to describe.

I enjoy the fact that fields lend themselves in very unexpected places. Behind an old or new building, school, or even Church. To find them you must be aware of life. Hidden gems don't flaunt themselves. They are hidden.

The best pictures are the unplanned and raw moments that are captured. That genuine smile that appears when someone laughs and crinkles their nose. It is true beauty. Beautiful things don't ask for attention, but are always present. When recognized, your lens can capture a beautiful thing when it is not looking.

My lens and myself seek this hidden beauty of life.

~One of the extravagant things about God is that He created an entire planet full of hidden beauty for me to spend the entirety of my exsitense exploring~

Stranded

Today my friends and I had the opportunity to save the life of a little baby goat. Alli's dog brought it to us. At first we thought she was trying to kill it, but we realized she was appearing to rescue it. Something was wrong. (Side note) Please take into consideration that my friends and I were in the process of shooting a music video for an AP english call. The theme being The Great Gatsby, Alli was dressed at Myrtle, basically a prostitute, and I was dressed up as a crying and depressed Daisy. Being girls, we rushed over to it and were scared that it might be hurt. The first thing we saw was what we thought to be intestines hanging down from its stomach area. Immediately, we scooped the baby into a blanket, jumped into the jeep, and took off towards the vet hospital down the road. We were greeted by a group of women, who kept giving us very questioning looks.  Here is a picture to help you understand what we looked like....

We proceeded  to tell them that this baby goat's intestines were hanging out and that it was very close to death. The women just stated that they do not take  goats and that we needed to go somewhere else. After our convincing, they decided to take a look at the goat's intestines. Then the women started to laugh and told us that the baby had just been born and that was not intestines, it was an umbilical cord and that we needed to take the baby to its mom very soon. Feeling very stupid, we walked out in our ridiculous red and black heals with our baby goat. Might I add that Faith was dressed normally and looked very cute.

We drove over to the end of the pen and found the mom. We left the baby with her and everything seemed to be fine. About an hour later, the dog showed up with the baby goat again. We left it alone because we didn't think we could do anything. Then, Alli's Aunt Karen showed up. Aunt Karen helped us take the baby to it's mother again only to find that the mother was rejecting the baby. Due to the nature of goats, they are known for killing their unwanted kids. So we took the baby home. Aunt Karen made some goat milk and we were able to hand feed the baby. This was one of the sweetest moments I have ever been apart of. The baby has now been taken from by Aunt Jo and will be found a very nice goat home in the next couple of days. 

Moral?

#1 Anything red handing from a baby does not mean that it is going to immediately die.

#2 Expect to get looks when walking into a vet office holding a baby goat, while looking like a group of hookers.

#3 How wonderful that we as sheep of the Lord are not stranded? 

As I watched the baby goat stand there, calling out, and shivering violently, my heart was torn. It was one of the saddest and most helpless experiences of my life. Goats are very stupid animals. I know that seems rude, but they really are; google it. It is not a compliment when we are called Sheep in the bible. Yet, it is accurate. 

We are full of folly.

Even though the way of salvation is right next to us, we cease to see it. We are stranded. We are also very stupid. Our preconceived notions of self-salvation are entirely inaccurate. Not until we are scooped up and taken into His arms are we safe. Yet, we fight. Just like the baby goat fought the bottle of milk. Failing to realized that the object offered, is the very source of our salvation. 

This is my prayer:

Father, let your sheep not refuse your healing touch. As we are stranded by this world, let us see that you are our shelter and protection. We shiver because we are lost and alone. We will be rejected by this world and when this happens we will be empty and afraid; unwilling to see your solution. Lord, help us see your willing arms. Take away our stupidity

Fill us with light and rid us of our unwavering folly.

Thanksgiving

I am making it my goal to be thankful all the time. Past thanksgiving and into the rest of my life.
When I am home from school for extended amounts of time I find myself decorating my room. This week's decor is paper airplanes.  Most likely there will be more addictions to my room, but for now I am enjoying my planes of sheet music. The Christmas lights around my window make them glow at night and I go to bed resting in the fact that He is good and present in every moment of my existence.

Praise be to the Lord. He is good.

A Camera tells no lie (sometimes)

Purity shines. Pictures can often times lie, but they often tell the truth as well. Pictures can lie about how someone really looks, but the camera cannot change the way a person smiles.The way a person smiles and the way the camera captures that sparkled in their eye, lets you glimpse into their soul. My dear friend Faith and I went on a little photo shoot yesterday. Her purity shines. You can look at her pictures and just see her happy spirit bubbling within her. It is such a joy to bond over a cup of coffee with her. We also enjoy being slightly Granola with my guitar and an old camera I picked up in a little town that isn't even on the map. She is beautiful. 

Her radiant spirit brings joy to my life. 

Color Conformed...Or not

I know in a later post I had written about "fig leaves." This has continued to be a constant in my life.
I continue to try and prune the things out in my life that are not lovely.

What are you colors?

I think we should be constant. Unchangeable and unchanged throughout time. Think of a rainbow. The rainbow might appear to change slightly between each time you see it, but the colors are constant.
We paint the color of our fig leaves whatever our hearts desire at a certain time.  Yet, what are the colors that God has given us individually and specifically?
   
God made us humans for a reason. If we were meant to change our colors God would have made us chameleons. Don't get me wrong chameleons defiantly have it going on. (Humans are way more rad though.)

If the color thing is throwing you off, think of it in a different way.
What if we were always in a different mood? What if your moods were dependent upon the people around you.

Think of it this way.....
You get to school. You are in a happy "life is good" kind-of-mood. You bounce up the stairs and over to your locker. You are ready to have the most amazing day of your life. You see your friend. Your friend is in the Life-is-awful-Im-tired-kind-of mood. This deflates your little joy bubble immediately and you proceed to have an awful day. All because you let your friend's colors rub off onto yours. Great right? {actually...NO}

I have this long lasting theory that when He as on earth, Jesus was the coolest and most granola person ever. You know He loved just chilling at the coffee shop with His brothers and loving life and talking for hours.
    okay.....more like sitting in a field hanging out with the sheep and talking with His brothers. And feeding thousands of people and performing miracles in His free time. Equally cool if you ask me. My point is this..Jesus never changed. He was constant and unchangeable. 

 Why are we over emotional creatures? Why do we let other people contribute to the type of day that we have?

Fact: We are all going to have our share of rotten days.
Nonfact: The type of day we have depends on how our friends treated us or acted.

I want to shine my light. I have this uncanny and desperate desire to not be the same. I struggle with this desire. How funny right? It doesn't make sense to struggle with desiring my desire. Yet, it is real.
I want to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, but I want to be normal. Ha. yeah. I know.

Are we supposed to search for the happy-medium?

In the world, but not of the world.
 I search for this.

HOW?! What does this look like? How do I become this person that leads people to Jesus and shines so bright, yet I don't scare people away because I have this overly religions factor surrounding me, thus creating a scary looking "barrier" around my life?

"Therefore, I urge you...offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship. Do NOT conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renowing of your mind." Romans 12:1-2

Okay so If you haven't heard those two verses then you are probably not a Christian. (TOTALLY KIDDING) My point is though, we hear this so much that I think it begins to lose its true meaning over time. Yet, is is so powerful it should only increase in meaning. 

I am currently doing a Romans 12 bible study with my family and it is so eye opening.

Okay. Let's look at this baby. 

"Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice." So this is where we get set our bodies aflame, run through the streets without any clothes on, and then proceed to jump off a cliff. But, if you don't feel comfortable doing this just yet, consider my next option. Living. We are alive, thus we are living. Sacrifice. We are sacrifice. We are to present our lives as a continual worship song to our Jesus. Every movement, thought, action should be glorifying to Christ. (convicting...)

Next part....

"Holy and pleasing....this is your..worship."      A roundabout definition of Holy is: Set apart. Therefore, if we are aiming for holiness then we should automatically be set apart from normality. 

Easy. hahah not really. The world looks so fun at time. But, look at the last part of that verse.

 "This Is...worship."

            Life is worship. 

Recently, I have found myself completely unsettled during worship time. I find my self making sure I don't sound like a drowning-cow. Even more, I find my self worshiping the song. Often times we sing these worship songs just as we would our favorite rock song. The only difference is that we might feel the necessity to raise our hands to make the song a worship song. How do we change this? Well, I am still trying to really answer this question fully for myself. My answer right now, however, would be this: You know the condition and motivations of your heart. You can only go from there. Our life is worship to Christ. (yet again...convicting) I need to make sure I want everything I do to count as worship to God. Because it does count. It counts even if we know God will forgive us for our actions. Paul talks about this very subject in Romans, but that is an entire other subject.

Let's finish this up.
"Do not be conformed...be transformed."
If we were to put this in modern day talk it would say something like....Do jump on the band-wagon! Be different because of your love for your Savior.
We cannot get on the band-wagon of life and ride it all day long. First, there probably isn't any more room on it for you because everyone is already on it. Second, just...come on.
We talked about this in Bible class a day or two ago....
Many people talk about the hypocrisy of the Church. There is hypocrisy is the church, as well as in my own very life.

Hypocrisy exists because of a lack of transformation and an excess of conformity. 

What does it take to be transformed? We should have moldable spirits; we should be willing to be lead even when it stings. Trust me, if you are doing it correctly you will feel the sting. (Totally worth it though) .       Transformation starts with a legitimate relationship with the Creator of the Universe. 

Side-note: As I continue to write on this blog I find myself becoming increasinly honest. I like it. I hope that my honesty shows you that you are not alone in this thing called life. I find myself being drawn to honest people. My goal for this blog is to bring glory to Jesus as I share what He is telling me to write as He teaches me how to do life. I thrive when people become honest, real, raw.

Life is hard. Yet, life is always so immensely wonderful I could shout till the sun sets..and then until it rises again. Life is a lot better when we do not conform, when we do not change out colors and when we do not hide behind the fig leaves we have constructed. Jesus is a rewarder and we will surely be reward for our life worship. Be brave for our reward is not on earth. Thank goodness, right? It seems the glory of earthy things quickly vanish...because they do.
This I know for certain, Jesus Joy does not ever leave my soul.

||  For this I praise Him  ||

He and I Alone

You look in the mirror. "Gross," you think to yourself, "He is going to think I am such a slob, when He sees me like this." You grab your keys; you grab your things. With your shoes in one hand and car keys in the other, you dash into your car in a frenzy. You're late. As you drive your mind starts to wonder. You picture what His loving embrace will feel like. You picture His soft cloudy eyes and warm gently smile. Despite the fact that you are wearing a big t-shirt  and no trace of makeup, you know he will embrace you just the same as if you were wearing diamonds and rubies. His love is unconditional. You cannot contain the joy within you. You cannot wait to tell him about the day you had. Your exciting news, mixed with the smell of his shirt, and the taste of the coffee shop make you leap with glee. You are utterly sold on His love. Imagining a life without His love is void.

You are ardently in love with Him.

If this were you in the story wouldn't you be so happy to be loved by this man?

Personally, I know the desire to be loved far too well. Even yet, I have so much love inside of me that I just want to love something. Give me a puppy because I need to hold something and unleash my love upon. I have moments, where I feel the love swell inside my body so violently, that I dream of loving someone for the rest of my life.  Loving people is one of the things I enjoy most.

When I get married, I know I will have moments where I will just stand openly staring at him. Amazed that I get to love him for the rest of my own eternity on earth. 

[Here comes the Christian life application....ready?]

Girls, You are that frantic, frazzled, messy, dreaming, and lovely girl in the story. The man is? Your own Jesus. We know that Jesus does not look on the outward appearance, but to the heart. When the women in the story looks at herself in the mirror she is not looking at her outward appearance. She is looking at her heart, at her sin. She knows when she goes to meet Jesus at the coffee shop, all her ugly and black sin will be exposed. 

||Accepted despite the sin||

When given a letter, I find that my mind memorizes it automatically. The sweet words, their personality showing in the print, and the way their sweet words uplift me. Getting letters and notes are, in fact, apart of my love language. We have already been given a letter of undying affection and delight. The bible. It should be wrinkled from reading. I find that my heart automatically memorized it because of my eyes gazing upon it time and time again. He delights in me and I in Him. When I unleash my love upon His people I find ultimate satisfaction. 

He loves us more than human flesh could ever desire. Rush to Him more than you would any human being, that would only bring you temporary satisfaction and security.

Coffee with the King. This is what I desire. He ardently loves me and I Him.

Sunset Sky

Here are a few pictures from yesterday's photo shoot. Some are waiting to be edited and others are being saved for special posts. Only the first two pictures have been only slightly photoshopped, showing how amazing the lighting was yesterday. Cloudy days are my favorite days to take pictures. The light is maximized by the clouds and they also lend themselves to amazing sunsets as the clouds often break. The place where I was shooting yesterday was on top of a hill. [I highly recommend viewing sunsets from hills.] I was able to watch the sun set over the bustling town. Even though I could not see the sun, the outline of the sun could be seen through the clouds. It was breathtaking. Purple, blue, pink, grey, yellow, orange, pink surrounded me. 

God is such an artist.

Not for Show

What is Humility?

Humility is not actively being humble or wearing extremely modest clothes. If you are trying to be humble, you are in fact being prideful. Actions with the intent of being humble are in fact prideful because they are self focused. Humility is having a correct view in who you are in relation to God. Having a correct ideal on who you are and how every single one of your actions bring honor to God. Actions with the intent on bringing glory to God are humble. Therefore, without intentionally trying to become humble, you begin to truly exhibit humility in it's truest form.

Pride is something I struggle with. I am selfish and prideful. Everyone is to some extent, but it is something that I have to work on daily.


Now for the story.

I got selected to be the Junior representative for the homecoming court. Great right? I was excited that I got to dress up with some friends, who were also on the court. We were going to look super pretty and have a great time. The attention was going to be on us. I got so excited for the homecoming football game.

It was about one week away from homecoming. I had gone dress shopping with my friend and was ready for the big night. My dress was hanging in the hallway and I was ready to go. Then one night I sat down to watch a movie. It was one of those movie nights that you don't exactly know what the movie is about, but it has great reviews. The movie was Not For Sale. This movie was about sex trafficking in India and Africa. No movie has made me more emotional or more angry. Especially in India, the people over there are under the Cast System. I do not know much about this system, but I know that you cannot move up a class. You are stuck in the class in which you are born in. The lowest class has the nickname of "The Untouchables." They are completely rejected from society.
  The Dalits.

Often times, the Dalit parents and their children go days without food and water. They are beyond poor. They become desperate for food for their children. They cannot get a job and they are living in the streets. 

Do you know anything more hopeless?

Men come up to these Dalit parents telling them they want to buy their children from them. They decieve these parents in telling them that this will give their children a better life. They will have food and good education. They will live in comfort.  These parents sell their children to these men offering to buy them. They are under the impression that they are giving their children a better life.

What they do not know is that they just sold their child into Sex Trafficking. 

The Sex trafficking industry is straight from the devil. It is an evil that cannot even be described. Millions of children are sold into Sex Trafficking a year. It is slavery. We as americans are under the impression that slavery ended.

We are entirely wrong.

As I was watching this movie, ready to go to India and fight, I looked over into the hallway. There hung my homecoming dress and it looked faded in the dark light. I was disgusted at the fact that I was so focused on a homecoming dress and myself, when things like that are going on in the world. We are so focused on the comfort of our little world. New Cars, new clothes, homecoming, prom, dates, boyfriends, vacations, beach trips, outward appearances, and momentary pleasures. All along, sex trafficking (among other things) are happening around the world.

I also have a pen pal in Uganda. Through her and her letters, God has shown me who He is and that life is not about myself. I have discovered that I find true and pure joy in reaching out to other people and loving on them.

All of a sudden homecoming became non-important to me. I was no longer wrapped up in myself and prideful about the fact that I was on the homecoming court. 

I was humbled like never before.

Friday night, as I walked onto the field, I was joyful that I had the opportunity to shine my light before others, but I will never forget what I said to my dad on that field as we were standing before the crowd.

"Dad, I am so glad this not  the stuff I live for."

Dad "What do you mean, Avery?"

"It's already over, Daddy.""

Dad, "I love you."

I never would have guessed that Jesus would teach me humility by placing me before a crowd of cheering people. However, He humbled me more than I ever would have imagined. Why do we as a society get wrapped up in all these fleeting things? Girls are being sex trafficked and sold into slavery everyday as we lay on our couches consumed with our flesh. The things we usually pour our lives into, do NOT matter.

What is worth living for? 

Light III

"Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered. Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness." Psalm 26:2-3

[I am taking this school year to read throughout the entire book of Psalms]

Dry Bones on Display

If I were to ask you a simple question- I would already have a good idea of what your response would be. To give you an idea of how I already know the context of your response and my credibility in asking you this question, I will tell you a fact. I have gone throughout downtown asking this question, sparking discussions that have often been above my level of intelligence. As I look back upon these conversations I realize that often times my words were not my own. They were in fact, Christ's.

What is wrong with the world.


My reasoning for dismissing the rules of grammar? I am not looking for your response, I am asking you to quietly hold your worldview in your mind as your read my next few words to you.



Adultery
Divorce
Sexual Promiscuity
Idolatry
Greed
Anger
Ignorance
Death
Lies
Hate
War
Pain
Suffering
Cancer
Suicide
Depression
Poverty
Corruption
Porn Addiction
Drug Addiction
Lust
Emptiness

The list literally goes on forever. We as a people often group together to try and fix these things. Drug Addiction? We will send you to rehab. Porn Addiction? We go set up accountability groups within the Church. Depression? We have pills that can fix you. We come up with all these treatments for all these life symptoms. They work, but how well do they really work? They need something beyond themselves.

We as a people treat the symptoms, yet ignore the cause.


What is causing all of these symptoms?

sin.

Our failure in addressing, the root cause of our symptoms only dig us deeper.We believe that we know what can fix what is wrong with the world, yet we fail to see the lack of completion in our treatment of them. We are called to go to the Lord in times of trial. Rehab, accountability partners, and sometimes medication are wonderful things that Jesus uses to help us. However, we must use them without a foundation built upon Christ. Often times things are going on in our lives that we try to hide. We put on this mask of imagination; a mask that we conjure up for ourselves. We create our own identity, instead of God being our identity. When Adam and Eve came to the realization that they were in sin and naked, they covered themselves with Fig Leaves, desperately trying to cover themselves and be something they simple were not [sinless]. Now apply this to your life. We all have a fig leaf. There is not one human on the face of the earth who does not have a "Fig Leaf" that they are desperately trying to hide behind.

What is your fig leaf?

[Picture this]You lay your head down upon your pillow one night and go to sleep. You slip into a dream. You are in the middle of a desert, but yet there is a crowd of people surrounding you. You are in the middle of a people creating a circle of people looking down upon you. You are standing there. What are the people staring and pointing at? You look to the ground before you. A skeleton is laid out before you. It is your skeleton. Panic sets inside of you. You look for something around you, dirt, grass, stones, ANYTHING. You one desire at this moment is to cover your skeleton. You have to cover your bones. People are seeing inside of you and your deepest darkest struggles are exposed to the people you most want to hide them from. What will the people thing of you? You grab a fist full of dirt, throwing them upon your skeleton, but to no avail. Now the people are staring at you. You Stand up and look hold up your hands. You skin is slowly fading away. You are sinking. You are becoming the skeleton that you once hid from the world. What will you hide behind now? The people are staring, pointing, whispering, talking, gazing, taunting, and screaming. You are screaming, yet no one hears you. You have become the dry bones that you spent your entire existence trying to dispose. You wake up in a desperate sweat and breathing heavily. You realize, that your largest fear is your Dry Bones being exposed.

"All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me." Psalm 22:17

When you look at the mirror what do you see? How do you see yourself? Everyone is hiding behind something. We all have this preconceived notion that other people are constantly looking and evaluating our every move. In reality, everyone is only worried about what others thing. Their only worry is to hide their Dry Bones.  In Ezekiel 37 we see The Valley of Dry Bones. Such as the Dry Bones in Chapter 37, we must be set alive by the breath of our Lord. "Like unburied skeletons, the people were in a state of living death, pining away with no end to their judgment in sight."
                          (Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/valley-dry-bones.html#ixzz2gtwbZc00)

He  alone can make our Dry Bones lovely and pure. Why should we hide our lives away and pretend to put of an illusion of contentment? Why so many fig leaves? God is calling us out, like He did Adam and Eve. We as a people of Christ should cease to hide behind earthly things and proudly proclaim who Christ has made us (even our Dry bones and every dirty human thing about us). 

Just as my picture above describes, our fig leaves will not last forever; they fade. We cannot hide forever. Even more important, when we look at ourselves in the mirror we do not see our fig leaf. We see our true raw Dry Bones. Jesus does not see our fig leaves. He knows our true hearts.

Our private lives bleed through into our public lives (fig leaves).

What is wrong with the world?

Lifted Towards Him

"And I, when I am lifted up[a] from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 
John 12:32
Jesus, lift my face towards yours so that I might bask in your glorious light.

Light

Mossy Trees

How Great A Certainty

Certainty of thought stands as the prerequisite of great accomplishments.  They are, by nature, rare and resist the effort expended toward their end.  Many begin a great task but stop short of the goal because of the many difficulties; certainty of thought remains essential to overcome them.  The men and women that change the world rid their minds of doubt to prove the reality of their certainties. Men of little consequence leave doubt untested and rest in uncertainty. Doubt has its place.  Certainty, without a foundation built upon questions stays nothing more than arrogance and will assuredly falter under its own weight.  However, resting in doubt will achieve nothing.

The belief in themselves and a certainty of their goal remains a key factor in the great discoveries throughout the ages of literary characters and historical characters. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein prevailed because of his certainty of the impossible. Against all odds, he so believes in his capability to create life from inanimate objects that all doubt escapes him. This certainty sustained the Christians of the early church: men and women with unwavering certitude. As kings and rulers persecuted them, butchering them for their beliefs, these men and women were resolute in their beliefs. The early Church Apostles throughout the ages followed their beliefs to their death. How great a certainty: to follow ones deepest convictions to the death, so that others may see this example and conform to the certain truth.  Certainty however, begins with doubt.

The world expects that a human should come to a conclusion about their beliefs.  During a majority of his life, C. S. Lewis was outspoken and confident in his atheistic belief system. After he read Malcolm Muggeridge’s book Conversion, a seed of doubt was planted. He spent diligent time testing the things he thought to be true, coming to the realization that he was entirely wrong.  This seed of doubt produced some of the most beloved works in modern Christian literature.  The point of C. S. Lewis’s life was that he never stopped thinking. Doubt pushed him to test the things he thought to be true. Consistently, he was testing the things he knew to be true. Doubt holds as a lazy resting place, and if left to itself, causes a man to stop thinking entirely. Life shouldn’t rest in doubt. Certainty abides as the stronghold in which men place their lives. Doubts acts as the beginning of certainty and will destroy the lives that dwell in it.

Contrary to the common belief of man, life stands short and passes easily. Therefore, one’s life ought to reject doubt and rather possess and rest in certainty of thought, making the most out of the brevity of life.  Certainty remains necessary to overcome the obstacles to achievement and meaning.  The opposite, doubt, lays the foundation for true and enduring certainty.  Perhaps more thinking, more doubting and more certainty stands as the way forward in this world.  

Rooted

I believe that we go through seasons in our lives. Like Ecclesiastes 3, the Bible tells us that there is a time for everything. I take it as a Jesus message. I picture him just telling me, "Avery, there won't be a period of time in your life that you won't be learning something from me!" I used to wonder how in the world I would find out what I am supposed to be learning at a given time. But then Jesus let me in on how to. You simply are in rooted into His word everyday. When you do this, you see Him in every aspect of life. He shows your a little lesson in everything in life. I now see Jesus in everything. One of the things I see Him most in is photography. He is the director of my camera and reveals things to me as I capture His moments.

 ^"having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established ^[a]in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing ^[b]with gratitude."

Colossians 2:7