Category Archives: A Girl in the Middle

New 2014 [My Story]

My heart overflows, my mind races, my fingers can’t keep up. There is so much I want to say at this moment, but I have to first deal with the big speed bump that keeps everything else unsteady… New Year’s Eve.

If you’re on any social media right now, I don’t need to tell you it’s flooded with ‘out with the old, in with the new’ and the like. I read of past regrets and future hope. Of life anew and life that’s gone.  But this one facebook status scrolled through with the masses and really caused me pause: “New Year to me means FREEDOM.”

Out with the old.  In with the new. Out with the bondage. In with the freedom.  Really? Does that even sound right, because that IS what the conglomeration of the rolling statuses are saying.   Goodness. What a trap we bind ourselves in with these thoughts-with these beliefs.

Freedom with “New” is easy to understand.  A fresh start- I get that.  But freedom because the clock ticks midnight and the calendar changes? With that would also come some crux of crossover as new melds with old, the pages of the calendar flip to next, and, once again, freedom is overcome with bondage.  An endless  and futile cycle.

The other outlooks aren’t too promising either-peek at them with me: rich, thin, healthy, good, bad, control, happy…these things we wish for next year are the same we found ourselves uttering as the last ball dropped in NYC. Again we say, out with the old, in with the new. Freedom.  Who wants to live with finding freedom from the past on each December 31st knowing that hope turns to despair as the year unfolds leaving us in the same spot 365 days later?  Is there a way to end this turnabout?

We’re tarnished in our thinking. New. Old. Beginning. Freedom. We can’t think like God does.

God has a plan. A plan to pardon all that weighs us down and a plan to give us life abundantly and endlessly.

Isiaha 55:8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.

He can make old new and offer us freedom that truly frees us…forever.

The beginning was a long, long time ago.

My spunky and beloved mother in law’s birthday is today. She was born in 1915: 98 years ago.  It is also her 4th birthday celebration in heaven after her home-going just a few short years ago. (Where has that time gone?)  You sure learn a lot by living with someone who has that much life experience. Such a wealth of wisdom.  Yet,even for her, the  beginning wasn’t just shy of 100 years prior.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Genesis 1:1

…and the stroke of midnight on any given night, nor the first of January…. that’s not the beginning.  It’s the start of our calendar year, but it’s not the beginning.  It’s the new year in and the old year out, but that’s only good for the moment, for the one second in time that it’s true. If we live to be 100, we’ve got 100 seconds of old becomes new. That’s not much to bank on, but again, our minds are clouded with ‘ordinary.’  I’m thankful that God’s ways are far from ordinary. What a mess we’d be in without him. An entire life  and only seconds of freedom as the clock ticks out with the old and in with the new, out with the old and in with the new, out with the old and in with the new for each New Year’s Eve we’re given in this life.  Not much hope there.

There IS hope. There IS a way to for old to be gone and new to outlast the calendar.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Borrowed from Matthew’s commentary, I love what he says about the one who finds Christ: “Though the same as a man, he is changed in his character and conduct. These words must and do mean more than an outward reformation. The man who formerly saw no beauty in the Savior that he should desire him, now loves him above all things.”

That’s me. That’s what the Lord has done in my life. New. Truly, out with the old and in with the new. No calendar, no crystal  ball dropping down on New Year’s Eve, but a truly transformed me by the Lord’s grace and through Christ.  Now, that’s freedom!

I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. …But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:19

And at the end of the year sitting in my living room watching NYC come to life with celebratory hope for the year anew, I can say-even in the face of the hardest of years, I can humbly and thankfully proclaim the truth:

“Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.”  Psalm 40:5

This new year, 2014, I pray that you too know the truth of real hope, know the relief of really being able to say out with the old and in with the new, and know the personal experience of true freedom  as found only in Christ.

Happy New Year!

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He Gives and Takes Away [Family Photo Session Midlothian VA]

Have you heard of that song?  A mom  and dad never intend to bury their baby, but as sad as that is, it does happen sometimes. Logan was with this beautiful, godly, loving family for a very short 15 days.  He was so loved. He is sorely missed.

Newsboys: Blessed be Your name 

Blessed be Your name 
In the land that is plentiful 
Where Your streams of abundance flow 
Blessed be Your name 
And blessed be Your name 
When I’m found in the desert place 
Though I walk through the wilderness 
Blessed be your name 

CHORUS: 
Every blessing You pour out I’ll 
Turn back to praise 
And when the darkness closes in, Lord 
Still I will say 
Blessed be the name of the Lord 
Blessed be Your name 
Blessed be the name of the Lord 
Blessed be Your glorious name 

Blessed be Your name 
When the sun’s shining down on me 
When the world’s “all as it should be” 
Blessed be You name 
And blessed be Your name 
On the road marked with suffering 
Though there’s pain in the offering 
Blessed be Your name 

CHORUS

You give and take away 
You give and take away 
My heart will choose to say 
Lord, blessed be Your name 
I will bless Your name

That song resonates truth with this family, and that truth resonates through their  lives. Anyone who knows them is sure to say the same, they are a blessing!  We had a lot of fun on the shoot. Most were a bit chilly, but all were happy!  Thank you so much for asking me to do your session~these photos make ME smile, too!

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Obey or Disobey [November Muse]

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Gray area. Is there such a thing when it comes to our walk with the Lord? Does Scripture indicate that we have some cushion between obedience and disobedience? Or, does God expect us to do what He says, period? Does obedience leave room for wiggling?  The Lord says in Philippians to think on things that are true,  where does, dose that leave room for filling our eyes, minds and hearts with fiction? Samuel told the self-seeking Saul, Samuel 15:22, Then Samuel said: Does the LORD take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.   Parents, teachers and coaches tell children every day to obey.  And what kind of obedience do we expect?  I know in my house, in my classroom, I expect obedience to be complete- for partial obedience isn’t obedience at all, is it? 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You see, disobedience is sin. To walk in obedience to the Lord is to obey.

Obey or Disobey?

Sin isn’t a gray area. God didn’t somehow overlook or omit anything in His Word. No, He’s complete. He’s clear. WE either are in obedience or we are not. One step out of obedience to Him IS sin. There’s one single definitive  line obey:disobey. Once we step out of the light, where God is, we’re in the dark no matter how far out we stepped. It IS dark, there is immediate separation from God from obedience to disobedience; it doesn’t get darker and we don’t become more separated:

I John 1:5- 6

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light,

and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him

and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;…

I love that God didn’t orchestrate any gray area in obeying Him. Can you imagine what stipulations, what if, ands and buts we’d come up with? Of course you can! So can I.

The truth is, there’s less than 1/16″ distance between where I was writing the first section and the second in this post. That’s a  minute move on my part, but look how far off the mark I was. Nothing I wrote was intelligible, yet I was acting in  the very same I would have if I had been in the right place… but I wasn’t.

Step a little to one side or the other of what God tells us, and we too  are way off the mark —and in total darkness.  Our life renders us separated from God and our lives intelligible as a Christian to anyone watching.  That’s a travesty.

So, there’s the choice: to obey or not.

Almost Swan’s Song [November Muse, Midlothian VA Photographer]

From the beginning, Duck’s song didn’t sound so good, so (almost) Swan’s Song it is.

Ducks

What can you hear?

~watch out for snakes

~hope those cars stay up on the road

~sure did get cold

~leaves are falling all over our water

~don’t let the fish bite you

~go around the turtles

~don’t bite floating worms

~quit crowding the rest of us

~it’s getting dark, we should leave

~wonder if we’ll be able to come back tomorrow

~look out for webbed feet eating ameba

~don’t get too wet

~you’re going the wrong way

~duck if you see crows flying above

~spit out the dead ones

~walk around the joggers

~stay off the deck-it splinters

Nope.

It was a quiet, comfortable and enjoyable evening out there with  just a quack here or there. Didn’t seem like they had a care in the world. I need to sing that (almost) Swan’s song more in my own mind and heart.   What beautiful moments I miss with all the adscititious thoughts I allow, or even conjure up, into my thoughts. Frankly, and sadly, that list of duck worries rolled onto my keyboard as easily as water off a duck’s back. 😉

A Duck’s Peace Song: (eh, really it’s Philippians 4)

6Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpassese every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally brothers, whatever is true,g whatever is honorable,  whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable — if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise — dwell on these things. 9Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

 

 

Best Seat in the House [November Muse]

You know those women who love newborn babies? The babies are as much at ease with her as she is with them. And then there are those who just do their best to get through the continuous endless mix of days and nights with out rhyme or reason: calm the crying, get some sleep. I fit the bill of the former-give me a newborn any day and I soak in all the sweet smell and soft cuddling I can. And then they’re no longer new. Their cuteness is even bigger as is nearly everything else about them, but all things new are now bygones.  Just when squinty-eyed moms are nearly over the edge hoping and praying their babies would start sleeping, It happens over night.

*That* is how I feel about autumn. I love everything about this season in Virginia save the high mold levels (akin to stinky diapers, I suppose).

Just yesterday morning as the sun was rising, I was working from my living room. My babies now all grown up and sound asleep;  I had the best seat in the house.

Autumn Window

Autumn Window

I always wished my babies would stay little longer.

Every year I teeter between enjoying the autumn season and fearing its premature exit.

In both circumstances I’ll miss what passes so quickly,  yet I know there’s so much to look forward to in what’s next.

For today, I’m enjoying the best seat in the house. Happy autumn!

 

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