Glory Revealed II

One of the best albums I've heard in a long time. Honest, uplifting, down-home music straight from the Word. Got mine, my dad's, and my neices at iTunes...

Outstanding.

Kappy

Ok. We just got back from the mountains and some great vacation, and there will be alot of beautiful pictures to show, but I just had to get this one out there right now. We stopped off to go swimming at the lake the day before we left.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is my friend, Kappy, flowery swimming trucks, snake-bite cowboy boots, straw hat and all, climbing the tallest rock around just to give us all this pose...
If this image doesn't personify him and his rough 'n' wild, Wyoming Cowboy mentality, then no image ever will.... :)

Good Fruit or Bad?

Recently someone made the comment that we were terrible parents for taking our kids, 9 and 6 years-old, to church with us. It was horrible of us to not give our kids the choice for whether or not they should go and learn about Jesus Christ. Then they wrapped it all up by implying we were no different than terrorists and the kids they raise to follow Islam and the Jihad. They were cursing and yelling at that time, and then later of course said they didn't really mean anything by it.
Now, I don't have any grudge or ill-will for this person, but it does serve a good purpose to reflect...

I read a passage once I'd like to share, out of this terrible, horrible book that I happen to respect. It goes like this:

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

I'll have some words I'll have to pay for too, you can be sure. But I guess that somehow the words in that book make me sit up and pay a little more attention to what I say and what I do, terrible book that it is.

My boy just learned a verse a couple of weeks ago...

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. Against such
things there is no law."

Now, I could choose not to care, I could yell and scream and curse and tear my boy down, or I could choose another kind of fruit. The fruit this book speaks of.
I see it this way - I could raise a boy who has the fruit of another spirit, opposite of love, joy and peace, hateful and depressed and always high-strung, not kind, not good, not faithful, not gentle, and totally out of control, but why on earth would I wish that for my son?

Which would you choose for your child?

Follow me for just a moment, please? My little boy and girl helped me plant our garden, exerting the greatest of care to plant every seed to just the right depth on their little fingers. They were very careful to follow my instruction. They watched every move I made. They didn't learn it from a text book. They watched their daddy, and they imitated my actions.

That's a blog too if you ever care to read, but here's my point, the first image posted here was harvested from that very garden just a few short minutes ago.


We were on vacation for a week, and so the second image is the harvest that spoiled and withered on the vines, falling down to the ground to become pulp for the bugs and worms. There was no one to care and tend for every plant. No one stopped by or checked in, there were no careful hands to water or strip away the weeds or brush off the bugs, and so the plants made their own choices and did what that they must to survive on their own without any guidance or assistance. They cut off the water supply only to the roots. They quit growing, they quit reaching out, and they quit producing good fruits to make the world a better place. They were merely withering into survival mode. Anything just to stay alive.


Now, friend, we're going to have fresh, home grown BLT's with a nice tossed salad tonight from our garden. And hey, if you'd like you can come over...
But first, you tell me, which harvest would you prefer that I prepare your meal from?

Remember When

We were out all day yesterday shooting Josh and Stefanie's wedding, and at the end of our time with them they invited us to leave the cameras and just come and join the celebration at the reception. We brought a camera anyway, because seeing a beautiful moment and not capturing it would be somehow like a sin to me, and I'd be kicking myself for a week if I didn't bring it. Me at a reception without a camera is just unnatural. :)
So Kari and Abby and her friend were sitting at the table, and Abby was excited as a 6-year-old girl could possibly be because there were pink cupcakes, M&M's and Hershey Kisses just sitting out on the tables in endless supply, and of course, she thought the fountain of punch was the best ever "kid-wine" she'd ever tasted.
"It just goes on and on forever!" she beamed.
Then she proceeded to make everyone at the table, and also the bride, a pink bracelet out of ribbon, all before hitting the dance floor.

I was all wrapped up with taking pictures, having fun in my own way. But I only brought 1 camera and no bag, no gear, no nothing, so when my flash died I was forced to pry it from my hands and just relax like everyone else at the party.

The first thing I did was go cut-in and dance with my daughter. We had 2 dances and then the DJ announced that he wanted to have everyone out on the dancefloor who was married. Alan Jackson's song, Remember When, began to play.
I told my little girl we'd better go sit this one out and make room for the couples, but instead she ran straight at me and literally locked her arms around my legs. She stepped up on my feet with her little toes and looked straight up at me.

"Honey, this dance is just for the married people, silly."
She just smiled, "Well we're married."
I laughed, "That's silly. How can I be married to you? You're my Peanut and Mommy is already married to me? Who would Mommy be married to then?"
"She can just be married to Logan!"
So she kept on hugging me and she told me how much she loved me for another minute, slow dancing on top of my feet in a full embrace. I told her that there was one thing I was sure of, whoever she decided to grow up and marry had better be a heck of a better man than me.
She got very upset at that, and wrinkled her face into a scowl and said, "Noooo Daddy! The only man I'm going to marry will have the last name Elliott, and the first name Daniel, and he'll have a studio."

I had no camera, and if those batteries in that flash hadn't died, I probably would have just kept on shooting and missed that gift. There's no glorious image to post proudly on the blog. Just a memory that I'll take with me. I wrote it here, just to read now and then, and remember when...