Living in Yellow::Don't stop learning...

Though it wasn't my original intent, teaching my young children and supervising the studies of my older children for twenty-three years was an opportunity for me to continue my own education. I learned or re-learned a multitude of facts and acquired an appreciation for subjects, like history, that I did not enjoy during the years I was a student - when I was {sadly} more interested in popular music and boys than getting an education.

Though I can no longer claim a "homeschooling mom" title, that re-education created a continual thirst for knowledge - enhanced today by my photography that has cultivated a sense of awe and wonder about things I'd never seen or cared about before capturing them in a photo. 

What is that plant? Is it native or invasive? Common or endangered? Poisonous, edible? What birds will eat the berries or come to my feeders? Does that insect sting or will he eat on my favorite flame bush? What makes the sunrise blaze orange? Why do the sweetgum trees turn yellow and red and "fall" in our 90-degree autumn? Just how close can I safely approach a gator? or bobcat? What butterfly or moth will emerge from that caterpillar's chrysalis?

Or the question that is the number one google search bringing first time visitors to this blog: 

What do you feed a pollywog?

With the encouragement and inspiration of other photo artists, I'm challenged to grow in skill and knowledge that I pray is reflected in the quality of my photography - that it might bring glory to God - because it's not about me but how I can use the gifts and abilities God entrusts to me for the revealing of truth.

Therefore, my ongoing search for knowledge must come with the understanding that...

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction.

~ Proverbs 1:7

and it must be motivated by Jesus's answer to the Pharisee's question regarding the greatest commandment...

And he said to him,
“You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind.

~ Matthew 22:37

One of the most effective ways I know to love the Lord with all my mind is to renew my mind and therefore change the way I live through the discipline of reading and studying His Word.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. ~ 2 Timothy 2:15

Do you enjoy learning new things? Has God given you a gift that you are learning to improve that it might be used for His plans and purposes? Is the reading and studying of God's Word the foundation for all your learning?