Still Saturday::to remove the rough edges...

...today, consider beauty.

Suppose we begin to paint our Christian apologetics

in a different light.

Suppose we began to point folks to beauty...

...beauty in our lives

...in our relationships

...in nature

...in reconciliation

...in all of it.

Perhaps in using beauty as apologetic,

the rough edges of our sophisticated Christianity

would fall off.

Willard, Timothy (2014-10-14). Longing for More: Daily Reflections on Finding God in the Rhythms of Life (p. 274). Baker Publishing Group.

I {LOVE} Sunday::to call to mind and have hope in this...

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.  Lamentation 3:22-23

Still Saturday::in wonder at the gifts...

I know to look for them now - these tiny wild orchids that push through the damp, leaf-littered earth in the heavy shade of the azaleas and scrub oaks - when the sun begins to sleep in at summer's end. Who knows how many years I missed this delicate tropical beauty before God put a camera in my hands and taught me to wander and linger - to cultivate an eye for life's mercies and be stilled in wonder at the gift of His daily graces.

Every good and perfect gift::on keeping my motives pure...

When Louis bought an inexpensive digital point and shoot camera, the end of my twenty-three years of homeschooling our children was on the horizon, and the empty nest years were in view. It was Louis' hope that a camera would help me fill the empty places that were sure to come in the days ahead.

Ten years and two cameras later, it seems that Louis' hopes became a reality. Many of my photos have been used by both print magazines and online websites. My friend Robbi and I are working with a designer to prepare our book with over two dozen of my photos for publication. And just this week, I've been ordering prints and considering frame options for four of my photographs that will hang in the hallway of the Hendry County Courthouse.

When an image of a tassel flower {captured with that inexpensive point and shoot camera} opened up on my computer screen and piqued my interest in nature photography those years ago, I had no clue or aspirations for where photography would take me. Clearly an amateur and without photoshop, I never considered a watermark on my photos, and that has not changed.  

Please hear my heart in this. The reasons for my decision to not watermark my photos are a reflection of my relationship with the Father who knows my heart and my needs. They are NOT an indictment against photographers who do, but an example of how God works in our individual lives to conform us to the image of Christ.

This is what the Holy Spirit says to me about my photos:

God is the creator of all that is good and beautiful. I might have an eye for uncovering and framing beauty, but even that is a gift from His hand. A watermark is used to claim ownership, and rightfully so, but I am only a steward of the gift. I'll carry nothing with me into eternity. I'm simply capturing what belongs to the Father.  

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James 1.17

God is glorified and I'm most satisfied when my needs are met in Him alone. One of the prayers I can count on God answering with a yes every time comes from Psalm 139: 

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 

God knows my heart and prompts me to check my motives. He knows my longing to be affirmed and noticed by others - to be loved and esteemed for what I do, and a watermark on my photos can be a way for me to say, look at me and what I can do. It isn't that God doesn't want us to encourage and recognize the gifts in others, but that He wants me to not look to and rely on others for that affirmation. He wants me to be completely satisfied by my relationship with Him and affirmed by knowing that I am fully loved - not for what I do, but for who I am in Christ.  

A watermark doesn't add anything of beauty to my photos. In fact, a watermark can be a distraction. If my motives are pure, I don't want those who see my photos to think, oh look - it's Pollywog Creek. I want others to be inspired to worship and be filled with awe and wonder at the power and beauty of our Creator God. 

What about you? Has God ever prevented you from doing something that is perfectly alright for others, but not for you? 

To leave a space for ponderings...

I can't get over God's sovereignty in all my affairs - how he arranges and weaves and ordains my comings and goings, and the immeasurable grace he saturates - over, around and through - this undeserving and broken vessel of mercy called me. 

My new Starbucks friend tells me she studies new words - and rightfully so, she's delighted with the meaning of grace. The undeserved favor of God, she tells me, but when she reads the tagline on my business card: Cultivating an eye for life's mercies..., she's puzzled and asks, What exactly is mercy?

I give her the answer that's been given to me. It's like this, I tell her. Grace is the gift of God's favor through Christ - favor we don't deserve, because there's nothing we can do to earn it. But mercy is the measure of God's compassion for us in that along with giving us what we don't deserve, he doesn't give us what we do.

She focuses on the wall over my shoulder and I see how she silently flips the words over and over in her thoughts - grace and mercy, grace and mercy. The same but different. Two sides of the same coin - the redemption for a wretch like me.   

I feel God's favor in this conversation across the top of our laptop screens - two women once strangers, venti cups of lattes on the table next to our iPhones and lifestyle worlds apart. I later wonder about the young man sitting to my right who's trying to work, his laptop open, but held captive by two women whose animated conversation has invaded his space as though he didn't exist.

An agent tells me - a year ago - she doesn't like my tagline. It's not clear, she says, this cultivating an eye for life's mercies, and I wrestle with changing it; but sometimes there needs to be space for questions, for curiosity and holy ponderings.

And when you know that you know that something fits, that it's right for you, you hold on and own it - trusting there's a reason. Maybe it's this table in Starbucks. Maybe there's more. I go where God leads me or I dare not go at all. 

That we have received anything good – any forgiveness, any acceptance with God, any glimpse of his glory, any hope of everlasting joy – this is all mercy. John Piper

Agent or not - it's all mercy. It's all grace. And it's all good.

Sweet Shot Tuesday::to see rightly...

I'm not that thrilled with my "sweet shot" this week, but it's all I've got. I've been in a season when responsibilities and life's ups and downs consume time, energy and brain cells, and for the first time in a long time, I rarely left the house or picked up my camera. When I did, I had grandlittles with me and I doubt you want to see photos of them, do you. You do?  Okay. You twisted my arm.

Okay...I'll stop now. These two are Nick and Kristin's youngest. Addisyn was two the end of December (don't you love, love, love those pink boots?) and Tyler will be one the end of May. They both LOVE being outside (I love having a pack 'n play for the baby), and on days like this one, I don't blame them.

I'm honored to be posting at Dan King's Bible Dude this morning. I do hope you'll click on over and let me know you were there.

Here's a taste of what I have to say over there...

“It is only with the heart that we see rightly.” She stops reading and looks up to make eye contact with each of us before continuing. “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” Closing the book, she gives us our individual patient assignments, and we begin a new experience as compassionate givers of care to those with wounds we cannot see.

To read the rest, click HERE.

Somebody has to live here, it may as well be me...

There's a story to tell about that bull who wandered through Pollywog Creek yesterday, but I'm saving it for next week. Rural life may move slowly, but it's seldom boring. 

There's an azalea story for next week, too, but for now we're headed through the Everglades for Everglades City and the promise of seafood and a detour through Ave Maria on the way home. 

Just thought I'd stop in with a few photos of life this week on the creek, and to encourage you to click on over {for some weekend inspiration} to Sandy's for Still Saturday and Deidra's for The Sunday Community.  And Ann's, of course, for daily whispers of grace.  

Staying in the battle...

The azaleas are budding and blooming, and spring appears to be making a much too early arrival for my liking here on Pollywog Creek. 

It's not the warm weather that causes my displeasure - who doesn't delight in the beauty of spring? It's the air heavy with moisture and the effort to breathe with these scarred lungs of mine and the fatigue that follows, and I find myself listing all the ugly swamps, vile weeks and sharp thorns in my life.   

You should be grateful it's not 95 degrees yet, my husband reminds me. And he's right. I should be.

It's been my tagline for years - this cultivating an eye for life's mercies - a practice I've obviously not mastered. But I'm determined to stay in the battle for joy and with this woe-is-me nature of mine - and count the LORD's never-ending gifts instead. 

{Photos - azaleas in my back yard this week}

To see right where I am...

Emily and I stand on the dock near the bridge in town as the sun slides below the treetops and our world blazes ochreous, and days later I stop near the swing bridge to gaze down river as the sun slips over the rising mist and through moss-draped oaks, and I wonder - how many of the tens of thousands of sunrises and sunsets has this woman of a certain age missed in this mist of a life I've been given?  

It takes only seconds to notice - to stop - to turn my gaze from where I think I want to go to see and be grateful right where I am. 

From the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the LORD is to be praised!
Psalm 113:3 ESV

Stopping by with a photo or two...

...of a few things lovely {black snake excluded} in my Father's world this week on Pollywog Creek.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,

the world and those who dwell therein...

Psalm 24.1