In Search Of…

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Philippians_4…Encouragement Scripture passages for the photo-book that I will be releasing in May 2010.

The subtitle of the book will be “Encouraged Through His Word”. I would like for you to leave me one of your favorite Scripture passages that encourages you when you have a rough day, week, month. Which Scripture passage do you ‘cling’ to? For me it is Isaiah 41:10:

Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

So, what is in for you, you may wonder?!? I will draw a random contributor from this post to receive the first soft-cover print of my photo-book ($20 value). The mini contest will be open until next Friday, March 26th (my 5th-bloggy-versary date).

The title of the book is yet to be determined. I plan on having another contest for the title of the photo-book starting Friday, March 26th. So, I hope you will come back next week to find out more about the title contest. Would you also spread the word about these contests? I would greatly appreciate if you would mention it to you friends and family 😛 .

Have a blessed Sunday afternoon and a peaceful coming week…

Thankful Thursday ~ Random

“The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
my heart exults,
and with my song I give thanks to him.”
~ Psalm 28:7 (ESV)

This month we are meeting up at Laurie’s blog “Women taking a Stand” sharing our thankful hearts — hop on over to meet up with other thankful hearts 🙂 …

I am sorry that I missed out last week on sharing my grateful heart with you all, but life has been a little crazy (again). Not that I am not thankful, I give Him thanks daily…

This week I want to give another shout-out to my sweet friend Lori. Our friendship truly has kept me sane for the past 3+ years. Too bad that we are 1,823 miles apart from each other. Sure, I have friends locally, but Lori is more than a friend; she is closer to my heart than my own sister. Not only do I share my deepest hurts with Lori; she also sets me straight (in love) when I am off the course with my thoughts and feelings. She indeed is my ‘Titus 2‘ woman (yeah she is much younger in age — but much wiser) — thank You Lord for placing her in my life…

The other day as I was shopping for some household items at Target, I picked up a package of ‘value socks’ for my beloved. When I got home, my sweetheart was beaming, because the last package of socks we picked up from a different store, where actually hurting his feet (long story which I might share on a later date). When I locked at the packing, I noticed something really neat – MADE IN USA. Do you know how rare this is to find clothing made in the US?  Very rare (another post for another day)! Target – I am thankful that you started carrying clothing made in this country – maybe other chains will follow you and thus bring jobs back to this country.

As many of you know I love photography. Yes, I said ‘love’…photography gives me a creative outlet. It helps me to capture the beauty God has placed around us and gives me relief from the day-to-day stress. Soon I will be asking for your help to create my first photo-book that I will be publishing through Blurb. I want to shout out a deep-down thanks to Jill from Crossway to send me the written permission to use ESV Scripture passages in my book. Jill – you rock and I am thankful for your help.

Last, but not least I am thankful for you, my dear readers. You have made the past 5 years of blogging fun, but challenging. You have helped me to grow, to reevaluate me being here. You have challenged me to step out of my comfort zone many times. Which in turn helped me to be real – honest about who I am…So thank you from the bottom of my heart…

Thank you for stopping by today. Remember: a thankful heart is a joyful heart…

A Plan of Attack (or intentional living?)

I think tonight’s post will go in the category “rambling to myself”…

There is so much going on in my head that I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words (like I ever can put my thoughts into words – ha)…But I have to write it out somewhere 🙂 .

Several weeks ago, my dear friend Lynn gave me the following verse from Psalms:

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” ~ Psalm 37:4 (ESV)

Oh, I so delight myself in the Lord and His Word. There is so much beauty around us but we too often don’t take notice of it. We rush through life without stopping and seeing. I have been seeing the world through my lens for the past 2 years… Not only the immediate surroundings, but also when I watch movies, I see everything in frames (don’t ask).

Well, my friend Lori reviewed a book about photography and Scripture…I had thought about self-publishing a book like this for almost a year now. I wanted to combine scrapping and my photography. But why not use my photos in ‘just’ a book by itself. As I was reading Lori’s review, clicked on the link to see the book…I thought: I can do this. Sure, I am not a photographer like Lori Nordstorm, David DuChemin, or my husband, but I think I have some decent photos in my collection…

Tonight I took a plunge; I contacted ESV to see what I need to do in order to use their Scripture passages in a self-published photo-book through “Blurb“. We will see what they come back with 😛 …I really don’t want to make a huge profit of the book, but want to share my photos to encourage others to see the glory of His creation.

(told you I am rambling tonight – 😆 )…There might be something else in the works regarding my photography, which I am very excited about. I have to thank Debbie from Heart Choices about that. I will share with you when and if this comes to a conclusion.

Thanks for listening/reading my ramblings. Remember: You can’t realize your dreams if you don’t step out in faith…