Stewardship of Dreams

I believe God made us each to be unique, beautiful creations, each with dreams and desires that He sparked within us. I firmly believe that He has a purpose for seeding those desires within us, and it’s just not to see how we react when we are denied.

I grew up with some pretty messed up ideas of God--specifically, that anything I desired I was required to sacrifice for God. That our desires existed solely so we could prove to God we have the self-discipline to not act on them.

Uhhh….no.

(Does God sometimes call a person to give something up for Him? 
Sure, yeah--God does lots of unique things in various situations. 
But this is the exception, not the rule!)

I believe the rule is that God has built us with unique gifts and dreams because He wants us to live them out. My life (and my relationship with God) significantly changed when I gave myself permission to stop wishing and start doing. To stop ignoring my desires, stumbling through life trying to figure out what else God wanted me to do, and to nurture those seeds of dreams He planted. 

And God has blessed those efforts to bring those little fantasies to life. I keep thinking about the Parable of the Talents. I feel like Robert and I have always striven to be good stewards of what God has given us; with our finances, and in recent years, with our dreams and passions. Now I’m doing what I love, in a place I love, with people I love. And finally, the gospel actually seems like Good News.

So I challenge you: live your dreams. Be who God made you, not who you think you need to be. Be ridiculous. Be free. Steward those dreams He’s given you; live life more abundantly.

What’s one of your little fantasies? Just. Do. It.

What’s one of your big dreams? Start building towards it.

I don’t post pictures to make people jealous--I’m just sharing the beauty I’ve found as I’m delighting in what God’s made and what He’s wired me to desire.

So I let myself do those things I've always dreamed. Play my fiddle in a golden aspen grove? Check.

Once Upon a Saturday

Hello, Internet! I'm resurrecting the ol' blog, mostly to have a platform for sharing my upcoming photography and writing projects. In the case of this post, a series of pictures that begged for a bit more commentary than Facebook accommodates.

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Once upon a Saturday, not so very long ago, we opened up the costume trunk for a kiddie-photoshoot.

Tiernan, somewhat predictably, chose this:

Kestrel, somewhat less predictably (but not entirely surprising, the random child,) chose this:

I think she was trying to swim. It took a while for me to convince her to stand up so that I could see her face. At which point, I got this shot:

Aaaaaand this one:

I guess the shark was having a bad day.

Meanwhile, Tiernan was rocking the superhero thing:

At which point, Grumpy Shark morphed into Little Miss Super-Shark and took a turn:

We're expecting Nick Fury to come recruit them any day now.

The shark choice being somewhat unexpected, I encouraged Kestrel to change into one of her favorite costumes, since I apparently stink at getting out the camera when she's prancing about the house in her typical pick.

Yup. Classic Kestrel. Except sometimes it's the horse costume under the butterfly wings, and she's a Pegasus instead.

I'd like to know where she gets the pixie-dust from.

But fairies aren't always happy, apparently. At least not when asked to go stand by the tree so that we can get something besides the driveway and cars for a backdrop.

All-in-all, I'm going to call it a successful shoot. A nice, balanced blend of epicness, hilariousness, and cuteness.

Thems my kids!