"photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. what you have caught on film is captured forever. . . it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything." -Aaron Sussman over the weekend my youngest two children joined me in making banana bread. really, this could be just an ordinary event, but i try to look at everything in our home as a treasured moment. every moment is a gift from God and we have the opportunity to make these moments extraordinary each and every day. i started taking pictures long before having children, but my passion came alive in a unique way as i captured the every day life i experience as a mother. it's so true that pictures will give us a way to remember all the little things we may not remember years from now. i will see these pictures i captured while baking and remember the wonder my three year old experienced as she turned the mixer on and off over and over again. and i will remember the frustration she felt while peeling the banana all by herself.
recently, i have come to a new realization. the pictures are indeed amazing gifts that i will have to cherish forever. i know i will relive these moments time and time again as i look through past memories. but truly the gift is experiencing the actual moments with my children. i cannot explain to you in words what i feel during these moments spent with my children, but it is an incredible feeling. i've learned the more moments i let unfold, just as they normally would, not posed or pre -meditated; the more i feel them and live them with my children. i laughed so hard yesterday as i watched our baby girl do her best to add flour to the bowl, while spilling most of it at her feet. i showed her it was okay to mess up, and to try again. i felt so much joy as i saw my two children giggling about the smell of the dough and deciding if they liked it or not. you see the experience is the best gift of all. i want our albums to be filled with authenticity. in addition, i want to give thanks and glory to the One who has made these moments possible. photography has definitely been a gift that has given me much more than the tangible blessing of pictures. it has slowed me down in ways, because as i look at all the pictures i've taken, i am keenly aware of how fleeting my time with our children really is. my eyes see things in a new way that takes in all of the beauty around me in all the every day moments. beauty as magnificent as the sun or as simple as my children in the kitchen. there is certainly beauty and wonder in everything. God has used this journey to touch my life in ways i never dreamed. to say i am grateful doesn't seem to say enough.
over the weekend my husband sent me a link to a video on an interview by Christy Nockels, a Christian artist, discussing her new album Into the Glorious. in all things i see God's purpose and plan. my husband had NO idea i was writing this post and when i opened the you tube video and heard her words it was as if my husband knew exactly what has been stirring in my heart. i am amazed by God's hand in our lives..truly amazed. there was something she said during her interview that i could relate to in such a strong way. another mother had shared this wisdom with her and i want to share it with you. " you can invite the glorious into the mundane. there is an invitation that is present to us in our everyday lives as mothers, students, as workers in the workplace. there's this invitation to us in to the glorious things of who He is. " you see, ordinary moments in your home are anything but ordinary when you invite God into your life. the most simple activities are the most beautiful gifts from God as you allow Him to work through you and for you. its about so much more to me than pictures of making banana bread (or painting, or crafting, or reading)---it's about the glorious i am finding right here in the mundane. and realizing the every day is so much more than mundane.
