Marriage, Photography, and more..........

Happy Friday Eve!! Ha! I've not been doing so good about keeping up on posting my quotes lately. Hopefully I'll fix that over the next week or so! For now, here's a bunch of random ones........since they're arranged in my folder in alphabetical order, sometimes a bunch of similar ones end up together.

The theme of the evening? Marriage & photography.....plus more. Told you it was random ;)

This is so ME!!!! I love driving long distances by myself, windows rolled down, music blaring!

So, so true.

This is one of those personal hard-to-share ones.

Couldn't be said more perfectly.........your photographs reflect your worldview.

Encouraging!! Or intimidating??

Ugh, I hear this ALL. THE. TIME. Never responded quite like this, though.......

Beautiful.

Maybe not always true, but funny nonetheless :D

Comparing marriage to music.............does it get any more lovely than that?

Girls - remember this.
Lisa - remember this.

 Goodnight, friends!! xoxo

Blush

So, it's a known fact that I'm a bit of a good old-fashioned sap. I love knights in shining armor, damsels in distress, curls and red lips and dashing heroes.

But more than that, I love the message behind this song.

I had it sent to me by a dear friend quite some time ago, but never sat down and listened to it till last night. To say I was blown away would be an understatement. I was enthralled. For every reason I can think of, this song became my favorite. For the timeless (yet oft forgotten) message of chivalry, of innocent maidens, of love that could wait a long, long time, of true romance and Victorian style courtesy......all put to one of the most moving and beautiful melodies I've heard in a long time. They do an amazing job of portraying romance in an extremely beautiful and healthy way, and yet not taking away from the mystery and wonder and rapture of true love.

But I'll stop talking and let you hear for yourself.................I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

10 Things We've Learned From Mom

This quote from Abraham Lincoln rings so, so true in my life. Ultimately, I owe who I am to God, but His number one instrument in shaping my character has been my mom.

For Mother's Day, Jessie and I thought for a while, and came up with some of what we believe are the most important things we've learned from Mom over the years. There are so many more things, but we tried to keep it to the top ten.

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"Be thankful for work! Just imagine if you couldn't......."

Mom is an incredibly hard worker, and is constantly reminding us to appreciate work. It'll be 110 outside, and we'll be out there trimming trees....if anyone starts complaining, she says, "Imagine if you fell and were in a wheelchair - do you know how bad you'd want to be able to trim trees and clean horse stalls? Be thankful for your healthy body and enjoy the work!"

"Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do 
I have another puzzle for you 
Oompa Loompa doom-pa-da-dee 
If you are wise you'll listen to me 
What do you get from a glut of TV? 
A pain in the neck and an IQ of three 
Why don't you try simply reading a book? 
Or can you just not bear to look?"

Just like the Oompa Loompa's in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, Mom has always, always given us books over movies. Growing up, we didn't even have a TV, we can count on two hands the times we've been in a movie theater, and yet we've read hundreds and hundreds of books.

And we wouldn't have it any other way.

She made us book-addicts! Completely addicted! We were the children who would sneak books into bed and read with a flashlight late at night.....or "go to the bathroom" and take a book and be gone for five hours. 

Books stretch your brain. They fuel your imagination in ways that movies never will. 

Ever since we were little, Mom and Dad would give us allowance, and at first it was just $1 a week. The very first thing we were supposed to do was give $.10 to God. Always. No matter how little we made.

Mom has carried this principle over into her business in a huge way, and we all firmly believe that God has blessed her for it. 

Mom and Dad have been married for 21 years this year. It definitely hasn't always been easy....any one of us girls will tell you that. But the one thing that has kept them together is the commitment that they made before God to never, ever give up on each other. To quote Fireproof, "Never leave your partner behind....especially in a fire." The tough times are the times that grow and strengthen a relationship, and I know each one of us girls will walk into our future marriages knowing that it is a life long commitment. 

Anyone who knows us knows that we have animals...............lots of them. Mom raised us to feed the animals before our own breakfast, to keep the barn clean even if the house wasn't perfect, and to always care for the creatures we've been given before we make ourselves comfortable. Our animals are dependent on us for care, and if we don't do our part, it's a serious problem. Some of the times we've been in the worst trouble are over forgetting to feed or care for an animal.

On the flip side, she has also taught us that ultimately, people are made in the image of God...animals are not. If someone is starving, we'll shoot an animal to feed them. 

But if you're not starving, and the animal needs care..............get out there and do it.

One of Mom's goals in homeschooling us has been to teach us how to learn. She has always been a firm believer in learning how to learn on your own and not having to have all your information fed to you. School was important, but many times, she'd say, "Cancel school.........today you're going to learn how to build a website. Google it, call who you need to, and get it done." 

Or, "Cancel school! Today we're studying how to birth out a miniature horse."
Or, "Cancel school! Today we're doing our geography by walking around the zoo studying where the different animals come from."
Or, "Cancel school! Someone is coming over who needs some help/encouragement/fun/a-shoulder-to-cry-on and we're going to be there for them." 

All three of us girls have developed multiple skills that we certainly didn't have originally! Music is the biggest one.....we are not a musical family. At all. Like, picture the most opposite of musically talented, and that's us! But through years of practice, sometimes forced practice!, we've all become extremely competitive piano players. 

At the same time, she always stressed that you have to put everything into trying to do the best, but if you don't win..........go congratulate the winner. You can only do your best, and then the rest is up to God! Never be a sore loser. Always tell the winner how happy you are for them. And mean it.

Mom has a somewhat unknown nickname..........The Interrogator. If you meet her, within 10 minutes, she'll know quite a bit about your life story. But she has a way of doing it that's non-intrusive because she is honestly, sincerely interested in your life.

Our house is Grand Central Station. Quite literally. On almost any given day, there will be a minimum of 2 cars in the driveway, and I think one of the main reasons for that is Mom's ability to touch people's lives. She has made our house a place where people can come and talk to someone who cares. 

But it's not all serious heart-to-heart talks. It's craziness, fun, laughter, and a real family who has struggles and problems and fun and everything that happens in life. 

Whatever you do, do it all the way.
When we went to Worlds for the first time in 2012, we weren't expecting anything big. We were just there to have fun, meet people, see gorgeous horses, share God's love, and have some awesome family time. Then Mom and Design won. Everything. World champion, reserve world champions, and the reserve World Grand champion. It was surreal!
Looking back on it afterwards, we all said, "You know, we really should have seen that coming." Because anything Mom does, she does all the way. She puts her all into anything she does in life.

But putting her all into it doesn't always mean winning. She put everything she had into training Beamer for Nationals 2013, and he bombed on her. Completely failed......showing is so hard for him. She was crushed, but came back and kept working, and kept working, and at the local show this spring, Beamer brought home the blues!

Last but not least, she always makes us laugh!! 

Burp dances......putting the clothes in the dishwasher.....forgetting where she hides things......twisting her words.....dancing around the kitchen playing air guitar on the broom.........tap dancing on the deck in English boots.....

♥ ♥ ♥ WE LOVE YOU, MOM!!!!!!!!!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥

Seven Years of Change

It has finally come. I've been thinking about tonight quite a lot over the past couple of months. Tonight marks a turning point for me, a loss of something I will never get back.

Tonight is my last night as a teenager.

And while that is so exciting and I look eagerly forward to what God will do with me in these next few years, I can't help but say good-bye to these past seven years with a twinge of sadness.

I remember so clearly the day I turned 13....we spent it at the newly opened Cabela's that was just twenty minutes from our house. Everyone who called to wish me a happy birthday inevitably asked, "Sooo...how does it feel to be a teenager?" And I inevitably answered, "No different than it felt to be twelve!" But I lied. It felt different....just a teeny, weeny little bit more grown up.

Looking back, I was so naive. Over the past seven years, God has changed me in ways that I wouldn't trade for anything. And I have also changed in areas that I wish with all my heart I could go back and undo.

(at thirteen and twenty) :) :)

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At thirteen, I had little to no idea of what responsibility was.
Now at twenty, there are times I feel overwhelmed with the responsibilities of life.

At thirteen, Mom told me, "guard your heart!", and I thought, "Wow, I must be a really good girl...this is easy!"
Now at twenty, boys suddenly don't have cooties and guarding my heart is a whole lot harder than I realized.

At thirteen, I had this vague, never admitted idea that because I was homeschooled, my parents were Christians, and I had said "the prayer", I was going to heaven.
Not at twenty, I realize that my faith has to be oh-so-much my own. That nothing anyone else did or is doing can earn me points with God. And for that matter, nothing I can do will earn me those points either.

At thirteen, I was so innocent...so trusting and willing to believe.
Now at twenty, I question. I doubt. I've been hurt, built walls, and find trust hard to come by.

**               **                  **

I've learned that you can do almost anything in life with God and hard work. Naturally, I don't have talent. Period.
People hear me play the piano and say how it must be so nice to have musical ability...and I laugh. Me? Musical ability? Oh honey, you haven't seen the tears, and the pain, and the years and years of hard work and playing the same five notes over and over again.
I post my photography on Facebook and people say how wonderful my work is and how blessed I am to have such an eye. What eye? I'm only showing you the top 10 of the thousands and thousands of pictures I've taken. You haven't heard the critiques and the "don't show that to anyone else" that my dear family and friends have used to train me. You haven't witnessed the excitement of running out to get the one shot I've been dreaming of for months.....only to not be able to get it.
All that to say that my mom has always stressed that the most important thing to learn is how to learn. If you can research and practice and be disciplined, talent isn't that important. Oh, it's nice and wonderful to have talent, I bet.....but not necessary.




I've learned how important it is to enjoy people! A problem I have is that I tend to be slow to trust and open up, and as such, I have few close friends. Another thing my mom says is that, "The most important thing in your life is your relationship to God. The second most important thing is your relationships with other people." Not until close friends have left have I started to realize the extreme value of fellow believers. Don't put off a friendship...dive in headfirst, allow yourself to be vulnerable, and don't build walls when you get hurt. Cause people leave, and you miss them, and have regrets...about things you could have done differently.

I've learned that life doesn't work like books and movies. This has been a huge lesson for me. I tend to have gargantuan hopes and expectations, and when real life doesn't meet up with my idealistic mental world, I despair.
The friend got cancer.....
The baby horse didn't live....
The questions come....
The hero doesn't ride in.....
And God is still good and in control.
Just yesterday morning, our vet (who also happens to be a very special man and a strong believer) told me a story that will stick with me a while.
"Many years ago, we and another couple were starting a home church. This other couple was very dear to us and extremely vital in the progress of what we believed was God's will.
Then it happened. A drunk driver at a speed of 100 mph hit them as they were out driving one evening. He killed the wife and her father, and severely injured the husband.
Over the next couple of weeks, I wrestled in agony with the question, 'Is God still good?' I just didn't understand how this could have been part of the plan. Then one morning, I went in to work at the zoo. As I walked back to the aviaries, I noticed a strange thing. All the Wood Ducks were standing in a perfectly straight row, with their heads tilted at a funny angle - right eyes on the ground, left eyes turned up towards the sky. I asked the lady who worked back there, 'Is this normal behavior for them?' Immediately, she replied, "Oh, there must be a hawk around." I looked up, and sure enough, above the mesh netting of their enclosure, a hawk soared.
As I left the ducks and went on to the rest of my day, I glanced back one more time. There they were...still all standing in that funny position. And I thought to myself, 'You stupid ducks....can't you see there's a net between you and that hawk?'
And it hit me. That's what I was doing. I was acting just like those ducks....looking and only seeing the bad, the scary, the evil horrible part that loomed over me, flying low, casting a shadow over my entire life. But in between me and the evil - there's God.
He's saying, 'Can't you see? I've got you covered. The evil can't get to you no matter how hard it tries because my love covers you, protects you, and surrounds you. You can trust and rest because you're beneath the net of my love and power.'"

I've learned that life goes by so fast. One moment I'm looking forward to something that seems it will never come....and the next moment, it's just a memory. And because of this, I have to love life right where I am, as imperfect as it may seem. It's more than contentment, it's finding joy in the little things of life and always having your eyes open to what God is trying to show you. Even if it's a line of Wood Ducks.

I've learned that I put far, far too much thought into and too high a priority on getting married. Often, I feel like the Prince in that wonderful silly movie "Ever After" when he says,

"Do you really think there is only one perfect mate? And how can you be certain to find them? And if you do find them, are they really the one for you or do you only think they are? And what happens if the person you're supposed to be with never appears, or, or they do, but you're too distracted to notice?
"Let's say...God...puts two people on Earth and they are lucky enough to find one another. But.....one of them gets hit by lightning. Well then what? Is that it?
"Or, perchance, you meet someone new and marry all over again. Is that the one you're supposed to be with or was it the first? And if so, when the two of them were walking side by side were they both the one for you and you just happened to meet the first one first...or...was the second one supposed to be first?
"And is everything just chance or are some things meant to be?"
Lisa, Lisa, Lisa...cant' I just slow down and leave things in God's hands...instead of trying to handle situations on my own?




Which leads me to the next thing I've learned.....stay out of God's way! He knows what is best in such an infinitely greater way than I do; how can I ever have the audacity to think that He's wrong? Trust. Faith. That's what it comes down to. The questions will come, and the world won't make sense, but for heaven's sake, don't think you're the one to fix it!

And while I can speak eloquently about all these wonderful things I've learned, it's rare that I remember to put them all into practice. So I really hope this doesn't sound like I've got it all figured out....cause I'm a far cry from there.

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I wonder - where will I be in the next seven years? What will I have to show? Will my words, actions, and thoughts have brought glory to God...or will they be wasted?

I'll end with some of the Scriptures that have come to mean so much to me....

"being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" Phil. 1:6

"And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” Deut. 31:8

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matt. 6:33-34

Where in the world is Prince Charming?

This post is a post for girls. But not just any girl....for a specific type of girl who may be going through Prince-Charming-itis. Prince-Charming-itis is a common ailment among young Christian homeschooled ladies who are trying to go back to the Biblical principles of marriage, family, and courtship.

But said young ladies sometimes get tired of waiting. They look around at all the young men who are mostly either one of two options.

1. Foppish, wimpy, effeminate guys who don't know how to give a hearty handshake, get grossed out at the sight of blood, and overall excite no feelings of admiration in a Godly young lady looking for a real man.

or

2. Blustering, loud, look-at-me-I'm-so-tough, weight lifting dudes in their muscle tops who are really just insecure, but excite no feelings in a Godly young lady except for a sincere eye roll.

But I digress.

These young ladies observe either Mr. Effeminate or Mr. Bravado, and heave a sigh of despair, wondering where in the world is Prince Charming.

Thus this ailment, Prince-Charming-itis. 

So how do you know if you are one of those young ladies that is affected by this ailment?

If you have ever.....

•  Thought, "Wow, I'm old enough to get married now. So why isn't it happening?"
• Watched your friend(s) grow up, fall in love and get married and rejoiced with them. And then come home and gone to bed...laying there praying and wondering (and yes, even crying), asking God to do the same for you.
• Gone through phases when you think, "Okay...I'm good where I'm at. I'm content, I'm happy, and I am fine to wait for God's timing." And then those random days pop up when you think, "What is wrong with me? Why am I so discontent and wanting to be married?"
• Prayed that it is God's will that you be married one day, and then think, "I want to be married so bad that maybe God is going to make me wait a long time or *gulp* maybe stay single just to teach me to leave my life in His hands."
• Wondered where in the world is your knight in shining armor? (or, as in the case of my beau ideal, your knight in dusty leather)

If you've ever done any of those things, then you're just like me, and, girlfriend, this post is for girls like us. Believe me, I am so not saying that I have anything resembling an answer except for this...turn to the Word. And talk to other Godly girls who can give verses and thoughts that have encouraged them. And, of course, talk to your parents.

What I thought I would do is this...(*note* this idea popped into my head the other night as I was falling asleep and thinking over these things, so there is no guarantee that this is going to make much sense. Beware of inarticulate ramblings)...I will just post and share some of the verses and concepts that have helped me. Many of these are not original to me, but have been shown me by other sisters.

But you have to do something for me in return *evil chuckle*

You have to comment and tell me if you have a verse or idea that encourages you in this area! (Guys, you can comment too if you have any encouragement for your sisters)

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~ "I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content..." (Phil. 4:11)


~ "Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You." (Ps. 73:25)

~ "Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house; So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him. The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; Her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors; The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You. With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought; They shall enter the King’s palace." (Ps. 45:10-15)

~ "For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. For the Lord has called you..." (Is. 54:5-6)

~ "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jer. 29:11)  

~ "The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband." (1 Cor. 7:34)

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~ If I, as an unmarried young girl, cannot be content in the family situation I am in right now (as a daughter and sister), what makes me think that I will be content in a different family situation (as a wife and mom)?

~ Marriage is a huge, HUGE commitment and change in lifestyle. I should not only be "content" to wait for God's timing, I should be desperate for and thankful that all the responsibility (so to speak) is His, and that He's got it all figured out.

~ Just because we are trying to return to the Biblical beliefs about marriage being good, children being a blessing, staying at home being right, etc., doesn't mean we can idolize marriage as "the supreme state." We can't bewail our fate if God's will isn't for us to be married later or not married at all...it's His plan.

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Those are some of the things that have encouraged/helped me when I feel the symptoms of Prince-Charming-itis coming on. 

Any other ideas or input??