jpg - my movie date

jpg - little feet

jpg - capitol sky

jpg - friends

jpg - deer

Look carefully. A friend came to visit on a snowy day.

jpg - christmas tree

jpg - sunset

Again, hard to capture His majesty in a photograph. The colors were
brillant!

jpg - singing

It was coming from this direction...

I couldn't capture a picture of the birds singing but I could sure
hear them this morning. After a week of really cold weather and our
first snow of the season, the weather warmed up late yesterday. And
this morning, I was surprised to hear the sweet sound of singing
birds. Beautiful!

jpg - the want to

Little man got a new book from the book fair at his school. Tonight,
before bed, he wanted to "read" his new book. He's learned to read a
lot of words lately but this book is a little too hard just yet. But
that did not deter him. He would turn a page and study it for a few
minutes - "reading" - and then go to the next page. I was amazed at
how many words were on the pages below. Very few pictures yet he
looked at this page for a long time. Reading. Or sure having the want
to.

I can't help but make the connection between this and having faith in God. Sometimes you just have to go through the motions of believing God is there, even if you don't have the feelings or the proof to go along with it. God is always faithful, never forsaking. And before you know it, you'll wonder why you ever doubted.

Sometimes all you need is the want to.

jpg - discovery

jpg - generations

Welcome to the first edition of JPG!

Christmas came a little early for me this year and I got a new cell phone over the weekend. I'm excited because we switched providers and the one we are on now supports mobile blogging! That means I can send pictures from my phone straight to my blog! Ah, technology... That's where JPG comes in. I intend to post a daily photo that brings me joy. JPG stands for Joy Per God. Holman Bible Dictionary defines joy as "the fruit of a right relation with God. It is not something people can create by their own efforts." Joy comes from God; it is different than pleasure. Pleasure is something we seek for ourselves.

My hope is to share a picture of something that reminds me of the joy that God has put in my heart. Some days it may be a reminder that God has me right where I am supposed to be. Other days it may be something in nature that glorifies his majesty. And still other days, it may just be for fun. Who knows? Most of the time, it will be just the picture but occasionally I might get long-winded about it (like today). I'm excited to see where this takes me.

This first picture is of my mother-in-law showing my son a sign that is posted by her childhood home. It is a memorial to her grandparents and she was reading it to him and explaining who those people were to him. It touched my heart to see all those generations lining up with one another.

Hopefully, I'll post another picture tomorrow...