There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how we use them.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled
and will not fade away, reserved in Heaven for you,
who are protected by the power of God through faith
for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while,
if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold
which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result
in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
adn though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though
you do not see Him now, but believe in Him,
you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
obtaining as the outcome of your faith
the salvation of your souls.
(1 Peter 3-9)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its perfect result,
that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial;
for once he has been approved,
he will receive the crown of life,
which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
(James 1:2-4, 8)

He Loves His Daddy.

a couple photography notes: I was shooting these park pics around sundown. Since I didn't want to use flash and the light was dim, I bumped my ISO as high as it could go. Doing that allows the camera to "gulp up" more light faster, allowing a quicker shutter speed that will let me get a non-blurry image. If you don't have an slr-type camera, you can mimic this ISO-bumping by choosing your action mode (usually it's a graphic with a person running).

The Littlest Dude Strikes a Pose

And, because I'm secure in my own skin (hehe).... here is the straight out of the camera photo. I used Photoshop (and the clouds parted, and music played from Heaven....) to pretty it up. Specifically I opened this photo in Photoshop and hit a button to apply Doug Boutwell's Totally Rad Actions, Super Fun Happy & Magic Glasses (available free as downloads at his website) and then hit another button to apply Pioneer Woman's action, Lovely & Ethereal (also available as a free download at her website). And I just liked it better after that. That's all.



Now, also to keep things real around here ... I'm a Photoshop novice. If you look closely at the first image (in the upperish right corner, on the sidewalk), you can see I did some damage to it (must have applied an action and then erased it), but some of the pixels are moved around (there's a straight line effect). Also, if I were less lazy, I would selectively choose the sky and darken (burn) the exposure just there. But I'm lazy, so I didn't. But gosh, I do so love those awesome actions. TRA is totally on my wishlist...

Blue Hydrangea