True Friendships

       I feel like I've had to say more goodbye's in the last year and a half than I've done the rest of my life combined.
       Last year, our pastor resigned and moved his family, along with my dear friend, Jessie, out to Kansas. We cried and hugged and cried some more.
       At the end of last year, my friend Angela was married, and although she only lives 45 minutes away, we don't see each other nearly as often as we did when she used to come to church. This is the same with Chloe, another of my friends who married in October of 2010.
       In June of 2010, another of my closest friends, Ashlee, married and moved to Charlotte. I cried when we said our goodbyes...and all the way home (could you imagine if a guy was writing this post? But since I'm a girl, all the crying is perfectly normal, right? :P)
       Throughout the past 2 years, I've watched friends go off to college, and there are many that I rarely see anymore.
       Last week, I had to say another difficult goodbye to my wonderful cousin and friend, Jessie. I'm gonna miss being able to get together on a whim to go shopping or to go on a hike and take pictures together. I'm already looking forward to heading down south for spring break to see friends and family, Jessie included :D

       Life is certainly changing, and I know that it will continue to do so. Who knows, maybe next I'll be the one who's getting married and moving away from the people that I love so much. But as difficult as it is being apart, the changes are definitely not for the worst. God is teaching me a lot through my circumstances. I've learned who my true friends are, and even though they may be hundreds of miles away from me, our friendships have grown stronger. I've learned to pray more often for my friends. I don't know about you all, but when I'm with people often, unless they have a great need that they ask for prayer for, I often pass them up, because they're doing "ok." But with the distance that separates us, I don't always know exactly what's going on in my friends' lives, and so I offer up more prayers on their behalf (and just in case you're wondering, I'm not saying that it was a good thing to pass up praying for people just because I knew that they were ok, it was just something that seemed to happen). God has changed me and shaped me more than I could ever have imagined, and I know that He does it for my good and His glory.
       My mom used to tell me that when I got older, I would be able to count my true friends on my fingers. I thought she was crazy. I also thought it would be awful if that ever happened. But you know, she was right. Granted, I have a lot of friends...but the ones who I can share any secret with or can talk for hours on the phone with are few and far between. And guess what? It's not really all that bad!



 ⁹ Two are better than one,
   because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down,
   one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
   and has no one to help them up.
¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
   But how can one keep warm alone?
¹² Though one may be overpowered,
   two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken
 -Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

If You Were Homeschooled...

...then this is a must-see :D Tim Hawkins is the best!

                   

Read the Bible In A Year

In the past years that I've done a Bible-reading plan to read in a year, I've used to one in the back of my Bible. It's worked well, but I've often found it overwhelming. The plan in my Bible would have me reading quite a few chapters from the same book every day, and since my attention span isn't all that great, I found myself having a hard time concentrating, thus leaving me discouraged. Our pastor recommended this outline for reading your Bible in a year, and I LOVE it! It has you reading a two chapters from two different books of the Old Testament and two chapters of two different New Testament books every day. I find that this format works best for me, since I get to change subjects three times as I read, which helps to keep me fixated longer. The other thing that I love about this is that it takes you through the Old Testament once in that year and the New Testament and Psalms twice! I would highly recommend this for anyone who wants to get on a daily reading schedule; it's not too late to start now! Just start on the readings for today's date, and then read until this time next year :D

My Car Now Sings To Me :P

"Ashley baby, you make me feel so alive." The song lyrics startled me as I started my car. I had been channel surfing the day before and had left my radio tuned to a random station. It made me laugh...like, alot! I hadn't ever heard of the song or the band, and the timing was so prefect, that is seemed as if my car was singing to me, haha! 

          I haven't posted in anything major in quite a while, but stay tuned, as I've got a lot of posts in mind. I've used up all of my allowed photo space on this blog, so once I get around to purchasing more, I'll get up some pictures of the events I've shot in the past few weeks. You can look forward to pictures of a wedding reception that I shot two weeks ago, a wedding that I shot on New Year's Day, and pictures of my family's trip to sunny Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico! 

        And now, since it's been a while since I've done this, it's my time to throw in my little blurb about how, if you enjoy my blog, you should follow me! It's a nice way to stay up to date with pictures and news, so click the follow button on the side of my screen (it's over there somewhere <------------------). O, and drop me a comment anytime!

AWWWWWW!!!!