After a week of early mornings and late nights, it felt good to sleep in today.  Once I finally got up and had my morning coffee, page 28 was a relaxing day spent going through the photos I took last week as I did some minor editing/adjusting to them.  Each photo was a reminder of a moment in time.  Today’s photo is one of those moments.  I was on my way through Cades Cove to spend some time in prayer and worship when I stopped along the road to shoot this photo.  The day’s forecast was for 100% chance of rain and while the dark clouds in the distance definitely looked like rain was falling from them, the sun was shining brightly across the cove where I was.  It was a perfect setting to spend some time in prayer and worship — while all settings really should be perfect for prayer and worship, some places tend to draw me to a natural response of worship more than others.

Eventually I took a break from the photo editing to go to the store with my family.  When we got back home, I returned to the task of going through the photos.  I ended up taking over 700 photos during my trip to the CCL conference so there are a lot of moments in time to go through.  I usually try to limit the number of photos I take and look for a scene that really captures my attention, yet I guess there are a lot of those because I am almost always surprised at how many pictures I have at the end of a day.

With today mostly being a day of rest, I guess today’s written page will be a little shorter than most but there are still some lessons to be learned.  🙂

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• While we can capture a moment in a photograph, we can’t actually go back to it except as a memory.
• What we do in our immediate moment will influence the memories we hold onto in the future.
• My mind seems to have an easier time holding onto bad memories than to good ones.  For me, photos help to tip the scales in the other direction.
• What we take into our mind will influence our daily attitude.  That is why it is critical that we daily guard our heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
• It doesn’t matter how often and loudly they say it, someone saying you can’t be a Christian if you do or don’t do so and so, doesn’t make it so.
• God says that perfect love casts out all fear.  It would appear that all sides of our greatly divided nation could use a healthy dose of perfect love.
• Prayer and worship needs to be a lifestyle no matter the circumstances of life.  When we live in that manner, we find joy when a particular setting draws us even closer to God.
• When I allow the angry voices of social media to fill my mind, I find myself becoming angry.  When I allow the peace of God to dwell richly within me, I find that I am more peaceful toward others.