Page 207 was another long day as the National Student Conference came to an end and I made my way home.  So long, in fact, that this page is being written the next morning after I slept in. 🙂  The day began early as I was up and started packing before breakfast.  Since it would take two trips anyhow, I dropped a load of stuff off at my truck on my way to breakfast and then finished the packing and moving out after breakfast.  Once I was checked out of the dorm, it was time to start packing up the display and getting it loaded into the truck also.  My plan was to make a stop or two on the way home, so I sat in for the first part of the closing worship session and then loaded up all of my packed up display and began the journey home.

One of the stops that I had tentatively planned on making was at the Pioneer Village in Spring Mill State Park.  This would take me within five miles of a friend whom I believed could use a visit and some on-site prayer for he and his family.  As I worked out arrangements to do that, the Spring Mill stop kind of became secondary as the encouragement stop unfolded.  This friend manages a Christian camp property that was empty of campers when I arrived, as the board had made a decision last year to seek a buyer for the property and no longer operate a camp.  Mark continues to maintain and manage the property and would love to continue doing that should God allow it under the next owner.  Ideally, the buyer would be a ministry that would use, and even further develop, the property and its incredible natural features to equip, train, and serve people in the name of Jesus.  One of the rather unique features of the property is that there are three known caves on the property.  Today’s photo is a beautiful scene of a stream which flows from the mouth of one of the caves.  It made me think of David writing of a river whose streams make the city of God happy.  On a hot and humid day, the cool air flowing from the cave and the clear, cold water flowing down the stream were refreshing and brought about a relief from the day and a gladness of heart.  God’s Word flowing from His mountain into us and through us ought to be a stream which makes glad the hearts of those it flows into.

I did manage to make both stops, although the state park stop was very brief as I wanted to spend adequate time with my friend and also didn’t want it to be horribly late when I got home.  Looking back, I probably could have stayed at the park a little longer without much impact on my arrival time at home as I ended up in rush hour traffic all the way from Bloomington through Indianapolis.  The state park stop was just a quick walk through the Pioneer Village taking some photos and then a walk up the stream, which provides the water to power the mill in the village, to photograph a waterfall scene as this stream also flows from the mouth of a cave.

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

• Plans can be good, but God’s plans are the ones that matter most.
• Many times we need to adjust our plans to accommodate the opportunities provided by God.
• Waiting is difficult for most people, especially if we don’t know the specifics of what we’re waiting on.
• Sometimes the opportunities God provides seems so clear you would think they would be impossible to miss, and other times it takes deliberate effort to notice an opportunity in the midst of the day’s chaos.
• It is nearly impossible to begin the next chapter of life until we’ve brought the previous chapter to an end.  It’s those moments between chapters that can be filled with great uncertainty.
• Closing a ministry so that something new can begin is a difficult decision to make . . . especially when you don’t know what the new beginning looks like.
• New always follows old.  God says, “Behold!  I am making all things new.”
• Praying for a friend, or having a friend pray for us, can be the refreshing stream of water that makes our heart be at peace with God.
• Sometimes when we do what we know we ought to do, God also allows us to do the extras that we want to do.

Page 206 was another National Student Conference day, which meant early to rise and late to bed. 🙂  The day began with a breakfast conversation about the prayer ministry, but mostly just about prayer.  After breakfast was a time of worship before I tracked down my workshop room so I could get my computer hooked up to the projector in the room and make sure everything was working as it should.  As I did the last minute preparation to teach the workshop on developing a lifestyle of prayer, construction was taking place in the room next door.  To be more accurate, I think it was deconstruction that was taking place as it sounded like a magnified, out of control dentist’s drill being used.  By the time the students began arriving, the noise had quieted down quite a bit but about midway through the workshop it started back up abruptly enough to startle just about everyone.  

As I suspected, while it had the same title as the earlier workshop I taught, and a common theme woven through it, this was a very different presentation.  I focused a lot of the teaching today on some material I have developed on talking first to God, and how to do that in all situations.  While I’m never real sure how God intends to use the teaching that I do, and at times finish teaching with a question in my mind of whether I communicated the things I needed to, I once again received a good amount of positive feedback both after the workshop and throughout the day from those who had attended.  While the compliments aren’t why I teach, they do help me to refine both the content and methods of teaching based on what is reaching people.

By the time the workshop was over, I had received an email that the printing company had accepted my most recent book file submission and was waiting for me to order and review and actual proof copy of the book.  So, after putting my material away from the workshop and checking on the display, I headed back to the dorm to get the proof copies ordered.  The online digital proof looks good but I still need to wait until I have a physical copy of the book in hand before I am willing to finish the publishing process and have a book ready to make available — but, I do believe I am closer to that happening than before. 🙂

Next up for the day was lunch.  Meals have been good times to have conversations with individuals about the ministry and to help them evaluate areas where they can grow in a lifestyle of prayer.  Lunch time included some very good conversations and after lunch was an afternoon break built into the schedule, so I went back to the dorm to work on the conference photos I had taken the day before.  After going through and sharing some of those, I rested for a while before deciding to take a walk before dinner.  As I headed out on my walk, the butterflies were very active among the wildflowers growing alongside the path.  Further along the path I saw a deer out in the soybean field enjoying an afternoon snack.  Today’s photo is one I took as the deer looked up from his eating to see what the sound was behind him.  I managed to take several photos of him as he was grazing before he snorted loudly and took off across the field.  I continued my walk down the path for about a mile and a half before turning around and heading back to the dorm.  On my way back, I saw three bucks further out in a different field as they too were enjoying a late afternoon snack.  It seems that most of the time I can snap a few photos before they decide I really am watching them.  When they look up, it’s as if they realize they can see me but aren’t sure if I see them.  I suspect they have many people go by on a daily basis that never realize what all they are walking past.

After my walk I cleaned up for dinner and then had some more good conversations before, during, and after dinner.  Dinner was followed by an evening worship time before I headed back the dorm to write today’s page and then get some sleep so I’m ready for tomorrow.

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

• One of the things I like most about representing Impact Prayer Ministry at conferences and conventions is that people want to talk about prayer.
• Another thing I like about the conferences and conventions that I go to, is they usually have a lot of planned worship times for the group to participate in.
• Even when you plan ahead for the things that you have some degree of control over, there are often things that come up that you have no control of.  How you respond to those things usually says a lot about you.
• Teaching for the applause of people is a dangerous thing, but so is ignoring feedback from those you teach.
• Some things in life are complicated and difficult but you will never complete them unless you keep at it until they are finished.
• We would do well to live with a watchful eye at all times because the enemy is constantly watching us for an opportunity to catch us unaware of his traps.
• I greatly enjoy unstructured worship times when I can just spend time with God wherever I am.
• Did I say how much I enjoy the planned corporate worship times at the conferences and conventions I attend? 🙂

Page 205 found me awake early and staying up late as I’m trying to keep up with the conference schedule.  After breakfast and a few early morning conversations, I had nothing scheduled for the morning so I returned to the dorm and settled into my usual Monday morning routine — writing the prayer guide for next week.  My first thought was to do something related to responding to God’s calling.  It was an interesting thought for a reason I’ll get to later, but it didn’t seem to want to come together so I turned back to God in prayer.  As I prayed about the topic God would have me write, the idea of living with peace came to mind.  After checking, I found that I have done a prayer guide focused on peace three years ago but rather than even looking at it, I started fresh with a look at some scriptures that talk about the peace we ought to live with as God’s children.

By the time I had the prayer guide written, the morning was nearly gone and it was time for lunch.  I was supposed to meet an individual for lunch to discuss some prayer topics but it wasn’t until we were wrapping up the meeting that I found out he will be the conference president next year.  As we shared about prayer needs each of us have, one of my requests was about the writing that I do as I don’t currently have anything in the works once the illustrated children’s book gets printed.  I questioned out loud whether the conference would be interested in my writing another devotional journal for next year and what direction it would head if I did.  The response was not only very positive in wanting me to continue partnering with the conference and providing the prayer-based resource, but that is when I found out he was going to be the next president and the main theme for next year will be something about living out our sacred calling no matter what that calling is.  It seems that each year in which I have provided a devotional journal for the conference, I began the prayer foundation for the book before I even knew what the conference theme would be and if the current project would complement the program.  While this one has had the least amount of work put into it by me prior to knowing the next theme, it is still fascinating to me that my first prayer guide thought this morning was about responding to God’s calling in our life.

After lunch, the afternoon was a  huge block of free time in the schedule, so I used it to do some follow-up work on the illustrated children’s book that I’m still having difficulty getting printed.  I had finally received an answer that I think I understood from the printing company explaining why they wouldn’t print the book.  I forwarded that response to the illustrator for the book and she was able to address those concerns and get a new file to me.  The initial automatic review was good and now the book sets in limbo waiting for an actual review from the printing company to make sure it all meets the necessary requirements to be printed.  

Once all the files were submitted and I was back in the waiting process, I headed out to do some exploring to finish out the afternoon.  I tracked down a covered bridge in the area to take some photos and then went to a couple different parks to see what I could photograph.  As I walked a trail in one of the parks, today’s photo scene caught my eye.  Two spider webs were strung up between some trees and the sunlight was being filtered through the treetop canopy and onto the webs.  While they each have some holes in them, it was the intricate nature of their design that caught my eye.  And once they caught my eye, I couldn’t help but think of the old rhyming saying, “O, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”  One of the reasons that a life of integrity is so important is that any deceptive practice that we participate in has a way of eventually entangling and entrapping us.

After the late afternoon exploring adventure, it was back to the dorm to clean up and get ready for the evening conference session which was a concert of prayer.  The prayer time was organized and led well and was even followed by ice cream!  After the ice cream break, a Christian comedian finished out the late night programming.  It was late enough that I only stayed for about half of his routine before coming back to the dorm so I could write today’s page and get some sleep before another long day tomorrow.

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

• Flexibility is important, but it is nice when the day’s schedule allows me to maintain a somewhat normal routine.
• When you devote yourself to prayer, you should pray with an expectation of listening to God.
• Even when I listen intently to God, I don’t always know His full purpose for what I am hearing.
• Sometimes my prayer time gives me direction for right now and sometimes it is just planting seeds for future activity or response.
• Pursuing God as we ought, should result in a greater peace than those who are not pursuing God.
• Sometimes God has more to say to us in the “by the way” comments than in the entire rest of the conversation if we continue listening all the way to the end.
• Some things have a timing that is well outside of our control and we need to learn to trust the One who does control the timing of it.
• While it may not look or sound like that big of a deal, practicing deception will not only entangle us it will never go unnoticed by God.

Although a long day, page 204 has been a very good day.  Breakfast at the conference was at 7:30 so it was an early start to the day following an even earlier thunderstorm that got my attention during the night.  After breakfast, I spent some time at my display putting together the resources I wanted to the workshop I would be teaching.  I then went to find the room I would be in so I could try to get my projector set up.  The room had a projector mounted to the ceiling and a remote for it on the desk, so I plugged the loose end of the VGA cord into my laptop and found that I could use their projector and didn’t need to use mine.  I’m pretty sure that worked out much better than trying to get my portable projector set up in a way that would be project a visible image to everyone in the room.  My next workshop is in a different room, so it will be interesting to see if it has a usable projector or if I will need to make mine work.

My workshop title was “Developing a Lifestyle of Prayer”, so we spent time considering each of the three main words in the title, but not quite in the same order — Lifestyle, Prayer, and Developing.  We spent a little time considering who defines our lifestyle and if that definition changes based on our surroundings.  What defines our typical way of life and would different groups of people have different ideas of what is typical for us.  We then looked at prayer and how we need to see it as more than a “heads bowed, hands folded” activity if we desire for prayer to be the ceaseless conversation with God that He desires for us to have.  Much of our time was spent considering the developing part.  When we truly desire to develop a lifestyle of prayer, we find that prayer becomes our lifestyle and our lifestyle becomes prayer.  One of the keys to accomplishing this is to realize that it will likely never be fully accomplished, but that we will need to continually develop both our lifestyle and prayer together.  If we focus on one or the other, we lose the balance that is necessary for prayer to be the typical way of life for us.

After teaching the workshop, I spent the rest of the morning at my display area until it was time for lunch.  Lunch time was spent talking with a student who had been in the workshop who appreciated the information received but also desired to learn more.  It was a good conversation over lunch and as it finished I said that this had been a good example of what prayer can look like when we deliberately seek to have a conversation with God — it doesn’t have to be that much different than our conversations with people.

The conference schedule contains a break each afternoon for recreation and/or rest.  I thought about using my time to get some rest, but ended up taking a 4 mile walk on a path through a mostly wooded area near campus.  The theme for most of the walk seemed to be insects as I was able to photograph a variety of different dragonflies and butterflies.  It was interesting to notice so many different colors and patterns on both the dragonflies and the butterflies.  While those caught most of my attention during the walk, today’s photo is of a lone bird who was perched on an overhead wire and gladly singing its song for all to hear.  For some people, singing praise to God or speaking about His work in our life is difficult to do when we feel we’re all alone.  The good news is that we’re never all alone — even if we’re abandoned by every person, God will never leave us.  When you feel alone, be secure in the knowledge that God is with you, but also use those feelings to motivate you to find someone else who also feels alone.  God’s Word says that He places the lonely in families, and perhaps your loneliness is meant to be cured as you become the cure for the loneliness of someone else.

After the walk, it was time to get cleaned up for dinner and the evening worship session.  It was a great time of worship with songs of praise, an encouraging and convicting message, and time spent around the Lord’s table remembering His death, burial, and resurrection.  By the time the worship gathering was over, it was time to head back to the dorm and spend time relaxing as I worked at writing today’s page.  Tomorrow is another full day and it is already late, so I’ll wrap up the writing and see if I can get some sleep.

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

• Sometimes our schedules and responsibilities require that we press on past the storms of life in order to accomplish what needs done.
• I’m not usually a breakfast person but many people are very diligent about starting their day by feeding their body.  It would be good if we were even more diligent about feeding our soul to start each day.
• Planning and preparing ahead of time is a good thing even when it reveals that you don’t have as much to do as you first thought.
• The people closest to us can usually give us a more accurate view of what our lifestyle actually is than what we can.  Will we listen to them?
• Many times we adopt more ways and means of communicating with one another than we’re willing to consider in our prayer life.  How would our prayer life change if we considered communicating with God to be more important to us than any other communication?
• Developing a lifestyle of prayer means that it is a continual process of growth.  Progress is good as long as we don’t quit growing toward a closer relationship with God.
• Instead of waiting for someone to solve your loneliness, or whatever problem you might face, seek to help solve that problem in someone else’s life and you will likely find it resolved in yours as well.
• Worship with fellow believers is sweet no matter when and where it takes place.

Page 203 began early as I hoped to catch a glimpse of the sun coming up over the trees above the waterfall at McCormick’s Creek State Park.  The morning cloud cover kept that from happening, but I did get a nice walk in during the “cool” of the day.  Even before the sun made much of an appearance for the day, the heat and humidity just hung in the air as seen in today’s photo.  While it was a peaceful morning to spend time with God and photograph the falls — no people  in the pictures 🙂 — I was drenched with sweat by the time I got back to the room.  Before packing up to finish my trip to the conference, I sat down and wrote yesterday’s page as well as did some follow up with the printing company to try to figure out what I still needed to change in my book file in order for them to accept it.  Later in the day it got a reply back from them that I think I understand, but it will have to wait until I am home from the conference.

After yesterday’s page was written, I went through my notes for the workshops I’ll teach and then packed up and continued my journey.  While the southwest corner of the state doesn’t have very many covered bridges on any of the lists or maps I’ve found, I did find two that were mostly on the way to where I was headed.  After quick stops at the two bridges to take some photos, I finished my drive to the University of Southern Indiana in time to set up my display.  Once the display was up, I got my gear set up in the dorm room and cleaned up before it was time for dinner and the opening session.  Not only do I have the opportunity to teach while I am here, each person attending the conference will be given one of my 31-day devotional journals, “Living Free”, that corresponds with the conference theme.  Tonight during the opening session, I had the opportunity to introduce that book to the group and encouraged them to pick up their free copy if they hadn’t already done so.

With the conference in a different time zone that home, my internal clock believes it is an hour later than what the conference activity clock says it is.  While that makes my body think it is going to bed rather late, it will be nice when I teach in the morning at 9:30 and my body thinks I had until 10:30 to be ready.

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

• While the sun may not be visible in the way we would hope, it still comes up each day.
• Sometimes the “coolness” of the morning isn’t that cool, but it can still be a peaceful time to spend with God.
• Even in the midst of busy and popular locations, it is possible to find the time and place to be alone with God if you are willing to be flexible about when and where that takes place.
• Sometimes when people think they are speaking the same language, they really aren’t.  Taking the time to ask questions and to listen will help gain understanding.
• Sometimes we miss things because we don’t think to look for them.
• Learning to adapt can help smooth out some of the rough aspects of life.
• God gives me opportunities I don’t deserve.  Recognizing that helps me to make the most of those opportunities to honor Him.

Page 202 began early as Susan was up with another seizure.  After we all made it back to sleep, it was only a couple hours until I somewhat woke up to get my day actually started.  I don’t know if the seizures wear her out so much that she sleeps more deeply, or what, but she often wakes up bright eyed and ready to go after a seizure even while the rest of us are dragging.  The morning was incredibly gorgeous as the sun began to light up the eastern sky on my way to work.  As I shot a few photos before getting started on the cleaning that still needed done, the disruption in the cleaning the night before was almost worth it. 🙂  Okay, maybe a little more than almost.  While the bright colors of the early sunrise faded into the gathering clouds that soon overtook the sky, I was thankful that I was awake to view the incredible display that God was offering.

After looking at various wide-angle lenses online over a long period of time, I finally ordered one that was supposed to have arrived Thursday.  It didn’t arrive and the online tracking said it was delayed in Indianapolis due to a mechanical failure.  They eventually said it would come today, so I arranged to pick it up at the UPS center so the start of my trip to the student conference wouldn’t be delayed more than it had to be.  As my mind kept thinking about various “mechanical failure” options, I pictured them handing me a sealed bag with the remains of a shredded package.  Fortunately, that wasn’t the case and the package was ready and in good condition.  After picking up the lens and finishing the packing of the truck, I was on the road with a few stops planned at parks along the way so I could stretch my legs and take some photos.  As I had this new lens, I decided that I would only shoot with it of the day so I could get used to it.  For most of what I was shooting in the parks, it was a great lens — that is except for today’s photo and a few like it that I didn’t take because they would have looked much like this.  

Today’s photo is an example of using a good piece of equipment that is the wrong tool for the job.  If you can’t tell, the dark spot near the center of the picture is a butterfly.  If he would set still long enough for me to get within about six inches of him, I could have effective used the lens I had on the camera.  But butterflies rarely do that, which is why I would generally use a long zoom lens when photographing small objects that I have to shoot from a distance so they don’t move to avoid me.  How often do we try to do life with some really good tools that just happen to be the wrong tools for what we really need to accomplish?  Or sometimes they may even be the right tools, we are just using them in the wrong way. 

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

• Love compels us to act when we see someone in trouble.  The action motivated by pure love may not always be what they want, but it will always be our best effort at what they need.
• Sometimes the disappointments of one day turn into an incredible blessing the next.
• Not everything works the way I want it to.  But when I put everything into God’s hands, He makes it work in ways that are better than what I wanted.
• Stuff happens.  Learning to adjust and move forward is a valuable characteristic to develop.
• Walking three miles in a 95 degree temperature with an even higher humidity level has the same result as walking that three miles in the rain — you get drenched either way.
• God has given us many good and useful tools, but that doesn’t mean He has designed them all to be used in the same way for the same purpose.
• The body of Christ works best when each member does its part — the part it was created and gifted by God to do.

Page 201 was a long workday that didn’t accomplish what I had hoped, so I pray that the writing of the page will help me to look back and see if it accomplished anything worthwhile.  The day began with a walk-through of the building to evaluate what would need done before I leave tomorrow for the student conference.  After making my list and setting it aside until the building would be empty of people late in the afternoon, I turned my attention to finishing up some details on the teaching I will do this weekend.  As I worked on the outlines and created powerpoint slides, I also waited for UPS to deliver my children’s book proof copies.

By mid-day, the UPS delivery finally came and I opened the package with great excitement and anticipation.  The book looked great, but upon closer inspection there was one page that had a rather “fuzzy” or out of focus illustration.  It wasn’t horrible, but the image definitely lacked the quality of the rest of the book.  After the issues I had getting the file accepted, my first look was to make sure I had submitted the correct completed file.  I had, but in comparing that file to the earlier one that had not been accepted, it was obvious something had changed on that one page for some reason.  So, after a quick note to the illustrator to see if she had any idea what had happened, I continued to look for a solution on my end.  Because the page looked correct in an earlier file, I decided to download a fresh copy of the current file and see if that helped.  The preview of the new download looked great on all the pages so I uploaded it to the printer and ran it through their online previewer.  It looked good on it too, so I called the illustrator to tell her to never mind my email if she hadn’t seen it yet.  As it turned out, she had seen it and had already gone through the file and uploaded a new version to the shared box I download from — so, the fresh download I did was actually a new file after all.  Anyhow, now I’m back to waiting for the file to go through the printing company’s official review so I can order new proof copies before finishing up the project.  And to think I was very tempted to skip the proof copies and approve the project for actual publishing without seeing how it would print.  I remember writing about how that would be a bad idea no matter how anxious I was, and now I can verify the wisdom of following through all the proper steps regardless of how confident I am in everything being right.  Sometimes we are so sure we are right that we disregard all of the warnings in scripture to closely guard sound doctrine and then we wonder how we ever got into so much trouble.  It always pays to do things right even if it means they aren’t completed according to our timeline.

After I had the book issue squared away, it was back to working on the teaching powerpoint slides until the building cleared out so I could get it cleaned and ready for the weekend.  Midway through my cleaning, as I was preparing to mop floors, some people came in for an unscheduled meeting so extending my workday for the purpose of being able to leave early for the conference tomorrow didn’t work out so well.  Mopping bathrooms and hallways while people are needing to use them doesn’t work out too well, so I put everything away and will now finish it up early in the morning before I begin my trip.  

Today’s photo was taken mid-day as I worked in my office.  As I looked up from my desk and out the window, I noticed this hawk perched on a branch overlooking my office.  It made me think of the common phrase about watching something like a hawk.  As with all birds of prey, hawks are known for their keen eye that can spot movement from a great distance.  The movement that they watch most for is the movement of small critters that will serve as their lunch when caught.  Without a careful eye on their surroundings, they find themselves hungry and even prey to someone else.  It is through our keeping a keen eye directed on the Word of God that we find ourselves both filled with everything good and protected from that which is evil.

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

• Even disappointing days have lessons that ought to be learned.
• Preparing for what needs done later isn’t always the same as being able to do what needs done later.
• Most accomplishments have a natural progression of order in which things need done.  Skipping steps that seem unimportant will usually lead to problems.
• Sometimes when it looks like you have stumbled onto a solution to a problem you are trying to solve, it is because someone else has been working in the background to help resolve the issue.  Never underestimate the help others can give.
• Just because you are sure you are right, doesn’t mean that you are.
• Doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right reason, at the right time is always best even when it makes you unpopular. 

Page 200 started early.  I’m not real sure how early as Susan wandered upstairs sometime in the early morning hours and I got up to get her settled in the spare bed in our room.  Even after going back to sleep I was still awake again at 5:30; so I got dressed, loaded my kayak in the truck, and headed down to Potato Creek to catch some sunrise photos before work.  Today’s photo is the first one I took after I got out onto the lake.  There was a mist rising off the water and the sun had begun to light up the edges of the eastern horizon clouds even though it had not yet made an official appearance.  It wasn’t long after this that the sun crested the horizon and appeared in all of its blazing glory, but for this moment there was a subdued calmness that felt like the curtain was about to be pulled back just enough for me to glimpse into the presence of God.

I spent about an hour on the lake enjoying the great beauty God surrounded me with before heading into work.  The sights and sounds of creation in the early morning were very relaxing and a good way to begin the day — even if it was earlier than I would have liked. 🙂  At work, I began with a walk-through of the building and took care of a few minor things before turning my attention to the work I still needed to get done before this weekend’s conference.  It is always exciting to have the opportunity to teach about a lifestyle of prayer and I try to form all of my teaching to fit the setting and audience I will be working with.  This conference is for college students, so I’ve been working on ways to communicate how they can evaluate their current lifestyle and see how to make prayer the hub of all of their life choices and daily decisions.  When prayer becomes a connecting point with God in such a way that it defines our lifestyle, we either gain confidence in our current lifestyle choices or we are convicted of changes God would have us make.

As I worked on the teaching material, I took a few breaks to stretch my legs and rest my mind as I began organizing and repacking the books and display material I will take to the conference.  By late afternoon my workday was nearly done so I closed down my computer and made sure the bathrooms were cleaned and stocked for the evening before heading home.  At home, I fixed a late lunch and spent the early part of the evening relaxing before working on the photos from today and starting the writing of today’s page. 

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

• We all have times when we don’t feel well or are afraid and God is always ready to comfort and encourage us whenever we go to Him.
• If we knew ahead of time the nature and timing of interruptions, they wouldn’t be interruptions.  It is what we do with them that determines how beneficial they can become — or how harmful we allow them to be.
• There is a good reason that God instructs us to be still and know that He is God — stillness helps us to notice His presence.
• I generally end up with more photos than I expect whenever I photograph nature scenes.  It seems that each moment brings a new reminder of God’s creativity.
• Teaching well requires that you not only know what you are teaching, but that you also know who you are teaching.
• When prayer becomes a lifestyle, it permeates and even defines every other aspect of our life.