Giving Thanks for Things I’m Not Thankful For

I can’t speak for all states in America, but here in Minnesota, we spend a large amount of time talking about the weather.  We either praise it or complain about it.  We have been very fortunate to have a relatively warm and long autumn, but now that the temperature are starting to drop and daylight savings time has hit, we are becoming gloomy and pessimistic.

I will be the first to admit that I hate winter.  Honestly, I don’t know how I get through our six month winters every year because I hate the cold, the runny noses, the tolls our cars take, the increase in automobile accidents, the salt the ruins good shoes, yaddayadda the list continues.

However, as much as I am already thinking about Christmas, this is the month of being thankful.  I am trying my hardest to be thankful for everything in my life, because all of it is worth looking at in a positive way.  So, one of the major things I’m trying to be thankful for is winter, because I know in a couple months I will have a hard time finding anything positive about winter and will need something to look back on to make my heart happy instead of depressingly sad.

Here are my ten (I’m making myself go with ten even thought it seems impossible) reasons to be thankful for Minnesota winters:

1. Christmas doesn’t look as pretty without snow.

2. Bundling up in a blanket with a good book when outside temperatures are in the negatives is one of the best feelings in the world.

3. Six months of extreme cold means uncontainable joy come spring.

4. Coffee shops warm my soul in the winter – literally and figuratively.

5. Snowflakes are a great wonder of the world and provide a magic we can’t experience any other time of the year.

6. Coming into a warm building after being in the cold relaxes me.

7. Frost on the trees, though a rare sight, is extremely beautiful.

8. I admit that snowmen are pretty cool.

9. Boots are pretty cute (and comfy).

10. God created the seasons.  I should love them for that very reason!

What are your reasons for being thankful for harsh winters?

Photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Overcoming Fear with the Help of the Lord

I tend to mention my Type-A tendencies and my perfectionism a lot around here, I’ve noticed.  These two connected personality traits dominate much of my life and have done both wonders and horrors for me throughout my 22 years.  They have helped me become a varsity dance captain and help lead the team to state my senior year of high school, after joining the team quickly my sophomore year.  Because of these traits, I am an incredibly dependable person who rarely is late or forgetful, since I have a page-a-day planner to map out every part of my life.  I can rely on these traits to get my homework done days before it’s due and still stupidly think I’m procrastinating because I would have liked to get everything done even earlier.  I would never bash these traits because they are very useful to me in so many parts of my life.

However, these traits have also done a lot of damage in my life.  I remember staying at my grandparents for a week the summer before my sophomore year of high school.  I felt lonely being away from home, and could not get the image of me going off to college out of my mind.  As a fifteen year old girl, I was bawling my eyes out thinking about going to college which wasn’t going to happen for another three years!  My perfectionism and Type-A-ness lead me to become crippled at the thought of losing control.  Although I am going to school to be an English teacher, the though of public speaking has tormented me for years because when speaking in public, I cannot plan exactly how everything will go, so I panic.

This fear of the unknown and of losing control has dominated my thinking for many years.  I hate phone calls that I cannot predict, so many friends will not get called.  Often, I will go out of my way to avoid any kind of awkward situation, so making friends was not something I was known for in college, but thankfully the ones I did make are high-quality and essential to my life.

What I am getting at is that I am an incredibly fearful person.  I don’t think many people know that about me because it’s not something I share due to being embarrassed about it, but I have a reason to share it now. 



Earlier this week, I posted my first engagement session photos with me as photographer.  Trust me, taking these photos made me incredibly scared.  Thoughts were running through my mind all week.  What if they suck?  What if they hate them?  What if I realize I will never be able to become a photographer?  My dream for a couple years has been to become a photographer, but I’ve been too busy with school and full of fear to ever put any thought into it.  Secretly, I somehow knew the dream would never be realized because I’d always be too scared to give it a shot.

However, God knows very well that I struggle with fear daily.  I’m sure he can tell just by listening to my thoughts, but it’s also been something I’ve prayed about constantly.  I’ve gotten better over time by calming myself down, and making visual reminders such as one I posted a few weeks ago to help me focus on what’s really important in life, but it’s still not where I want it.  I know fear is going against God because I know He will never let anything I can’t handle happen to me.  The strength of the Lord has held my hand as he has slowly brought me out of my fearful shell and pushed me toward him, toward a life of purpose.

When my friend, Christine, called me asking me to take her photos, I knew God was saying “DO IT!  DO IT!”  I felt it so strongly that I had to say yes.  Then, as I looked at the photos on my camera, God was telling me, “These are pretty good.”  My fear was telling me they would look way worse on my computer.

I’m sure you follow the trend.  When I pulled them up on the computer, I could’ve cried with happiness.  God was saying, “I gave you passion for this, do something good with it.”

So I did and I am.

God has been pushing me for months to do something risky, out of my comfort zone, something I am TERRIFIED of.  So, after getting tremendous responses from the engagement photos on facebook and even getting asked already to shoot two weddings (I still can’t believe it), I decided to take the biggest risk of my life and create a photography business.

And you know what?  I can’t wait!  Sure, I have a ton to learn still, but if people like what I'm doing and I'm proud of my work, then I have confidence I can make this work.  Sure, I’ll have to talk to people I don’t know, market myself, work very hard, and get knocked down a few times.  But, what’s keeping me from becoming scared is that God is here.

He is always here.

He wants me to succeed.

He wants me to live a life where I can lead others to him, and seriously, a good photo always leads me to God because He is beauty and truth.

I’m ready to look fear in he eye with the Lord holding my hand, and I’m ready for Him to eventually let go and make me a stronger person.

I am blessed.

Words for the Anxious Soul

I am what any psychologist would call “Type A.”  One of my friends jokingly (or maybe she’s not joking) calls me a “freaker outer.”  My parents told me I am very “passionate.”  All of these are true.  I would call myself a perfectionist, and anyone who evenly remotely knows me can sense this because I’m always fidgeting, fixing my clothes, jotting down lists in my planner, organizing things that don’t even belong to me, and I tend to overexplain things.  Don’t worry, all of this has a point.

This morning, I saw my mom had posted this daily devotional on her Facebook.  I stopped to wonder if maybe she had posted it just for me, since it is titled “When Things Fall Apart, Ask God to Relieve Your Fears.”  Sure enough, a moment later I had an email from my loving mother with a link to the same article.  Of course it is for me – I am the biggest scaredy cat of all time.  Things don’t have to be falling apart, but I’ll be worrying anyway.  I remember crying my freshman year of high school as I thought about going off to college.  It’s truly pathetic!  Throughout college, I became much closer to God and started reforming our relationship, and lately I have been on a mission to cut out the worries in my life because I trust in Him to take care of me.  However, as life gets in the way, my focus shifts back to the things I am afraid of and not to Christ.

After reading the devotional my mom sent me, I decided I needed some kind of constant reminder to give my worries to God, so I looked up some biblical quotes and found 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”  Short, sweet, and true.

Coincidentally, Mr. Converse Sneakers and I are working on creating a gallery wall to go above our sofa (photos will come eventually – I have a new piece of furniture on its way that I can’t wait to share) and being the English degree-holding woman that I am, I obviously love words, so I decided to take a swing and try creating my own word art using Photoshop Elements.

Here is how it turned out:

Not the most creative, but I have limited talents (and patience) when it comes to art.  I printed it out as an 8x10 print, and for now it sits on my desk as a daily reminder to stop worrying and let loose a little until it is ready to hang above our sofa!

I thought maybe you would like one too, so I saved it a few different ways so you can use it for whatever your heart desires.

Photoshop File - Click here if you would like to edit the file in a Photoshop program or print from a Photoshop program.

PDF - Click here if you would like to use Adobe Reader to print the file.

Jpeg - Click here if you would like to save the image to your computer.

What quotes do you like to look at daily?  Do you have any of them displayed in your home?