Up the Sunbeam

-- I had this teeny tiny dream. I wanted to create a line of rodeo-themed greeting cards. That SOUNDED so simple, but I had no idea that I would have more than two years of delays and dashed hopes in my pursuit of getting that teeny tiny dream to become cards-in-my-hand and on the market. The first pictures I took were at a rodeo run by a big rodeo association.  I wanted to do things right and get the appropriate permissions necessary. When I spoke with the PR director, she was very interested and asked me to send her some samples.  She LOVED my work! She loved the pictures so much she wanted to not only get me permission to make my line of greeting cards, she wanted to use them in the souvenir programs that would go out to all their rodeos in North America the following rodeo season, AND give me a byline, AND list my website! Victory lap, right?!! Wrong. Since I was not a licensed photographer with her association, the powers that governed such things would not ...

-- I had struck out f or the third time. In some games, that means you're out, but this time it meant I won! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A couple of weeks ago, I had hit a low spot, wondering if God was hearing me at all . My friend and Bible study leader had called me that Sunday afternoon and hearing the need in my heart, she prayed with me. It was such a comfort and uplift to hear someone else passionately, enthusiastically asking God to help us--I was tired of only hearing my own voice all the time! I went into the week, eager to see how God was going to work. Three times I had put in my application and been interviewed for posted positions in my office. On that Thursday, I got the word that for the third time I had not been selected. This time my friend (who is already in a position like the one I had applied for) came to talk to me as soon as she heard I had not received the sought-after promotion. "I'm so sorry!" she said, "I just heard." Her eyes s...

From a photographer's point of view, this is not a great picture, but for me, it is a message I need frequently. In April 2007 my husband's company and his job were among the first casualties of what many months later would become the current economic crisis. When we got the news, we were disappointed of course, but immediately started looking for the good in it, and we both had great faith that God was going to use this for our ultimate good. We really didn't worry because we fully believed that God was more than capable of giving my husband a new and better job. We just never imagined how long it would take. We never thought we would lose so much. We never thought God's provision would be so gradual. We never thought we would be in such a precarious position for so long. Before any of this happened, I had taken this picture and created a greeting card with it. Three years later, I feel like I frequently could benefit from sending it to myself! What I ...