Adoption

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. -John 8:44

I was born into this world as the daughter of a father. A father that cared nothing for me but only wished to use me as a weapon against his Enemy. 

And for many years I was that weapon. 

I served my father Satan and ran as far away from God as I could. 

I loved my sin because my father loved his sin.

I disobeyed all of God's commandments and disregarded His holiness. Satan was my haven of rest and it took me many years to notice that my haven was actually a pit. A pit of despair, and wickedness, evil deeds, and misery. When I finally realized I was in that dark pit all alone I felt hopeless. No one would care for a pitiful, abandoned sinner that was left here to be swallowed up by my own transgressions.

But Someone did care.

He cared infinitely more than my first father ever could or would have. He was the Only One able or willing to pull me out of that pit and make me

His own.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 
-Romans 5:8

I have a new Father now. The Lord adopted me and now I am a new creature. I have been given a new name and a new heart. He made me His child because He loved me more than the Devil ever did. It is so wonderful to know that my new Father has once and for all conquered my first father.

I was once a child of the Father of Lies.

Now I am a child of the Father of Truth.

My first father is the King of Hell.

My new Father is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and reigns forever in Heaven.

My first father could give me nothing but temptation and doubt.

My new Father has given me His Son, and an incorruptible robe of righteousness!

My first father is the defeated.

My Father is the Conquerer!

My first father only dreams of being as Magnificent, Lovely, and Powerful as my Father is. 

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. -2 Corinthians 5:21

But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. -Galatians 3:25-26

As an adopted child I can never be disowned. I have the assurance of an inheritance. I have a family that has the same goal and purpose which is to serve our Father. 

And I have a home. 


The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. -Revelation 3:21

I don't have to worry about that pit anymore. Even when I feel like I'm falling into it again, I realize that it isn't a pit of despair, and wickedness, evil deeds, and misery; its the hollow of my Father's hand where I am forever safe and loved. He will never let me fall.

We are the saints

We are the children

We've been Redeemed

We've been Forgiven

We are the sons and the daughters of our God!

-"Children of God" by Third Day

Thoughts on a Dear Sweet Hymn

Jesus! What a Friend for sinners! 

Jesus! Lover of my soul;

Friends may fail me, foes assail me, 

He, my Savior, makes me whole.

Does it not overwhelm you sometimes (because I know it does me) that Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith and the universe itself, can be a friend to us? A friend is someone we sit next to, talk with, laugh and cry with. Someone we tell all our secrets to and who we want to be near when we're happy or sad. Jesus is a friend to those that love Him and keep His commandments! He is that friend that sticks closer than a brother, that has love for us that is greater than all other love because He laid down His life for us....His friends. When I fully realize the grotesque nature of my sin I feel like Christ's enemy...like I am the farthest thing from His holiness...something so foreign to His nature that all I can do is cower and hide myself from Him. But here is where the beauty of it all begins...He is a friend of sinners. Even when others desert me....people that I think are irreplaceable and unchangeable that would never disappoint me...there He is. He is my dearest friend who truly is, without a doubt, irreplaceable and unchangeable!!

Jesus! What a strength in weakness!

Let me hide myself in Him;

Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,

He, my strength, my victory wins.

How hard we try in this life! It seems, even when everything is easy, there is such struggle attached to every action. We strive to be better, to gain more, to be more like Christ, to stop being like ourselves in our sin nature. But God has not made us perfect for a reason. Because when we are weak, He is strong. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. He delights to pick us up when we fall. He rejoices to finish the battle for us when we are battered and bloody. He desires for us to find our all in Him. He wants us to be hopeless so that we can find that He is the only hope for us!

Jesus! What a help in sorrow! 

While the billows over me roll,

Even when my heart is breaking,

He, my comfort, helps my soul.

Another thing this life is full of is heartache. Tears run like rivers and sorrow tugs at our very being half the time. Our darkest hours come when we least expect them and stay much longer than we would like. But it is in these times, when gloom shades us like a large oak tree blocking the sunshine, that Christ comes to give us Light and comfort. God has sent us the Holy Spirit to be the Comforter, but Jesus is the comfort. Nothing can soothe the heart that is broken like He whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. He has gone before us, suffering many things so that He may not encourage us with sympathy only, but instead He may be empathetic. He knows firsthand what we are dealing with. 

Jesus! What a guide and keeper!

While the tempest still is high,

Storms about me, night over takes me,

He, my pilot, hears my cry.

Good times are such a joy to the Christian's heart! One can feel God's love so deeply and warmly and find so many things to be thankful for. Yet, it is in the storms, when His love is needed the most, that His goodness is even deeper and richer than ever before. Knowing that He keeps us and protects us from the storm like a mother hen with her chicks under her wing is such a precious thought! When winds are wailing, lightening clashing, and thunder roaring; our cries for help sometimes are swallowed up and it seems that they are never heard. But we may rest assured and know that Christ, though He may be sleeping down below in the bowels of the boat, has the power to immediately calm the storm in His perfect time. 

Jesus! I do now receive Him,

More than all in Him I find,

He hath granted me forgiveness,

I am His, and He is mine.

Being someone's friend is a great joy and privilege. Having ownership over a person is something infinitely more intimate altogether. When a man and a woman are married, they belong to one another and they become one flesh. So it is with Christ's children. When we receive His forgiveness we become His and He in turn becomes ours. It is so glorious to know that He belongs to us but I find it even more wonderful that I belong to Him. The fact that He has cleansed me so greatly that I am worthy to be owned by Him is overwhelming and unbelievable. And yet I believe it. I believe it with all my heart because it is true. It is the dearest truth that I have ever known and will ever know as long as I shall live on this earth. I cannot say forever because I know that everlasting life with Christ awaits me and I may learn things so much higher and greater that cannot be imagined here on earth. For of course you know, "more than all in Him I find."

Therefore I can say:

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Hallelujah! What a Friend!

Saving, helping, keeping, loving,

He is with me to the end.

AMEN.

All italicized text by J. Wilbur Chapman, 1910 

New blog reveal! :D

Just stopping by to let you all know that my new blog is now ready to be seen! :D 

allixbphotography.com

Let me know what ya think :) I for one think that Jessica Shae did an awesome job on all of our new blogs and she deserves SO much credit for the amazingness of it all. :) Without her....it would be nothing. :)

Make sure to follow the new one! I loooove my followers :)

~Allix

Day number four of THE Internship....*sniff sniff* last night at Jessica's :'(

I'm not gonna cry....but I just have to let you all know with a heavy heart, tonight is the last night I will be sleeping in this house as an intern of Jessica Shae. :( sadness!! I'm missing home a ton but this has been SUCH a great experience and of course, in some ways, you never want great things to end. :(

Today was once again cereal for breakfast....Cherrios this time. And I spiced things up a bit with a half of a crousant with Nutella on it in honor of Jessica since thats like her very favoritest thing in the whole wide universe....besides the country and Big Ford trucks and such. :)

We (Jessica, Rachel, and I) met Carissa and Hannah around 9:00 at Starbucks where we each had a half an hour with Jessica one on one to talk about our pricing list. Man! Pricing was so much different and crazy and harder than I imagined.....putting a price on your work is....difficult....nuff said. ;)
It really cracked me up because the whole time we were there people kept staring at the five of us with our laptops, discussing pricing lists, happily drinking our Starbucks yummy drinks, just loving life and what have you. One woman sat down beside me while I was working and said,
"You are just the cutest thing!! Are you in college?"
I replied, "No, ma'am. Just high school. I'm a part of a photography internship with that girl over there in purple. She's a professional wedding photographer in the area." To which she responded with a steady nod but a really puzzled look on her face and,
"Huh....ok. Well have a nice day then."
I smiled and went back to typing away. Then an older gentlemen took the seat that woman had just vacated and began drinking his coffee. He kept glancing over at me and then at the other girls with his brow furrowed. Finally he leaned forward to me and said,
"Is school out today?"
"No." I said
"Then what are y'all? I mean is this a school or something?"
"We're actually in a photography internship with that girl over there in purple. She's a professional wedding photographer in the area."
"Are you just in high shcool?"
"Yes sir. Two of us are sophmores, the other two are actually graduated and our mentor is 22."
"Oh. So she's like your Big Sister?"
I didn't really hear him very well so I just kinda nodded. And then I realized what he said.

Anyway it was really fun that everybody was so disturbed that we weren't in school or anything and we just appeared to be hanging out. :)

We then went and had a yum-yum lunch at Subway and hurried along to do our photoshoots with Jessica!! yay! She did the first half of them at this really neat old house that is pretty close to where she lives.




I don't have any of the pictures that she took of us yet but they all turned out really awesome! :)

Then we went to the Los Colinas Canals which is close to Dallas.
Jessica did the second half of all of our shoots and then we took pictures of this totally awesome couple, Aaron and Rachel. :)



P.S. Our hands were all like COMPLETELY FROZEN!!!!! It was rather diffucult to manuver the cameras but I think we toughed it out realitively well. :D P.P.S. Rachel is 16 weeks pregnant!

When we got home Mrs. Tracy Garner had a HUGE Breakfast supper fixed for us which was wonderful because we were all very very hungry after that long drive from the Canals back to Frisco.

This week has been so very amazing and I really cannot believe that tomorrow will be the official end....I'm bummed that it'll be over but home is still being very missed and I won't object to returning to it. :)

♥ Through Christ's Love ♥
~Allix

Day Three of THE internship....finito :)

The days are clicking by so fast...I can't believe I've been an actual intern of Jessica Shae for three whole days now....craziness!!! 

This morning I woke up and rewrote the blog post from last night because this laptop obviously decides to hate me from time to time :P Cereal was for breakfast again but this time I went out on a childhood memory limb and ate Fruity Pebbles....nothing smells so wonderful as a fresh bowl of that stuff!!

The morning was spent perfecting our about me page, organizing the blog design and getting our background and header on!! Whoo hoo!! I really adore my colors right now. My header is actually still in process because tomorrow Jessica is going to take pictures of each of us to use for our business and blog design. I'm probably going to have my header made up of just or mostly pictures.

We worked and worked inside the whole morning because we were SNOWED IN!! Yesterday the weather was loverly but today....Texas gave us a surprise again. :P 

We endured it rather well I think and took breaks from time to time to stretch, walk around, look at Jessica's adorable dog Molly and drink hot chocolate. :D

We had lunch around one o'clock. One word to sum it up would be "leftovers." :D There was hot dogs, one slice of pizza, beef stew, half  of Mr.Garner's gargantuan chicken fried steak from Texas Road House, nachos, and more. It was a very nice mish mash buffet. :)

Then about 3:00 we noticed that the roads were toootally clear and so Jessica took us somewhere fun-fun to rest our tired and taxed little minds. :) So we went.....

Bowling!  

Everybody was probably wondering what we were all doing there with our big cameras just nonchalantly taking pictures and videos of each other. :)

After that we went and ate supper at Corner Bakery and had delicious soup and sandwiches. mmmm :) We pulled out our laptops and worked on pricing lists until it was time to go.

Now we are here in the "upper room" of Jessica's home listening to her family downstairs laugh hysterically as they watch the old Karate Kid. (Its very funny to hear and not see this happening. :D)
btw...I feel that I did better getting a blog post in earlier (oh yeeaaah!) :)

Nightie Night everybodeee!

♥ Through Christ's Love ♥

~Allix

Goodnight Day Two of THE Internship :)

Day numbero two has come and gone. Oh what a full day it was! The day began as usual...getting up about 7:30, getting ready, eating breakfast. This morning was cereal for me in the way of Special K Cinnamon Pecan....yummy goodness. :)

Carissa and Hannah arrived and class was in session. Jessica gave us a big, long, beneficial talk on marketing and the purpose of blogging and what not. Telling us to be personable, entertaining, real, and not to ramble. (Hmmm, that last one kinda hits home. ;D) Then we began treading the waters of About Me pages. Its very hard, we all observed, to write about one's self. I got a rough draft that I'm happy with so far. :)

Around noon we headed out and got a new ride (rental car) for the week. Its little, white, and perfect for us. It took us right to Panda Express for lunch so nice and politely. :D Lunch was quite good and the conversation (as always) was full of brilliant tips and facts from The Dear Jessica-Teacher. ;) We got an ear full of reliable cameras, lenses, flashes, and what not to consider owning or renting which was very thought provoking.

Afterwards we went to Work Central (Starbucks). Who knew, besides wireless Internet, they had a place to actually plug in your laptop?!?! Yeeeaaaahhhh....soooo....I didn't exactly know that even though its kinda obvious to me now that they would have to have that.....

INTY-WAYS....!!! Jessica was able to work on my header and background of my new blog which I am just loving so far. She really is a magician with that computer and a very good designer. It still needs tweaking but its heading in the right direction.

THEN! Oh glorious day....after that we headed to:

It was really fun...had lots of boats and stuff to look at and piers to walk on.

We spent the waiting-for-our-model-to-show-up time very well I think. Taking pictures (and videos), laughing, talking....being girls that have a common passion doing what they love. :D

Jessica of course looked like a total rock star the whole time....who could ask for a greater mentor!?!? :D

Then our darling model showed up...and OH what a DARLING she really turned out to be!!
Folks, meet Amy:

5 minutes after I meet her I realized these things:
1.) She is DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS!
2.) She is totally genuine and super friendly
3.) She has the sweetest laugh and smile
4.) She has naturally incredible hair
5.) She has a wonderful sense of style...I mean, Seriously, have you seen that scarf?!?! Adorable!!!
6.) She is tee-ninesy and so very cute!
7.) She is one of those few people that are greater than sliced bread itself I believe

And Ginormous #8....

She is just a wee bit, how you say, Photogenic!!!





O-my-word....I could've taken pictures of this girl all.day.long!!

Right before my turn with her was finished she wanted to go see the"duckies" which of course I had no objection to :)


Oppoisite to the day before, Jessica did her shoot with our model after we all got a slice of awesomeness with her :)


After we finished, we headed home....stopping only for a basic neccessity such as a movie from Block Buster. ;) We all decided on the 1996 Miramax version of Emma (with Gwyenth Paltrow) because we had all somewhat been thinking about/quoting it throughout the day. :)

Once we got home we had supper which was a bowl of deliciouso beef stew (made by Mrs. and Rachel Garner), sourdough bread, and Jiffy cornbread muffins. Nothin' like a warm comfort meal to end the day. :)

Following dinner we imported, sorted, and edited our pictures then called it quits for the night. We then reclined back, relaxed, and enjoyed the Dramatic, Romantic, British Movie loveliness.

And now I'm here, past midnight, listening to the winds howl and the blizzard probably falling down upon us. I'm breaking all the rules that Jessica taught us this morning about not posting too many pictures and defenitly not rambling. :P So I bid you a good night or a good very early morning. Little eyes....time for sleep!

♥ Through Christ's Love ♥
~Allix~
 

*Note: I wrote all this last night but due to a compuer malfunction was not able to post it until this morning...sorry about that. :)*