Words

Words are amazing. It’s difficult to understand how a combination of a few letters can cause so many different reactions, depending on how they are used. They are a powerful tool that can encourage, comfort, teach, welcome, rebuke, hurt, and even destroy. In the right mouths, words can slice the very soul of a person. Those of you who know me may agree that I do not spread my words liberally, but even in spite of this, I still find it difficult at times to channel my speech in ways that are glorifying to God. How easy it is to let an unkind comment slip off your tongue, almost without realizing it.

Each day, it takes no ear-straining to catch wafts of conversations that are derogatory and ugly towards others, and it is almost like listening to nails screech down a chalk board. Even though I may know talking in this way can be hurtful and is a poor witness, it is far too easy to let my guard down and fall into the habit. From experience, I have realized that negative comments can not only hurt other people, but can also be harmful to yourself. It’s true. For some reason, giving an audible voice to ungodly opinions only makes them grow stronger. This makes it much more difficult to change your thoughts and see things the way you know God wants you to, which in turn strains your relationship with Him, as all sin does. It would be so much better to just speak kindly to begin with.

Experimenting with Textures

I am always looking for new textures to add to my collection, and recently my aunt showed me some especially cool ones. They may not look like much by themselves, but they can make ordinary photographs look much more interesting and beautiful. I've tested out a few of these amazing textures some of my pictures....

Before:
After:

Quality Time with Photoshop

About two months ago I got a Nikon D90 camera as a graduation gift from my parents, and I still am trying to figure out how to use it. I've taken some photos with it, but I have yet to discover the functions of a lot of the fancy-schmancy buttons and things. Yesterday my sister, our friend and I decided to get together and take some pictures. It turned out to be a very fun morning trekking around in the woods, playing in creeks and climbing in tree houses. I also got to experiment more with the new camera! I thought I'd share a sampling of the shots we got.

Since school and my graphic design class ended in May, I haven't really done much design stuff, so I was exceedingly glad to have some pictures to work on. While I was on my Photoshop spree, I made a little banner for the top of the blog, too. I only wish the picture was a little longer, because it wouldn't quite fill out to the edges of the page and so I had to fill the extra space in with brownish coloring and swirls. But overall it's okay I suppose; I am especially fond of the quill pen.