Shooting with Soul

About a year ago I bought a bunch books and I'm sad to admit I haven't read most of them yet.  I bought quite a few books on photography since photography is one of my favorite hobbies. One of the books was Shooting with Soul by Alessandra Cave. This book is full of exercises to help you express yourself creatively through photography.  I got stuck on exercise three and then this book somehow found it's way back to the shelf and was forgotten. The other day I found it again and starting flipping through it's pages. 

I decided that I should give this book another try.  Since I spent money on this book it only makes sense that I should read it all the way through and get the most out of it.  I'm all for improving my photography skills so my plan is post each exercise here on my blog. 

There are a lot of exercises and some may be a bit challenging  but I know it's going to fun. 

Plus I've been kinda wondering what to do with my blog.  I've run out of ideas and this seemed like a great way to motivate me to post more frequently.

Now I best go and start reading this book...

The Fruit of the Spirit

“But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

I'm sure your familiar with the fruit of the spirit. I first remember learning this verse when I was very little. But have you ever dug deeper into what means to be characterized by the fruit of the spirit?  Or have you ever broken down this verse and looked at each fruit individually?

I just finished reading a book about the fruit of the spirit. “A Young Women's Walk with God” by Elizabeth George. Not only did this book help me to understand each fruit of the spirit better but it just so happened that my pastor was also teaching a sermon series on the fruit of the spirit. I just love it when God puts these perfect little coincidences in my life. I knew without a doubt that God was speaking to me and he was telling me that He really wanted me to learn about the fruit of the spirit. And not only to learn about the fruit of the spirit but to grow in my walk with Him by learning about the fruit of the spirit.

And now here I am at the end of my study on the fruit of the spirit. I'm a little bit sad because I thoroughly enjoyed learning about this topic. I have learned so much and It wouldn't be fair for me to keep all of what I learned to myself so over the next few weeks I would like to share with you what I have learned.

As Christians we are to be defined by the fruit we bear. This is where the fruit of the spirit comes into play. In Paul’s letter to Galatians, before he writes the fruit of the spirit he list's things that a christian should not be characterized by (i.e. hatred, jealousy, selfishness...). He then says that instead we are to be characterized by the fruit of the spirit. 

 To better understand what it truly means to be characterized by the these christian virtues I would like to, over the next few weeks, look at each fruit individually.