This year, 2021, has ushered in quite a few changes, a couple of them being pretty big life changes. In February, we found out we were pregnant with our third! What?! Just wild! In November, we welcomed Dominic Harris to the fam! We couldn’t be happier. One thing we are definitely learning with having a third kid is that there is definitely no quiet time anymore. There is noise all day! HA! But it’s great. We are blessed to have the kids we do and we are so thankful God chose us to be the parents of Liam, Isabella, and Dominic!
Second, I took a step back from social media. It started with deleting Instagram and TikTok. These were time consumers and provided nothing substantial to my life. Sure, some laughs, but let’s be honest, if I want to laugh, I’ll rewatch The Office for the billionth time. Even though it led to me getting some business, at the end of the day I decided it just wasn’t worth the time and effort being on these platforms. For my sake and for others. The amount of fake on social media is unreal. I would watch friends post one of those “I’m being genuine” posts but I would see a totally different person than who I knew. But these posts brought engagement. I have seen the direction social media is going in terms of being a business person on there and I just didn’t like it. And don’t even get me started on algorithms, what a joke. Facebook, I scaled way back. I no longer care about when the optimal time to post is. Who cares. I mean, let’s be honest, I share a gallery online, it gets some likes, some comments, some shares, and literally 48 hours later… silence. We are spending time and money creating content that literally has less than the lifespan of a housefly! This was a pretty big life change too, because, for the better part of 15 years, I’ve been consumed with social media in some capacity since the days of Myspace. At this point, I would highly recommend checking out “The Social Dilemma.”
Lastly, another big life change has been my employment status. I accepted a media position at our church this past Summer. Story time: I think about three years ago, being more involved with media at our church was something we were entertaining the idea of. But one day, I felt like God was pushing me and my family to start doing home church. What?! We had recently joined a new church and I had an opportunity to serve in media doing what I loved to do. I even got to go on a mission trip and use my talents to tell a few stories through video as well! This was a dream! God had different plans. Actually, the mission trip played a huge part in this. To try and make a 10-year story short, so much of my identity prior to a few years ago was wrapped up in my photography business. Who I was as an entrepreneur was what drove me and it was everything to me. I’ve been going to church my whole life. I’ve served in church most of my entire adult life. I felt like I was good. It wasn’t until this mission trip that I didn’t know realize how little I relied on God. I read my Bible, I prayed, I went to church, and while I felt like I had faith in God, looking back I can sadly say my faith was in myself. It was in my grind and my ability to make money. That was all.
When I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip, I was asked to lead a lesson one night. Hold up! I thought I was just taking pictures and video here. Teaching is the last thing I want to do. But I did it. I went at it full force. I was studying like crazy. Taking notes. Preparing a lesson. It was during this preparation that I realized I needed more of God. Not just that, I wanted more of Him. This changed a lot in regards to my relationship with Him. I sought Him more frequently and a short time after that mission trip is when I felt Him pushing me to do home church.
This was the summer of 2019. Teaching became what I did a whole lot more of because now it was up to me to teach my family. We had a weekly Bible study where I helped lead and teach. It was kind of weird at times because it was so much the opposite of where I thought I would ever be. But it was so good! And who knew just a handful of months later, our world would get rocked by a pandemic and result in church happening at home for a number of months anyway? I 100% believe God had a plan here for me. Had we not done home church before the pandemic, I fear I would have become even lazier as a Christian. I probably would have turned into a consumer Christian who only “did church” on youtube every week. By the way, that is not church. Instead, I was pursuing God and leading my family in one of the weirdest times as everything was shut down. While there were a lot of unknowns, we were so excited about what was happening spiritually. And we were so thankful that God lead us down that path.
A year later, shortly after we found out we were pregnant, I found myself talking with our church about a media role again. Things were different this time. I felt more prepared 1. spiritually and 2. as a leader. Prior to home church, I was not ready spiritually and I definitely wasn’t ready to be a leader of any sort! God did a lot of work in my life and prepared me for this position. The timing was perfect. The opportunity couldn’t be more of a dream. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s not a dream! I’m so thankful to have this opportunity. In many ways, it’s kind of a lifesaver, because while I still photograph some weddings and portrait sessions, my life is no longer consumed with entrepreneurship AND social media. This job allowed me to finally cut the social media cord because I no longer felt like it was required of me to run my business. It was an answered prayer. For so long, I wanted to get away from social media. I had applied for jobs that I was more than qualified for. Jobs that after leaving the interview, I knew I had it. Only to not receive a phone call at all. It was so weird! Not one job interview called back. I remember one night praying, I told God I was exhausted. Not just from running every single aspect of a business but from looking for a job. I told Him I was done applying, if He had a plan for me to work elsewhere, I asked that he provide it for me. No lie, within a month or two, I got a call about the job I currently have at church! God had a plan and that plan isn’t finished yet and that excites me.
Anyway, that’s a bit of a life update. If you made it this far, high five! If you made it this far and you’re wondering if I’m still doing pictures, yes, I am. But it’s going to be massively limited. Massively limited! 😉 Let me end with an encouragement. Matthew 6:33 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” “All these things” refer to verses prior to this which talk about not worrying about what you’ll eat, what you’ll wear, or your life. “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Don’t worry, seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness, He promises us fellowship with Him. This trumps any physical need or wants we could ever desire on earth, and this gives us so much to not just look forward to but to hold on to while we navigate the waters of life today!
