Hi everyone! Happy Sunday!! I hope you're having a lovely weekend. This weekend has been a whirlwind for me, with a school music concert and a homecoming dance, as well as lots of photography, but I am SO excited to share this blog post with you as well as some encouragement heading into this new week. You'll notice that these photos are of me and... (drumroll please)... a boy! So yes, he is my boyfriend! Introducing Ben. :) If you've been following along closely you may have noticed a certain selfie-angle clip of us in the lantern festival video, so that was your hint at what was to come. Here we are!!
Basically, I went to his school's homecoming dance over the weekend and we took these classy, editorial-style photos beforehand, since both of us love art and wanted to try something different. We knew we didn't want to only take the typical side-by-side couples photo in front of the front door (although of course we did that later too), so we upped our game and tried modeling for my best friend Anna behind the camera as well. The ones that we took in my basement with the lights out using only my camera's flash have to be my favorite, and we both love how they look like they're out of a magazine. The photos in the woods and around my backyard were also very fun and the unique posing felt quite artsy to do. I think the photos turned out so sick and I must say I think we look pretty cute, haha!
With this blog post, even though there's no video attached, I want to share a short faith message about hope in the unknown. This is a subject I often talk about in my faith talks, but this is because I think it's one of the most important and challenging areas of our personal faith! Typically I talk about hope amidst an unknown future from a future perspective, one that can speak from experience, who has already found out what the unknown future of a particular challenge holds. This is the easiest way to share our faith stories, right? From the confident point of view of someone who knows just how abundantly God has already provided. Today I'm sharing this hope with you from both a past and future perspective. Firstly, this cross country season has been a joyful and blessed challenge from God to me, and tomorrow I finish it out with my last official meet. As nervous as I still am, I'm writing this to help share a hope in the waiting with someone else who is also facing a challenge. We are meant to rejoice in the waiting, so as hard as that is, with God's help and grace I will!
I'm also sharing this hope in the unknown perspective from the easier, more confident point of view of someone who has seen specific signs of God's goodness in the past, and looks forward to it seeing it continue into the future. If you had told me even a few months ago that I would be posting homecoming photos with my boyfriend, I would have bet money against it. I guess that's what all-girls school does to you, haha! And yet, God has provided abundantly in such an unexpected way, per usual. The Lord guided me in preparing my heart, even when a present life like this seemed unfounded. How freaking cool is God?! While I don't know where this relationship is leading me, I look forward to God's guidance on both of us and I'm so thankful for His goodness in it so far.
This is the long, faith-filled way to say - enjoy the homecoming photos!! I know we did. ❤️✨🥳