Happy Good Friday! I promised you an easter edition of photo friday and I'm excited to deliver on that promise! The Easter mini sessions went so good, it is safe to say I had the pleasure of spending time with the cutest kids.

CK is out of school today, I was pretty excited about the idea of getting a few extra minutes of sleeping, but of course the girls had other plans. They wanted to get up extra early to play, naturally. My family is coming in this weekend to spend Easter with us, so I got up and around to do some last minute cleaning up. Some mornings I need a little extra to help get me in the right mood, and by that I mean not a walking zombie mood. First thing I did was take some Spark, and then I put my girl Mandisa on.

I love Mandisa, her songs have a way of getting me up and moving, so this morning I was getting down as I did the dishes, having a pretty good time I might add. Then her song Not Guilty came on and it kind of stopped my in my tracks, for more than one reason. Being married to the preacher makes our Easter weekends a little different than others. I guess you could say that Easter Sunday is the biggest Sunday of the year. That means a lot of work goes into it, don't get me wrong I LOVE Easter and everything that goes with it, but I'd be lying if I said we are all exhausted when it is said and done.
It is really easy for me to fall into the trap of seeing it as work, and nothing else, and to forget what how I should be thinking about Easter.

This song was the reminder I needed this morning, as she was singing I could hear and feel the Holy Spirit whisper to me "I love you, just as you are. You don't have to work for my love, my grace covers you."

I can't tell you how I needed to hear those words. If I'm being honest, I've been in a funk. I've been in this ugly cycle of getting busy and then feeling guilty, and then avoiding. It sounds so silly as I type this out, silly like when you read about how Adam and Eve "hid" from God in the garden because they were ashamed. Thankfully I can't hid from God, and he doesn't want me to live a life of guilt and shame. How amazing is it that the Creator of the universe comes to me, reaches out to me. I run and hide from him and he chases after me, who am I?

Can I take just a second to tell you that He feels the very same way about you? Maybe you are feeling guilty as well this morning, maybe you are hiding in the garden because of your shame. Can I tell you that you are Not Guilty, His grace covers you, just as you are.

If you have never heard this song, will you take a minute and listen to it? Listen to the words, listen to the Holy Spirit, let him speak to you.



Like I said, I love Mandisa.

On to Easter minis! I had so much fun, and I'm so proud of the outcome of these sessions! I had a really hard time narrowing it down to which photos to show you. I picked out a few of my favorites from each session, without further ado:

There you have some of the cutest kids/families out there! I've got to get back to preparing for the family invasion!

From my family to yours have a very happy Easter!

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