Fabulous Friday | Real Life

Life is good.  But life is hard.  There's just no denying it.  Right now, today, I'm burdened, I'm torn, I'm contemplative, but I'm happy, I'm thankful, and I'm joyful.  There are people around the world that are hurting - Haitians who are still in the midst of wreckage, a girl being forced to marry a man of a different faith because she chose to follow Christ, parents who are hurting because their baby ends up in the Emergency Room for reasons no one can explain.  But God is good.  God doesn't cause these things to happen.  But He uses them to draw people to Himself.  My heart has been hurting this week for those who hurt so I do the only thing I know how to do... I pray.  I pray because we're called to but I also pray because I've seen that it makes a difference.  It's made a difference in my life when I've been hurting and I've seen it make a difference in the lives of others when they've been hurting. 

But even in the midst of Real Life hurting... Real Life can be happy and joyful.  It seems like it's not even possible to say that when there is so much in the world that doesn't make sense.  But, God has offered us hope through His Son and I choose to rest in that and enjoy the blessings that He gives to us! 

One of those blessings is the joy I have in sharing in the lives of people as they marry their best friends, the loves of their lives.  And this weekend, there are two very sweet girls getting married and I have the honor and joy to capture their days with my camera.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, so I won't lie.  I'm nervous.  But I love these girls and can't wait to share their day with them!  I also can't wait to share their bridal portraits with you, but that will have to wait until after they each say "I do". 

So until then, I'll leave you with this picture from earlier in the week.  I was using my camera to shoot a video but once everything was set up, the angle and the lighting and everything else was just so good that I had to switch from video mode so I could capture a picture.  And of course, after I got the image into LightRoom, I couldn't decide if I liked it better in color or black and white... so I'll post both and let you choose. 

Which do you like better??