The Joy Of Freedom

Do you remember the day you first learned to swing?

To really swing high and free with your hair flowing in the air.

My five year old just crossed this milestone.

Today was the first day I captured it.

This freedom is my joy #54.

I love that face.  The sheer excitement.  The feeling of freedom.  That childhood rush without a care in the world.  I remember it like yesterday.  

As an adult I feel like in many ways I'm experiencing freedom of a new kind.  A freedom I should have grasped long ago.


But I didn't quite get it.


The freedom that comes from knowing who you are in Christ.


And nothing else matters.


I don't know how to explain it.


But lately I feel more free in this way.  I feel the way she looks in those pictures.

I feel the way I draw the girls in my prints.


It's that freedom of knowing He's rejoicing over you and that you are perfect in His eyes.  And that no matter what hits you in this life He's got it under control.  All of it is perfecting your faith and making you more like Him until one day you get to be in perfect peace with Him.


What a gift it is and how joyful that makes me.


So freedom in Christ is my joy #55.


Joy #56 getting to help in the kindergarten class today.

A little scheduling technicality meant my preschooler had no school which meant my preschooler had to come with me.  But all was well.  She fit right in.

They've adopted her as a classmate.  

She joined her sister and friends in the dramatic play area where they were princesses and kitties crawling around the room after me.

Now that's freedom of a different sort and just so adorable.


You don't realize that in the beginning of the year there's no way Ava would have even thought of crawling around acting goofy like a kitty.  The fact that she's so free to be herself today brings me joy.

And Joy #57 working computers, working fonts, working photoshop means prints lined up and ready to be packed, wrapped and shipped.

I'm still in denial about the fact that I MUST print my address labels to get our cards out.  But deep breath.. it will get done.  It will get done.  

Oh and that reminds me of Joy #58 I got a commissioned order to do a scripture print of a boy with a special scripture to go with his name.  I had plans to do a couple of boy drawings.  My son is begging me to make him a bookmark.  This new order has inspired me to do them sooner than I probably would have.  The ideas are mulling around and quite frankly I feel like doing that so much more than addressing envelopes.  But the days are ticking away so the envelopes will have to come first.

I'm linking to the 100 Reasons for Joy challenge if you'd like to read the other posts this week!  Happy Monday.