How Photography Can Make You a Better Mom

I like to think about how Mary, the mother of Jesus, "Treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." (Luke 2:19) I don't know what she did to "treasure up" (Journal? Draw? Paint? Simply mentally remember?) all those amazing events that were happening in the first years of the life of her wonderful Child, but sometimes when I see how quickly my boys are determined to grow and change I feel that need to be able to keep this moment, an ache to be able to keep some of these things myself to treasure up in my heart. Thanks to technology the one way I know I can do it is with my camera. And you can too.

Photography is one of my favorite mom tools. It keeps me focused, no pun intended, on my kids and who they are. I can't tell you how many times I have run across a random shot I took and how it brought me right back to that day, and I got to live a moment in yesterday's shoes because I had a photo of it.

So here's what I want you to do today: Get your camera out. I don't care if you have the top of the line professional model or just a crappy pixelized phone camera, or maybe something nifty right in between. Whatever you have, get it out and use it to embrace the beautiful mess motherhood is.

Do it. Because Today is now, tomorrow it will be gone. Live today, cherish today, capture today, remember today. Take a moment and pull out the camera to snap a picture of what your kids are doing, of the mess they left, of the toys they love, of the laundry they make, of the way they like their favorite snack, of their dirty feet, of their smudged noses, what makes them laugh, and even what makes them cry, of the view outside the hand-print-smudged window. Anything, everything! Let them live, and notice them!

If you're not really a crazy camera lady, you don't have to take a hundred pictures, you don't even have to take five. Just take one. Right now. One image that sums up your life in this moment. And do it every day. One shot, three shots, dozens of shots... whatever catches your eye should be caught on camera.  Trust me, when you start thinking in terms of creating images, suddenly those normal mundane moments you don't normally stop to savor become alive! You can't keep your kids little, but you can freeze their little moments in time.