The Genesis of Mark 4:30 Photo A Day
Having participated in several photo-a-day challenges, I began noticing the time I spent thinking about the “word” of the day so as to be mindful to take the daily photo illustrating it. I enjoyed the challenge to create and the new-found attention I was giving to my surroundings, but I wasn’t thrilled with the space these random words were taking up in my thoughts. If I was going to meditate on something on a daily basis I wanted it to be something that mattered. There’s nothing that matters to me as much as God’s word….so, I had this idea. Why not go there to find inspiration for a daily photo? Containing over 750,000 words, the Bible can provide a lifetime’s worth of photo prompts…with the added bonus of “prompt”ing daily meditation on God’s Word! Thus, the creation of the Mark 4:30 Photo A Day challenge, using a little twist on words Jesus spoke in the fourth chapter of Mark, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God?”. The chapter also records Jesus emphasizing the importance of planting the seed of God’s Word in our hearts so it seems an appropriate reference. Come be part of the fun and inspiration of a slightly different photo-a-day challenge…one that puts the focus on God’s Word.
What You Need To Know
Who can play? Everyone!
How to play? Playing along with photo a day is really easy:
➪ Check out the monthly Photo A Day list.
➪ Each day look at the daily “Word” and take a photo according to the prompt. You can share a photo inspired by the entire verse or according to the word(s) within the “Word”.
For example, let’s say the daily prompt is Psalms 23:2 “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters…”, a verse containing the word ‘green’. If you have inspiration from the entire verse perhaps you might actually lie down in some green grass and shoot a photo from there. It can be challenging to capture an image based on the entire verse so you can use the highlighted word(s) and share a photo of anything you find that’s the color green. Stuck? You can find suggestions for interpreting the prompts listed under each month’s inspiration list.
➪ Now that you have your photo, it’s time to share it. There’s lots of choices, some of which I detail below.
➪ It’s great fun to check out other people’s photos. You can browse through them on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook by searching for the #mark430photoaday hashtag.
Where to play? There are several places to share your photos:
➪ Instagram Upload your photo, add a caption and the hashtag #mark430photoaday, and share.
➪ Facebook Share on your personal page among your own friends. Add the hashtag #mark430photoaday when you share your photos and you’ll see if any of your friends are participating….and we can search and see your photos too!
➪ Blog If you have a blog, you can share your photos there in any way you’d like.
➪ Tumblr Add your daily photos to your Tumblr feed.
➪ Flickr You can get their app and share your photos there or upload on their web version.
➪ Twitter You can share on Twitter by uploading the photo and sharing the hashtag #mark430photoaday.
How can I remember the “Word” of the day? There are a few ways you can grab the list or remember the “Word” prompts:
➪ You can come back here daily to check out the list.
➪ Right-click on the list below and save it to your desktop. Or you can visit this site on your mobile phone, get the list in view and take a screenshot. You can then save it as your wallpaper or once your screenshot is saved to your photo roll go there for daily reference.
What do the prompts mean? There are no rules to follow with this photo challenge. Feel free to let your creative juices flow as you are uniquely inspired. Can you capture a photo that illustrates the essence of the entire verse? We’d love to see it! Otherwise, the chosen words within the Word can be your cue. As I said, if you need a little help with ways to interpret the prompts you’ll find some suggestions following each month’s inspiration list.
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This Month’s Inspiration List
Suggestions for the prompts
Know others who might want to join the fun? Share the “Word” with this button On Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or if you have a blog… Let others know you’re participating and invite them to join in. You can share the “Word” by copying the code in the box below and pasting it into your website or blog. For WordPress websites, you can paste it into a text widget or any page or post in the HTML editor .
