Resurrection Day dawned bright and sunny, warm and springy like only April mornings can be after a long and cold winter. A perfect day for taking family pictures outside. And that’s exactly what we did when we got back from church!

So . . . have you ever set the quality setting on your camera to super low-quality JPG? You know, the file size and compression that basically makes a picture worthless except for temporary viewing on the computer? For, like, instead of scanning in a piece of paper for no-quality-needed reference? I don’t want to fill up my hard drives with 25MB RAW files of reference pictures, do I? Of course not! So I temporarily switch the quality to small JPG. Not too smart if you forget to turn it back.

A few days before Resurrection Day, I was working on a re-design project and had some sample documents to scan in. That was the day I switched the quality setting to a low quality JPG. Here’s an example of one of those reference pictures:

Nothing important here except for text. I could care less for quality. I just need to know what the content should be for the new cover design.

Then came Sunday. About half way through the shoot, I went to replace my memory card that had just filled up. And that’s when it dawned on me! “Had I forgotten to switch back over to RAW after the design project?” Quality is one of those 10 camera settings I talk about in my eBook, 10 Camera Settings Every Photographer Should Know . . . Instinctively. I look over those 10 camera settings all the time! It’s habit. I really don’t have to think too much about them; just make sure the settings are correct for the environment that I’m heading into. But I don’t often pay attention to the quality setting because . . . I never change it. It’s always RAW . . . usually.

The point of the story? Beware of making assumptions.

It’s the same way in every area of life. Communication, driving down the road, reading a book, watching a movie, making plans, making decisions. God is the only on who knows all the true facts. Go to Him for direction. Search His Word for truth. Grow closer ever to the Shepherd to hear His voice. Look at Him. The meek will He guide in judgment. There are many things that we as Christians assume simply because it’s accepted in our culture or it’s the way we grew up. Looking to Jesus is the only way we’ll know what is pleasing to Him!

Thankfully, the end of the story isn’t as bad as I have made you to assume. I had indeed been shooting RAW. Right after the design project, I had indeed switched it back to RAW, but I guess it was so much of a habit to check the quality setting . . . that I didn’t initially remember doing it. Praise the Lord for His mercy! What a great reminder on such a day as Resurrection Sunday!