Don't You Dare Have Fun!!! ~ Guest Blogging Day

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Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous;
    it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

Praise the Lord with the harp;
    make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.

Sing to him a new song;
    play skillfully, and shout for joy.

For the word of the Lord is right and true;
    he is faithful in all he does.

The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
    the earth is full of his unfailing love.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
    their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
    he puts the deep into storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord;
    let all the people of the world revere him.

For he spoke, and it came to be;
    he commanded, and it stood firm.

Psalm 33: 1-9 NIV

Sometimes, as parents of children with disabilities and health concerns, we feel like we shouldn't have fun.  As much as we WANT to have fun, we feel as though we would look selfish or calloused if the world saw us having fun when the world knows the condition of our children.

When my daughter had cancer,  we stopped going to church and we stopped getting together with a lot of people, and we stopped traveling to visit my family who lived 4 hours away.  We did all of those things because of the risk of germs that could have dramatically impacted our daughter's health while she was on chemotherapy.

Continue Reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

Getting Plugged in to my Power Source ~ Guest Blogging Day

Evie and I praising at Joyful Noise Family Fest a few years Back...

 

Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, 

as I lift up my hands 

toward your Most Holy Place.  

Psalm 28:2 NIV

What is with the people raising their hands?

I remember asking myself this question over and over again when I would attend church with my grandma and grandpa as a young child.  

As an adult, I not only lift my hands when worshiping in church, but I do when we are at Christian music concerts, and I do even when I'm cruising in the car and the Spirit moves me.  

I realized the other night, while worshiping at the Beautiful Offerings Tour with artists like Big Daddy Weave, Jason Gray, Citizen Way and Lauren Dagle, that my hands lifted in praise are EXACTLY the PROOF of "HOW I STAY SO POSITIVE?"

People say I inspire them, and they want to know how I find the energy to do the things I do...Just as a tall tree would work as a conductor of energy from a lightening bolt to the earth, my hand raised in praise of Jesus is my power source.  It IS how I continue to persevere in a world that is so broken.

 Continue reading on Comfort in the Midst of Chaos...

The Healing Power of Music

The song "Thank you for the Music," sung by ABBA in the 70's and 80's has a great line, "Thank you for the Music, the song their singing, thanks for all the joy they're bringing, who could live without it?  I ask in all honesty, Where would I be?  Without a song or a dance what are we?"  That pretty much sums up the power that music has over me.  I can be transformed by one musical note.  For National Health Blog Post Month, our assignment today is Top Three Tuesdays: Name three songs that can get you out of a low point. 

It's brutal trying to scale down my list of favorite songs.  Music makes my world go around, and there is always a song that seems to rise up from the others and become my anthem for different seasons of my life.  During Evie's chemo, for example, it was Held by Natalie Grant.  Songs seem to surface amidst the stormy waters of life and carry us through until we might find some still waters. 

Currently, my songs that inspire me, and transform my day are Go Glow by the Newsboys, American Noise by Skillet, and, and song that always seems appropriate to me is Martyrs and Thieves by Jennifer Knapp. 

I sing at the top of my voice when I listen to any of these songs, and they are usually the ones I'll sing in the shower.  Go Glow reminds me to shine~everyday.  People watch me and know that I'm a Christian~but I'm still also a sinner, here in a body of the earth, not of heaven.  So, I need songs like this to lift me back up when I let this world get to me.  This song also makes me think of Evie and how she glows.  Her worship of God is what God wants all of ours to look like, but she doesn't have that "social filter" the rest of us do which makes us hold back.  When we go to concerts people will say, "Can I photograph your daughter?"  They want to capture what she has in her spirit.  I'm sure the pictures don't do it justice, however.

American Noise is so perfectly timed for today's society.  There really is a lot of noise out there; horrible things that are happening.  The typhoon in the Philippines, murders in rural Wisconsin, families falling apart, drugs taking lives and dragging them straight to hell in the meantime.  Being a mom of a daughter with WAGR, I find the noise is often in my head.  I try to sort out appointments, medications, and priorities.  I try to turn off the voices of fear and doubt in my head.  There is so much NOISE, NOISE, NOISE, NOISE (to quote the Grinch who stole Christmas.)  But, in American Noise we are encouraged to "lift up our voice, take all the noise and make it into music."  Well, now~how lovely is that?  My blogging here is a form of me transforming noise into music. 

Last, but not least by any means is Martyrs and Thieves.  That song goes straight to the core and gives me peace.  It's a song about the redemption we have through Christ.  It's a song about our sinfulness, the inability we have to flee from sin because we have a sin nature, and how Christ can make us Kings and Queens someday if we ask him to be our Savior today.  I mess up all the time.  I know what God wants me to do, but I am stubborn and selfish.  And this song takes my resistance and shows me how much I am loved and that my life is worth more than throwing it away for selfish desires of the flesh.  As long as I'm here, I'll be a sinner, but hopefully that will just show others how great our God is.  "Like a lamp on a hill, Lord I pray in your will, to reveal all of you that I can."