Confession

I have to make a confession….get ready…it’s big. I have to confess that I have always longed for one gift that God did not give me. I’ve always been jealous of people with this gift and have secretly wished I had it all my life. It’s the gift of music….specifically, being able to sing. Now, it’s not that I don’t have vocal chords and a fully function mouth, etc. But God just not gift me with the ability to make all these parts sound the way I would love for them to sound. I can sing, but it’s not the kind of thing you want to listen to necessarily. (My kids are gracious to me sometimes in the car!) However, I truly love to be able to lift up words of worship to my Father. Today, I had the rare privilege, thanks to some precious friends, to have about three hours alone. Yes, with no kids and no husband. Just me and the dog. And she might have wished she were somewhere else too.

I contemplated all the things I could do in three hours. Nap, watch a movie, exercise, go to the store, hang out at a coffee shop, read, write, grade papers, scrapbook, visit a friend, make a phone call, write a blog, check my e-mail, etc. I opted for worship…not the kind you do in a padded seat on Sunday morning. The kind you do while you are cleaning the house. I don’t get this opportunity very often anymore, but one of my favorite things to do is to blare some praise music while I’m cleaning house. First of all, it makes the job seem less of a nuisance and more of a joy. Second, it passes the time much more quickly. Third, it allows me to enjoy the music I want to listen to as loud as I want to. (I’m sure my neighbors are pleased!) and finally, it allows me to sing. I can sing as loud as I want to and guess what? It sounds wonderful!!! At least to my Father.

I’ll write about this next part in depth later, but my music of choice today was a hymns CD from Selah. I love their voices and I love many of the old hymns that my children have never heard of. It was so refreshing to just think about God’s goodness and blessing on my life, to remember His sacrifice for me and to think about all of His perfect plans for me. I know, not necessarily what you always think of when scrubbing a toilet, but I got to use my “secretly longed for but won’t have this side of heaven” spiritual gift and God completely blessed my afternoon. Anybody want my kids tomorrow?

Life

The simple fact that I have not blogged in three months says one thing....life. Life has been happening all around us, moment by moment, since Thanksgiving. We enjoyed a wonderful time at Disney World with my family that week, and came home to life. Life seemed to creep into every crack and crevice in our lives. Nothing earth shattering has happened, nothing devastating, nothing that we can't move past or work through. Just life. We've run the gammat of a relatives surgery, another's ER trip, revelations about our kids abilities in school, ups and downs in ministry, allergies and illnesses, mission trip planning and going, sports and so much more!

God has been so awesome to get us through these crazy, busy months and has been so faithful to continue to show us so many wonderful things about His character. Through this time of life, I was able to finish reading through the Bible. Yep, the whole thing! I started in the late summer of 2007 and was kind of on and off while getting going on it, and did not finish until February 2009, but the point is, I finished. And it truly changed my life. I have such a clearer picture of God's plan for humanity now and am so much more in love with Him. And I've already started over. Just finished Job...oh yea, someone else who really experienced "life." Glad my God is with me through ALL of it!