Top 10 Hymns

My friend, Hannah (who has an awesome blog, btw - you should check it out), just made her list of top ten hymns, so I took the time to make mine.  A lot of these have sentimental value attached, so just bear with me while I list them out for you:

10. Amazing Grace -  If Christianity had an anthem, I'm sure this would be it.  But, I mean, if you really think about the words themselves, they are SO AMAZING.  Because of His amazing grace, a wretch like me was saved - how sweet is the sound of that grace!

9. Power of the Cross - I love this song, because the melody accentuates the words so amazingly.  And the emotions that I can pour into this song - whoo.  That's all I have to say about that.  Favorite stanza (even though they're all awesome):

"Oh, to see my name

Written in the wounds,

For through Your suffering I am free.

Death is crushed to death;

Life is mine to live,

Won through Your selfless love." 

8. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing - This is one of the most poetic hymns I've ever heard.  I just love it.

7. Old Rugged Cross - I used to sing this hymn in the truck with my dad on Sundays when he would take me to church.  I don't have a lot of fond memories of my relationship with him, but this is one of the best :)

6. O the Deep, Deep Love - This is a "new" hymn, but it's so beautiful.  Just in case you've never heard it, please take a moment and listen.

5. Be Thou My Vision - For those of you who don't know me (or much about me), know this - I LOVE acapella music, and I love singing in harmony.  This hymn is definitely one of my favorite ones to sing acapella.

4. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross - The words to this song.  Man.  They make me bawl like a baby.  Or choke up immensely.  All depends on the room and the day.  I actually like the alternative melody to this song.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a listen:

3. Just As I Am - This hymn has been the "altar call" go-to hymn at manyyyyy church services I've been to.  I have it memorized.  And it is challenging, and so convicting too.

2. How Great Thou Art - This song can either be sung acapella as a solo, or as a HUGE choral number with many parts.  I've heard it both ways, and I believe the words are just as powerful either way!

1. I Need Thee Every Hour - Guys.  This song.  Is my favorite hymn of all time (obviously, because I listed it at number one.)  This hymn has the ability to break my heart down ANY TIME I hear it, no matter WHAT is happening in my life when I listen to it.  Favorite version right here:

What about you?  What are your favorite hymns?  Can someone please comment something so at least I know people actually read my blog and this isn't just a glorified online journal?  lol

An Exercise in Letting Go

I was sitting at my desk at work on Wednesday afternoon, and I was thinking, "How do people with kids live life?  Like, I'm married and have no kids, but I still feel overwhelmed with all of the demands I face JUST FROM work, church, bills, house, and marriage - how do people survive once kids are thrown in the mix?"

It seriously baffled me.

Since Tyler and I have been married, we left Faith Baptist (the church I pretty much grew up in) and started attending Life Church.  Right away, we got involved in their music ministry - Tyler, playing the bass guitar, and me, singing in the choir and on the mic.

We've been attending & serving regularly for a year and a half (I was even promoted to choir director), but during that time, I've only led two songs on the mic, and both of them were on Wednesday nights.  This has been a struggle for me, because ever since we started attending Life Church, I've wanted to lead songs on Sunday Mornings.  The longer we've been going to that church, and the more I've felt like I've had to fight to prove myself vocally, etc., the more stressed I became.

Long story short, about a month and a half ago, a part of me woke up.  "What is the big deal with leading songs at Life Church?" a voice in my head asked me.  (Not like the Schizophrenic kind of voice, but you know what I mean.)

Let me just say - Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.  It's true.  And I decided to find avenues to use my voice that aren't a constant fight or struggle and that don't have me second-guessing my ability/gift at every turn.  So I joined Lakeland Choral Society.  And I committed to singing in the Christmas cantata at Faith Baptist this December.  And my mom and I are singing in a choral performance at the end of September.

So just when one door was closed to singing Christian contemporary music in the way I wanted, another door has swung WIDE OPEN to get back into singing classical choral music - which is something I've sorely missed!  And I know I'll be so busy with these things, I won't even have a CHANCE to miss leading music at Life Church.  And why was I so bent on doing that anyway?  For external validation of my voice?  Man, what foolishness.

Anyway, God is good.  He provides for our needs and blesses us with things that we didn't even know we wanted until it's in our lives!

So back to my initial statement - my life is busy.  My life is full.  With:

1. All of the aforementioned musical endeavors (Lkld Choral Society, FBC Christmas Cantata, and the September Choral event)
2. Writing a sequel to the novel I wrote last November (I'm almost halfway done!)
3. Being a wife & caretaker of my amazing husband (this involves cleaning, laundry, cooking, budgeting, grocery shopping - all things I've never really had to do before being married)
4. My job - of course.  Full time.  It's a lot.
5. Being the choir director at Life Church

This list is not all-inclusive, but it highlights the main things.  How would kids fit in there anywhere?  I have no idea.  I'm not saying I never want kids.  I'm just saying, they would be a huge adjustment.  But I'm ready and willing to do what God's will is - if that's to have a child in the next year, I will do it with joy.  If it's to wait a few more years, I'll do that with joy as well.  And if it's not to have any children biologically - He is Sovereign God, and I will abide by His Will.

What about you?  What is God doing in your life?  What has He blessed you with that you didn't even know you wanted until you had it?

When Songs Bring Tears

Guys,

I don't know if you know this, but I was a big choral nerd in high school.  I kinda still am, I just don't really have an outlet for it any more.  Ever since high school, I've been a huge fan of acapella music, especially when Eric Whitacre is the composer.

Favorite Eric Whitacre song here:

This song is taken from 2 Samuel 18 when David learns of his son Absalom's death.

32 And the king said unto him, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" And he answered, "The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is."
33 And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

This song makes me WEEP.  It is so good.  And, of course, I selected the version with sheet music showing because I told you - I'M A NERD LIKE THAT!

Anyway, so Eric Whitacre - I'm a huge fan of his.  And I've never really been able to find another choral composer that can touch his awesomeness.  Until today.

Dan Forrest, y'all.  Just listen to this song.  #Goosebumps

This song is from Ruth 1, when Naomi tells Ruth & Orpah to return to their families after the deaths of Naomi's sons & the women's husbands.  Ruth says:

16 But Ruth said:
“Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”

I love it so much, I've always loved this story, but this song just brings the emotion in these verses TO LIFE.  I just bought it on Amazon - but this version in the video is waaaaay better than the version on Amazon.

I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do.  What music moves you?  Please share!

What's New, Pussycat, Woah-oo-woah-oo-woah!

If you don't understand the title of my blog post, I feel sorry for you.

If you watched that, then you're welcome.  If you didn't, poo on you.

Anyway, back to me and what's new in my life.  I know, I know, I haven't written a blog post in ages, and I definitely haven't been keeping up with my #30DayChallenges, but I have to say, I did warn you at the beginning, and I'm much better at making plans than keeping them.  Sad, but true.

The first thing I want to say about my life is that I am back on Low Carb, Low Calorie, and I'm determined to lose at least 15 pounds by the end of this year!  I'm calling it my Pre-New Year's Resolution.  I've already lost 5 lbs just by eating less and eating healthier and drinking more water and using this great little APP called My Fitness Pal.  My immediate goal is to lose enough weight to fit back into my wedding dress (and most of my clothes!) - but my long-term goal is to be skinnier and more fit than I have ever been in my adult life, which shouldn't be too hard considering I've never really had a desire to be super fit before.

Okay, on to the next thing.  I need to get serious for a minute.  I don't usually work on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays as many of you know.  So most of the time, I'm at home by myself doing nothing in order to save money.  To be honest, it's been kind of depressing.  I don't make plans to hang out with friends, and more often than not, that just means I stay at home watching Netflix and pretending the people in the shows I'm watching are my friends (kidding, except kinda not).  And when it started, I blamed Tyler.  I blamed him for our financial shortage, I blamed him for not being wild and exciting and interesting and into all the things I'm into - in short, I blamed Tyler for not keeping me content.

And recently, I realized - IT'S NOT ANYONE'S JOB TO KEEP ME CONTENT; CONTENTMENT CAN ONLY COME FROM GOD.  Sorry I just had to All-Caps you guys in the face, but it's true.  Contentment can only come from God.  And guess what?  My prayer life during that time was virtually non-existent and the only time I read the Bible was on Sundays during the preacher's message at church.  It's a wonder I was so depressed and discontent. (sarcasm)

But then, my friend Hannah invited me to a new Bible study the women of Faith Baptist Church were beginning.  The Bible study is centered on 12 women in the Bible, and so far, I am learning SO MUCH from it - it's probably one of the best Bible studies I've ever been a part of.

Then I decided I wanted to try and read the Bible through in a year, because I've tried that a few times, and it never worked out.  However, I've never tried to read the Bible through chronologically.  So I hopped on Amazon.com and did some shopping and found the Reading God's Story: A Chronological Daily Bible.  I ordered it then and there; it arrived on Wednesday, and I'm already a few days in and loving it!

I don't want God's word or my relationship with Him to just be a checklist or a bunch of names and dates on paper, I want my faith to be a living, breathing, full-of-wonder thing.  I want to be the woman of God He created me to be.

So yeah, that's what's new in my life (the most important things anyway).  Also (sidenote), we recently got our Old Towne engagement pictures from Tyler's friend, Sara, so I'll be posting those soon.  Keep your eyes peeled!

Princess Cut - THIS YOU GOTTA SEE!

Let's start this post out with an upcoming event that I CANNOT wait to go to - my cousins, Paul & Sheilah Munger, wrote, produced & directed a film called "Princess Cut."  They screened the movie for my family and I at our most recent family reunion in Tennessee, and I have to say, I thought the movie was INCREDIBLY well-done and had a great Christian message in it.  Watch the trailer here or simply watch the trailer below.

Anyway, so there's going to be a local showing of the movie on Tuesday, October 20th at Eagle Ridge mall at 6:30 PM.  Find out more about the event on Facebook.  There's 16 days left to pre-order tickets, and we need 65 more tickets pre-ordered in order for the movie to be shown.  Pre-order tickets here.

Please buy tickets and support this endeavor to bring more positive, Christian messages into our media!  I hope to see you there!

One Word Makes All the Difference

I was thinking about it today, and there is a word that, when placed in front of other words, completely changes their meanings/connotations.  That word is: Christian.

I know the word Christian was originally used in reference to Christ-followers as an offense back during Biblical times, but now it's used to describe everyone who has professed salvation - that is, everyone who has called on the name of Jesus Christ to save him/her from sin.

And as Christians, we are called to be set apart from worldly things (Romans 12:1-2).  If we as Christians are doing our job right, then our "words" below should look a whole lot different from the world's.

So if you could, just take a few minutes to think about what each word means to you and how the meaning changes once you put "Christian" in front of it:

1. Song ...... Christian Song
2. Book ...... Christian Book
3. Adult ....... Christian Adult
4. Wedding ... Christian Wedding
5. Marriage ... Christian Marriage
6. Love .......... Christian Love
7. Hope ......... Christian Hope
8. Vow ........... Christian Vow
9. Purity ......... Christian Purity
10. Friend ...... Christian Friend
11. Morality ...... Christian Morality
12. Forgiveness ... Christian Forgiveness
13. Truth ........... Christian Truth

Can you think of any more? Which ones stood out to you the most? Also, does the word "Christian" hold a good or bad connotation for you? Why?

#30DayChallenge

Guys, not to brag, but I'm a genius.

That is to say, I'm really good at coming up with these awesome plans for my life that I rarely ever follow up on.  Character flaw?  Maybe.  Okay, yeah, pretty much, but this plan I REALLY want to follow through on.

Let me start back at the beginning.  So I was watching this show on Netflix called "30 Days," and basically every episode, a person from one background/culture/belief system would spend 30 Days immersed in an opposing lifestyle.  The four episodes I watched were: a conservative Christian living with a Muslim family in a majority Muslim town, a conservative Christian veteran living with a homosexual in the Castro district in California, a health-nut mom who binge-drank four times a week to get through to her 19-year-old college-partying daughter, and an atheist living with a non-denominational Christian family.

These episodes really had me thinking.  A lot.  Mostly about how Christianity and today's culture don't mix very well, but also about how Christians don't know how to LOVE their neighbors in truth AND mercy (they're either "loving" them by unmercifully shoving the truth of scripture down their throats or "loving" them by watering down the truth or casting it aside altogether in favor of "tolerance").  So I was like, "Hey, I should create a Bible study centered around all of this and introduce it as a small group at the church I'm currently attending..."  But the more I meditated on that, I realized it would be too much of a commitment for me at this point in my life.

BUT here comes the exciting part.  I was praying all afternoon and evening for God to show me how He wanted the concept of 30 Days to impact and effect change in my life, and He woke me up at 2:00 AM this morning with the answer!

Thus, #30DayChallenge was created.  Physically, my body is a mess.  I've gained a ton of weight and developed some pretty unhealthy habits lately, and I keep getting sick and missing work as a result (not cool at all).  So something needs to be done about that.  Spiritually, I'm incredibly undisciplined.  If I could change any area of my personal spiritual walk and my relationship with my husband, it would be that we would pray together more.  Also, I've felt for a long time now that God has gifted me with the ability to write and a passion for doing so.

ALL of that to say, each month for the next 8 months, I'm taking on a #30DayChallenge to sharpen one of these areas of my life.  I'm pretty excited about all of them.  Take a look:

• May - #ExerciseChallenge (30 min./5 times a week)
• June - #WeightLossChallenge (Exercise + Healthy Eating)
• July - #DrawingChallenge (1 drawing per day - I'm pretty excited about this one)
• August - #GuitarChallenge (Learns 3 chords & 1 song per week - hopefully Tyler will help me on this one)
• September - #LoveMyHubs (Going above and beyond to show Tyler how much I love & appreciate him)
• October - #DevotionalBlog (Writing a total of 20 devotional blog posts - 5 per week)
• November - #NaNoWriMo (Yep, I'm finally going to participate - and hopefully finish writing "Camp Tandy"!)
• December - #PrayerChallenge (30 min./5 times a week)

I'm going to try and write one blog post a week to chronicle my progress, but I can't make any promises.  lol  I'm really excited to see what God shows me through this process, and hopefully I can cultivate some healthy habits that will last me for the rest of my life!

Your prayers and encouragement would be greatly appreciated during these next 8 months, and if God lays a #30DayChallenge on your heart, I encourage you to consider doing it.

So here we go!

Quiet Night, Raucous Thoughts

(Originally written as a Note on Facebook on Saturday, October 6, 2012, at 10:39 pm)

My mind is everywhere tonight. I am sitting in a virtual stranger's house, babysitting two extremely beautiful children who are asleep, and I didn't bring a book to read so I'm at odds as to what to do. So, of course, I initially Facebook stalk people. Which led me to my friend Kelly Ann's most recent blog post, which was beautiful to read. And then I thought, "When was the last time I posted a blog?" So I figured I'd write a note that showed my heart and what's been going on inside it lately - hopefully this does just that, and God uses it to, in some way, bring glory to Himself. Because that's what my life should be all about. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

*deep breath*

Okay, so, as many of you who know me already know (haha, are you lost yet?), many of my friends as of late have been getting married or engaged. Which makes sense, because it's about that time in my life where friends will do that; I'm just at that age. But God never cites a specific age for finding THE ONE; it's in His timing, which is vastly different from mine. So anyway, friends getting engaged and married - check. And how do you think this made me feel?....sorry, I mean, how do you think I initially reacted to this? Like a spoiled brat. "God, why can't I get married like everyone else? Why am I still single? Why haven't I found THE ONE yet? WHYYYYYY?!" ...you get the picture. Now that I think back on it, it's kind of embarrassing...

So this was my attitude. And I was getting more and more frustrated with the "LACK" of attention I was receiving from the opposite sex; I was finding everything to blame it on - such as guys being "shallow," other girls being more "aggressive" and "flirty" than I was... dumb stuff. My heart was growing ugly and bitter. So foul.

I went to do my intensive up at Liberty this summer, and God COMPLETELY wrecked my heart and my emotions with the realization that I was being INCREDIBLY SINFUL, PETTY, AND BRATTY. I was SO focused on my discontentment that I was fully missing everything that God was trying to do in my life. Praise God, just like He brought me out of my most recent ungodly relationship, He brought me out of my most recent ungodly nonrelationship. (That may not make sense to you, but it makes sense to me.)

When I came back from my intensive, my attitude had totally changed. It was definitely a work of God and not of myself, because it was miraculous. I felt so free and light and amazing. But my flesh and the Enemy had other plans. A few weeks ago, I started to grow discontent once more. I began to desire to settle for right now and satisfy my fleshly longing to be in a relationship rather than continue to serve God and patiently wait.

Sometimes I really despise the word PATIENCE. It is not a fruit of the Spirit that comes naturally to me. Which, when you think about it, is a weird statement to make, because none of the fruits of the Spirit are natural, that's why they come from the Spirit and not ourselves. But I think out of all the things that the Spirit supplies me with, I quench patience the most.

So anyway, I began to get impatient. And grow discontent. And, just like He always does, God used His Word and the Spirit and fellow believers in my life to hold up the mirror and show me my UGLY. Praise God. Even though it's hard...especially in the quiet, lonely times (like right now)...God is good. And He has given me so many defenses against my deceitful heart, my flesh, and the Enemy.

Once again, God focused my gaze on what matters most in life, which is NOT ME BEING HAPPY. That should not be my life goal. God forbid I should EVER forsake all else to pursue my own wants in lieu of what God wants. What matters most in life is that I GLORIFY GOD WITH ALL THAT IS IN ME. That I seek to be conformed to His image. Because His image is the original. Mine is just the copy. And I am but dust. God, fill me with more of You, because I long to respond to You...You won't relent (Praise God!)...great is Thy faithfulness. So many songs are coming to mind right now. I think I will go praise you through music. :)

Spring Cleaning

Today was an amazing day and also a heart-breaking day.

Pastor Osborne delivered two incredible sermons today, but the message he brought tonight (technically, last night) was profound. He used spring cleaning as a metaphor. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul alluded to the "spring cleaning" Israel had to do by finding all their leaven and removing it from their homes. For those who don't know what leaven is (and I really didn't until tonight), leaven is leftover dough that ferments and can spoil the rest of the dough if used.

So anyway, Pastor Osborne compared that to us and how we need to confess our sins and renew our hearts DAILY. He said that "it is harder to get your life clean than to keep it clean." That is so true. I have experienced it over and over again in my life.

When I don't stay in the word and confess specific sins DAILY to God, I become a hoarder of sin and laziness in my heart. Eventually, there's not even room to walk through the pathways of my heart, because they're so cluttered with meaningless distractions and "small" sins that I've become desensitized to because I haven't confessed them. When I finally become convicted to actually "catch up" and "get back to where I used to be," it's a HUGE struggle to overcome.

D        A        I          L        Y.

That's a word I struggle with, because I'm so undisciplined and lazy. I create plans all the time to get in the Word and spend time with God, but it falls apart after a few days. Every time. And I'm left feeling hopeless and defeated. Every time.

Let me take a break from talking about that really quick and go somewhere else. For the past month and a half, I've been on a "healthy eating plan," "lifestyle change," or "healthy food regimen"...whatever you want to call it. I've been telling myself for the longest time that I need to lose weight, but I finally had to buckle down, decide what foods I could and could not eat, and commit to it. It takes a DAILY (there's that word again!) decision to deny myself bread, pastas, and other high-carb or high-sugar foods and instead choose to eat the foods that are good to my body and not just good to my taste buds. Sometimes I want to cheat. There are days where I eat a cookie...or a piece of bread...or...fill in the blank. But then I envision the end goal once again. I am determined to be at a certain place by December, so I will stick to what I'm doing in order to attain that goal.

Okay, so let's go back to the whole DAILY discipline devotions thing. Same concept, right? I just need to "begin with the end in mind" as it were. Where do I want to be? And how do I get there? Answer: I want to be at His feet, following in His steps, IN HIS WILL. I get there by DAILY deciding to spend time in His Word and talking to Him...confessing my sins.


I never want to get to a place where I can't recognize sin in my life. I never want to be living in sin and moral filth and consider myself to be in a "close and loving relationship with God." I found out something about a missionary in my church tonight that broke my heart. He is being blinded to sin by Satan and his own selfish heart, and he still considers himself to be serving God.

Please Lord...

                                                                                                                                ...change his heart.

And help me find and remove the leaven from mine.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Happy December!!!

Well, my friend Lauren just did a themed blog in November, so I want to do one for December (even though it's already the 4th day - blargh!) So my theme this month is going to be things that remind me of the reason for the season (a celebration of the birth of my Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ)!

So, for the 1st thing, I would like to say that the Christmas hymn, "What Child is This?" is a reminder of Jesus Christ. Obviously! ;) But Dakota, Amy, Cody, and I are performing a special for the church next Sunday night, and we chose to do a mash-up of that hymn and "Silent Night." Just singing the arrangement makes chills go up and down my spine as I envision the Christ-child coming down from Heaven to be laid in a lowly manger for my sake. =D

As for the 2nd thing, MY MOTHER reminds me of Jesus Christ. We spent all day yesterday puttering around the house, and we have been trying to organize a lot of our clutter around the house lately. We were going through one pile of documents to see what to keep and what to throw away. There were a lot of devotional-type papers that my mom has completed over the years. Even though she's not an in-your-face, talk-about-it-nonstop kind of Christian, I definitely see Christ reflected in her life and her decisions.

And now for the 3rd thing. My CHOIR DIRECTOR, Jerry Smith, reminds me of Jesus Christ. This morning in church, he walked to the pulpit to lead the first hymn of the service. And before we sang it, he said, "Did you realize today is the first Sunday in December?" The whole congregation said, "Yes" after some hesitation and scattered laughter. "Do you know what that means?" he asked. No one really answered, because we had no idea where this was going. "That means we get to start singing CHRISTMAS hymns! So turn in your hymnals to..." and we began to sing a hymn about Christmas. LOVED IT!

So that brings me to the 4th thing. RELIENT K reminds me of Jesus Christ. HAHAHA! Bet you weren't expecting that one, were you? They have one of THE BEST Christmas cd's I have ever heard. And it has a penguin on the front. Which is super-winter legit. So you should listen to the cd. There's one song in particular that I love. It's called "I Celebrate the Day" and the lyrics say, "The first time that you opened your eyes, did you realize that you would be my Savior? And the first breath that left your lips, did you know that it would change this world forever?"

GOLD.

So anyway, thus begins my themed December. Time to go to choir practice! More soon!