Wrong Words Wednesday

I have always been a better “writer” than a talker. I suppose that it is the drafting and revision process that I like about writing or that saves me from myself and an abundance of emotions that take over when forced to talk.

My favorite authors and singers (songwriters, really?) have a way with words. They have a way of putting something – a feeling, describing a situation – that I can identify with, usually in a way that opens my eyes to some part of the feeling or situation that I had not considered before.

So tonight when Uncle Kracker’s Follow Me came on the radio the first verse spoke to me…

You don't know how you met me 
You don't know why, you cant turn around and say good-bye 
All you know is when im with you I make you free 
And swim through your veins like a fish in the sea 

Don’t you think God might say something like that? At least that is how I feel about God…especially being raised in faith. I can pinpoint times in my life that pushed my faith to the brink or that God caught me as a was falling, or times that strengthened my faith or affirmed my faith, but not a precise moment when I first knew or began knowing God.

And God does make me free…Granted the rest of the song is a little creepy and not like God at all, but those lines say something to me, for me…and I suppose about me. Maybe that I have a lot to learn about God…and about me…

Wrong Words Wednesday....

My husband has been suggesting songs all week, but I can’t just pick a song for Wednesday. Picking a song for this is personal. More often a song picks me. I want to share with you songs that moved me – made me think of and praise God unexpectedly or in an unexpected way, or made some piece of my faith clear or more in focus.

Chalk Drawing By Grace, 4 1/2

I had a song in mind and was searching out the precise lyrics. (I am notorious for having the words wrong!) Well, my search opened a can of worms! The song I love and that speaks to me so clearly of God’s love and ways is apparently all but heresy and certainly blasphemy.  

The writers’ words still have not totally sunk in.  How could a song that I grew up singing at Church not be worshipful and praiseful?

 The point that most of the writers seemed to make was that song I had in mind, as well as several others, was not in-line with the purpose of a church service. Each song gave God’s voice to the singer, as in the singer was singing words that were attributed to God.  They explained that in worship we should be in praising God, not speaking for Him, and that we are at service to hear God through his word and hopefully, also through the message of the preacher.

I am no theologian, but that makes sense to me, and yet I still find the songs beautiful and moving and prayerful – even praiseful.  Some of my favorite songs are songs that are God’s words or remind me of God’s word.

I love the opening of Wayard Son by Kansas.

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

I hear God speaking to me in those words, even more so when I sing along. Granted, even with some serious re-writing that is not a song I ever expect to hear at church, but for me those words are God’s words and it is powerful to hear them.

Now, I am off to re-think every church song that I like…

Happy Wednesday!

I have a confession…

There is something that I am afraid of and I feel like it is really keeping this blog, my writing from being all that it could be…and y’all are going to say what you want, but I have to tell you…

I am afraid of…

Quoting scripture…

Petrified…

Not afraid that people will stone me, or disapprove, but that

I will have it all wrong!

That I will have managed to find the verse in the wrong bible,

And I will give the wrong book,

The wrong chapter,

The wrong verse.

It won’t mean what I think it means.

On a moment by moment basis, I am certain the same thing applies to the Glad Text cards I make. I’m just certain I have it all wrong...

I enjoy so much when others share a bit of wisdom, words of comfort, of joy and praise, even of rebuke. 

God’s word is such a treasure. I love when folks post scripture on Facebook. The only place I don’t enjoy it is on people’s license plates – how I am I supposed to drive and look that up!!!

It is one thing to quote someone, even someone famous and get it wrong, and it is another to quote God and get it wrong!

But, anyway…So now you know…and I still don’t feel any better about it.

Words on Wednesday….

 

There are several Tim McGraw songs that are very dear to my heart.  One such song is Watch the Wind Blow By, which was our first dance at our wedding reception. 

But, I am not a Tim McGraw fan…I am just not.  I will listen when one of his songs is on the radio, most

of the time.

Earlier this week, I was on the way to pick up my daughter from school when It’s Your Love  came on the radio. I was listening as I sat at a stop light and at first I wasn’t feeling it, but then the lyric:

It does something to me,

It sends a shock right through me,

It’s your love.

That is just what I feel in those moments when things haven’t been so good or I haven’t been my best and I am quietly reminded of God’s love for me. It is just like a shock, a jolt…a reset button and a reminder of who is in control and how I am called to live.

And then next few lines get even better:

Better than I was, more than I am
And all of this happened by taking your hand
And who I am now is who I wanted to be
And now that we're together
I'm stronger than ever, I'm happy and free

Isn’t that amazing…! Doesn’t that sound like a beautiful relationship? One you would want to have? To be so in love with someone that makes you better, more than you can be on your own? So in love that you feel free? That is powerful love, God’s love for us.

Each day I try to take God’s hand – more firmly each day, and when I do it feels so good. It is the days when I think I don’t need to or I forget and let go that aren’t so good. 

What a blessing that each day God is there all day with His hand out for mine…

Wrong Words Wednesday

Before Grace even opened her eyes this morning, as she stretched her sleepy arms above her head, she said, “What a wonderful day it is!”

I love her.

And when I told her daddy what she had said, he said, “Indeed, this is the day our Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad.”

I love him.

My family is such a blessing.

As the morning continued, I opened the windows to let in the soft, cool morning air and sunshine as it peeked over the horizon. My husband and I talked about what I would write about today. We talked about a few songs that are meaningful to each of us…but as the day has gone on this one is the one that I find myself singing.

I got rice cooking in the microwave
Got a three day beard I don't plan to shave
And it's a goofy thing but I just gotta say
Hey I'm doing alright

Yeah I think I'll make me some homemade soup
Feelin pretty good and that's the truth
It's neither drink nor drug induced
No I'm just doin alright

And it's a great day to be alive
I know the sun's still shinin when I close my eyes
There's some hard times in the neighborhood
But why can't every day be just this good?

I don’t know if praising God is  what Travis Tritt or the song writer had in mind, but for me the things that make me sing this song and  the times it fills my thoughts are times I am thankful, times that I am aware of the awesome blessings God has given us.

Something about feeling the sunshine even when my eyes are closed…I can’t help but praise God for that feeling!

Wrong Word Wednesday

On Thursday I went to school, it was shut down, it was closed down, so I broke through it,

I went home on Tuesday to a big pond
On Monday I broke my knee                                                              Grace, 4

It is wrong word Wednesday and I have no song...oh in my mind there is a running list, but I cannot thing of one. Maybe it is because someone this morning filled my head with “My Name is Luka”, but either way, I have no song of my own.

But I do have a blog post!

My little Grace is loves music – she loves singing, dancing, listening to music, rhyming.  She sings everything. She is learning new songs every day, but sometimes she gets them not quite right. For example, this week she has been singing about “The B- I – Lee – L – Lee” (the B-I-B-L-E) and she loves to sing about marching in the “calorie” (the cavalry).

She loves to make up her own songs, too. The lyrics above are from this morning. And as nonsense as they sounded to me, she repeated them to me several times. It makes me wonder what the nonsense in my heart sounds like to God.

I love to listen to her sing. She doesn’t hold back, she doesn’t know to worry about how she sounds, she just sings with her WHOLE heart.

Whatever the words are... I want to sing with my whole heart...