2009 has been a time of major growth and change for me. The overall theme of 2009 was dependency on God for everything. To come to a place of really trusting Him, to believe that He loves me, to know that He has a plan for my life and that my life is an opportunity to tell the story of His grace and to glorify Him in all things. Each of these songs hold different memories of this past year and all I have to do is hear one of them to be taken back to those moments and feelings. Music has always been one of the primary ways God reminds me of His presence and His love. He allows lyrics to teach me, prepare me, soften me and humble me. Most days I wake up with a song in my head and frequently find that there is providence in hearing those particular words over and over throughout the day.
I am not who I was and I don’t want to to ever forget what God taught me throughout this past year. I am looking forward to new lessons, new memories, more growth, more dependency and a new soundtrack in 2010.
The boys had their first guitar lesson today and LOVED it! Their teacher, Mr. Beede, is an old friend of ours from High School. Mr. Beede’s (aka Nate’s) dad, Glenn, was our youth pastor in High School and actually officiated our wedding. Nate leads worship at CTK occasionally and each time he does I feel sentimental and I miss his dad. As the boys shared what they had discussed in their lesson today, about not using a talent like playing the guitar for your own glory, I remembered how humble Glenn was and I see that in Nate as he leads worship too. Glenn taught us how to really worship God. Simply and humbly. I am so thankful for the impact he had on our life and indirectly now has in Sean and Caleb’s life. Only God.
This is part of the explanation from Nate of what they would be learning in their lessons:
worldview focus is on appreciating music as a gift from God and using our abilities to praise and glorify Him. Worldview questions include: “What can music tell us about God?” and “How does our biblical knowledge of God determine how we use our musical abilities?”
How can it be that there are Jars of Clay songs that I haven’t heard until today?? I was listening to the radio this afternoon and heard this song and was so puzzled– apparently I missed that there were a couple songs on FurthermoreOut of the Blue download
that I didn’t already own. Anyway, this song I heard today is beautiful and maybe I wasn’t supposed to discover it until now? It does seem to be the very thing God and I are working out right now. I thought I’d share the lyrics here:
It’s no big surprise to anyone who knows Sean and Caleb well that they are HUGE Bon Jovi fans. When they discovered that Rock Band had “Dead or Alive” on it they were stoked!
We don’t have Rock Band (hence the video below) but Uncle Cory generously shares his. The boys are missing him today so….this one’s for you Cory!
I am using a new version of wordpress and I forgot to enable comments when I posted this. Comments are now enabled– so feel free to leave us or the boys a message. I had a couple emailed to me so I am posting them here:
Sara & Scott well we just watched the boys rock out to dead or alive, and wanted to leave a comment, but it said the discussion was “closed” anyway, here is our comment, scott says bon jovi rocks, but not as hard as sean and caleb, and he thinks they did the song justice!
sara thinks we have future rock stars on our hands. I love all the expressions and feeling you get from them!! what handsome boys. very fun!
loves! Carmen Sonny and I were CRACKING up watching Sean and Caleb lip sing to Dead or Alive – WAY TOO FUNNY!!! LOL…
Cam bought me this CD for Christmas and I have loved it more each time I listen to it. I have been listening to Jars of Clay since their first album came out in 1995. I have appreciated the lyrical quality of their music– even though sometimes I am not smart/deep enough to totally get what they are saying. My faith and walk have been impacted by their music. I find it amusing that their music kind of reflects whatever season I am in with God. This album is what I’d call “melancholy rock”. It’s good– I highly recommend it.
Betsy Date night on a budget: Send happy kids off to aunt & uncle's house; dinner at home-make it nice and still spend WAY less than going out to eat; watch a Netflix movie. Spent less than $15.00 :) Maybe next week, for fun, we'll try for less than $10 or $5. It might take some creativity but date nights, even on a budget are important :). 3 hours, 6 minutes ago
Betsy After finishing math and spelling Sean asked if he could go take a nap. I don't remember the last time or if he has *ever* asked for a nap ;) The great thing about doing school at home is I could say "YES!" Thanks Fight Gone Bad and thanks Jogo for wearing him out so effectively! 7 hours, 10 minutes ago
Betsy So relieved to have handed teaching math off to Cam! I am glad he is good at all the subjects I lack confidence in :). 1 day, 10 hours, 5 minutes ago
