Music that Moves

Hey guys,  It has been a long time since I posted last. I have been distracted. I hope to start posting again weekly.  

I don’t know if you have ever had a song run through your mind a thousand times but I know it happens to me all the time.  This is one of the reasons that I am convinced that music plays a much bigger part in our lives than we can see or care to believe.  I do believe it can have a positive or negative impact depending on what type of music we listen to. I can notice a difference in myself when I listen too often to non Christian music.  I have always been a channel changer.  I like lots of different types of music; rock, country, rap, pop...  My music tastes change with my mood sometimes.  I used to not like Christian music because it sounded too slow.  Then I was introduced to Steven Curtis Chapman, Toby Mac, Matthew West, Casting Crowns....  Now I am not sure how I lived without it.  I had to look for different types of music when my kids were in middle school to correspond with the tunes they were exposed to at school.  What a blessing that was!  We were able to have many wonderful conversations about what was being encouraged in the popular songs and there were a couple of songs that were banned in my car because I couldn't tolerate them and we talked about that as well.  My kids still listen to popular songs and I do as well sometimes. It is good to know though that they are able to sort through the "trash" and know the differnce.  I still change channels occasionally and I can tell a difference in myself when I stay too long on the popular music stations just as I can tell when I stray from my relationship with God.

Many people disregard this theory and don’t worry much about what they listen to or what their children listen to but I would challenge you give some serious thought to whether or not this is true. We talk at length about how the words that we say to one another have such an impact but we disregard how music lyrics can be an impact because we assume it’s just background noise.  Have you ever overheard someone talking, even someone you don’t know, and been offended or hurt by their words?  The bible says in Proverbs 4:23  “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it”.  I would encourage everyone to take a 30 day challenge and listen only to Christian music and see if you don’t see a change in your life.  I feel confident you will.  KSBJ and Air1 are great stations.

I would love to hear from anyone who takes the challenge.

The song “Say Amen” by Finding Favour is so descriptive about why I think it is so important to document our lives.  I have included the lyrics and hopefully will be including a link to the bands you tube video.   I would love to hear your “AMEN” stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRcvcF_0_9M

Say Amen by Finding Favour

This life is a journey we walk by faith

And there will always be the mountains in our way

But right here in this moment, may our strength be renewed

As we recall what God has done and how we've seen Him move

If there's anybody here who's found Him faithful

Anybody here who knows He's able

Say Amen

If there's anybody here who's seen His power

Anybody here brought through the fire

Say Amen

Anybody here found joy in the middle of sorrow

Just Say AMEN!

Sometimes through the darkness, it's hard to see

So just be brave and follow where He leads

Greater is the one who's in us, than he who's in the world

So child of God remember, the battle is the Lord's

If there's anybody here who's found Him faithful

Anybody here who knows He's able

Say Amen

If there's anybody here who's seen His power

Anybody here brought through the fire

Say Amen

Anybody here found joy in the middle of sorrow

Peace in the storm, hope for tomorrow

And seen time and time again

Then just Say AMEN!

Even in the valley of the shadow when you feel alone in the unknown

Just say Amen, Just say Amen

Even when the storms are raging, Stand and know your not forsaken

Just say Amen, Just say Amen

Is there anybody here, Tell me is there anybody here

Come on and Say Amen

If there's anybody here who's seen His power

Anybody here brought through they're

Come on and Say Amen

Anybody here found joy in the middle of sorrow

Peace in the storm, hope for tomorrow

And seen time and time again

Then just Say AMEN!

Love

In the Gospel of Matthew 22:37-40  Jesus said: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

What does it mean to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind?  How do you love your neighbor as your self?  These are commandments that we must contemplate everyday as we live our lives.  Are we loving God today with everything we have?  Are we loving our neighbor as God commands?  I believe this includes all the people we come across each day.  Our neighbors aren’t only our friends.  We all have neighbors that we naturally love and those that are difficult to get along with as well as those that we just ignore simply because we don’t cross paths often.

So what does it look like to LOVE someone or something?  You spend time with them, you talk about them to others, you miss them when they are not around among other things.

Several years ago I found a wrap restaurant named Roly Poly.  I loved it and it was not very busy.  For very selfish reasons I wanted it to be successful.  I wanted to visit every week and get my wrap fix.  The owners were wonderful and the food was amazing.  I looked for ways to get the word out about the restaurant.  I invited friends and family for lunch there, I looked for opportunities to get them to cater lunches, I talked about them to people I interacted with during the day.  I prayed for them.

To remind you we are talking about a wrap restaurant!!!  Do I do these things for God?  Do I look for opportunities to share Him with others? Do I share His word everywhere I go to make sure people know about His greatness?  Do I invite others to share in His glorious kingdom?  If I would go out of my way for a sandwich shop like that how much more should I be excited to share God with others?

Unfortunately my days are not always spent loving God or others.  Sometimes I get so intent on checking things off my list or asking God to help me with my life that I neglect to love Him well.  Faithbooking reminds me of His love for me and documents His working in my life so I can share His love with others.  It also helps increase my faith as I see Him clearly working in my life and in the lives of those around me. I believe we love our neighbors best by showing them His love and pointing them to Him by our actions and words.

In the beginning….

I thought I would share a little perspective on my scrapbooking “career”..

I do not generally consider myself a creative person.  I have friends that are amazingly creative and I envy them sometimes but I definitely don’t put myself in that category.

When my kids were young my friends and I wanted to go out but we were not sure what to do for a night on the town.  I am not a drinker, not into clubbing, not a huge fan of movies and had not gone out consistently since the kids were born.  We also had a little motherly guilt about leaving our kids to do something for us.  Also anyone that knows me knows that I am “thrifty” so hiring a babysitter at $10 and hour seemed crazy!

One evening I decided to host a Creative Memories party.  My friends and I realized that we could get together at night and do something fun while accomplishing something amazing for our families.  It sounded like a win/win!!

The group became one of my kid’s fondest memories and some of my best times with friends.  Initially we thought we would leave the kids with husbands and get together at someone’s house without the kids but that didn’t work very well and before long we were meeting together on Friday nights with the kids.  The kids would run wild upstairs or out in the backyard and we would scrapbook and share stories, laugh and share struggles and “solutions”.  Sometimes we would stay up until 2am and the kids would either fall asleep or stay up and play.  It didn’t matter that my 8 year old was up at 2am running wild because it was just once a month and it was special time.  My kids loved it, I loved it and the whole family enjoyed the finished product.  My kids still asked to get together for “scrapbooking night” even into their teens.

So..  Back to perspective..

I was the person in our group that was on a scrapbooking mission.  Because I am a planner/organizer by nature I was all about getting projects done quickly and keeping my project organized.  I came up with a project and would create a picture plan, print the pictures and slap it in a book.  I would get 40 pages done in an evening.  They weren’t pretty but that wasn’t the point to me.  They were done!  There were other ladies there that were afraid to put the pictures on a page because it may not be perfect and ladies that spent an evening on two or three pages and they were beautiful.  Everyone has a different perspective.

Here is a picture of one of my early scrapbook pages.

Journaling

There are so many different ways to document your faith!  You can explore all of them or just a few and see which ways suit you best.  One thing to consider is.. are their things that you want to document just for you that you are not ready to share with others?  That type of “faithbooking” may best be done through journals.  I am not great at keeping journals but when I do they are such a blessing to me.

I keep journals of my prayer times with the Lord where I just write several pages about what is on my mind and what I read in my bible or devotional.  It always is interesting to see my spiritual and personal growth as I look back on journals I wrote years ago.  Often I think how silly I was being or “why did I think that”.   I can see God clearly working on my growth and in the lives of those around me when I keep these journals and reflect on past journals.  Someday when I am gone I hope they bless my children or family, as they will be able to see my faith or unbelief through worry and how God was working in my life and theirs.

I keep journals of prayers that I have for others.  I especially love looking back on my Mom’s in Prayer journals!  I am amazed to see the answers to prayer that God has blessed us with through our prayers in MITI!  If you have not heard of Mom’s In Prayer you should check them out.  Here is the website.. http://www.momsinprayer.org/.  It was an incredible leap of faith for me to begin praying out loud with other women.  I encourage everyone to find a small group of people to pray with on a regular basis and document your prayers.

I also keep a journal in my car/purse where I can document “God moments”.  I don’t know where that phase comes from but I know it as times when I can see that God is working in my life in the little things like my car dying in my driveway instead of on the highway.  Another example is a meeting with someone that you can tell is God ordained.  God is at work all the time in my life and the life of those around me and I want to recognize it and give Him thanks as often as I can.

Hello

Hello!  My name is Laurie and I have started this blog in order to share Faithbooking with others.  I have been married for over 20 years to a fabulous man and have two wonderful teenagers.  I have been scrapbooking since the kids were little and have been working on Faithbooks for six years or so.  I believe that God desires for all of us to document in some way our relationship with Him in order to help us grow in our faith, so that we can pass it down to the next generation, and so that we can remember it in the times when we struggle with doubt or complacency or gratitude.   

I have never blogged before so please be patient with me as I learn:)