A secret to joy

It's been almost two months since I've written a blog post. This hiatus was certainly not my intention and I hate that I haven't kept up with writing. Granted, I am not a writer, but thought this would be a good avenue to encourage, bless, challenge, etc. So, I've come to write a very brief post about a song I heard on the radio yesterday. The song is Steven Curtis Chapman's Do Everything. I have actually heard the song many times before but I've never actually listened to the very first verse. It was SO encouraging to me:

You're picking up toys on the living room floor
For the fifteenth time today
Matching up socks and sweeping up lost Cheerios that got away
You put a baby on your hip and color on your lips
And head out the door
And while I may not know you I bet I know you
Wonder sometimes does it matter at all?
Well let me remind you it all matters just as long

As you do everything you do to the glory of the One who made you
Cause He made you to do
Every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
And tell the story of grace
With every move that you make
And every little thing you do

This came as such an encouragement to me as just that very morning, I was thinking, "I think I pick up more cheerios than Samuel puts in his mouth." Funny how a song can express my very thoughts :) Anyway, I began thinking about my own fight for joy in the everyday life of being a wife and mother. These lyrics - this biblical concept - is one secret to having joy in the mundane: Do EVERY LITTLE thing to the glory of God. For His kingdom. Because He loves you and died for you. 

This song definitely helped me this morning as I was disinfecting and swiffering our entire apartment. Clearing our germies to the glory of God! Amen?

May I do everything "to bring a smile to His face" :)

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. Colossians 3:23

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Then sings my soul...

This blog is in need of some serious updating and though I would love to pour my heart out, I have little words for all that has happened in the past two weeks. Perhaps bits and pieces will make it into future posts, but for now, I'll leave you with lyrics to two songs that have ministered to my heart in recent days.

***

{Your Hands by JJ Heller}

I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn't there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That You would take my pain away
That You would take my pain away

I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crookedly lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

When You walked upon the Earth
You healed the broken, lost, and hurt
I know You hate to see me cry
One day You will set all things right
Yea, one day You will set all things right

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

Your hands
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still

***

{The Lord will Provide by Matthew Smith}

Though troubles assail and dangers affright,
Though friends should all fail and foes all unite;
Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide,
The scripture assures us, the Lord will provide

The birds without barn or storehouse are fed,
From them let us learn to trust for our bread:
His saints, what is fitting, shall ne'er be denied,
So long as it's written, the Lord will provide

We may, like the ships, by tempest be tossed
On perilous deeps, but cannot be lost.
Though Satan enrages the wind and the tide,
The promise engages, the Lord will provide.

His call we obey, like Abram of old,
Not knowing our way, but faith makes us bold;
For though we are strangers we have a good Guide,
And trust in all dangers, the Lord will provide

When Satan appears to stop up our path,
And fill us with fears, we triumph by faith;
He cannot take from us, though oft he has tried,
This heart-cheering promise, the Lord will provide 

He tells us we're weak, our hope is in vain,
The good that we seek we ne'er shall obtain,
But when such suggestions our spirits have plied,
This answers all questions, the Lord will provide

No strength of our own, or goodness we claim,
Yet since we have known the Savior's great name;
In this our strong tower for safety we hide,
The Lord is our power, the Lord will provide

When life sinks apace and death is in view,
This word of his grace shall comfort us through:
No fearing or doubting with Christ on our side,
We hope to die shouting the Lord will provide

Eucharisteo! God is good, all the time!

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