Tuesday Tunes - Labor of Love

Tuesday Tunes - The More I Seek You

Tuesday Tunes: Glorious Unfolding

Lay your head down tonight

Take a rest from the fight

Don't try to figure it out

Just listen to what I'm whispering to your heart

'Cause I know this is not

Anything like you thought

The story of your life was gonna be

And it feels like the end has started closing in on you

But it's just not true

There's so much of the story that's still yet to unfold

And this is going to be a glorious unfolding

Just you wait and see and you will be amazed

You've just got to believe the story is so far from over

So hold on to every promise God has made to us

And watch this glorious unfolding

God's plan from the start

For this world and your heart

Has been to show His glory and His grace

Forever revealing the depth and the beauty of

His unfailing love

And the story has only begun

And this is going to be a glorious unfolding

Just you wait and see and you will be amazed

You've just got to believe the story is so far from over

So hold on to every promise God has made to us

And watch this glorious unfolding

We were made to run through fields of forever

Singing songs to our Savior andKing

So let us remember this life we're living

Is just the beginning of the beginning

Of this glorious unfolding

We will watch and see and we will be amazed

If we just keep on believing the story is so far from over

And hold on to every promise God has made to us

We'll see the glorious unfolding

Just watch and see (unfolding)

This is just the beginning of the beginning (unfolding)

Tuesday Tunes

I miss the loud chaos of having eight kids.

The peace and quiet is my favorite.

I want to jump in the car and go get all eight of them and bring them back home.

Let's get rid of the 12 passenger van because we are never having kids.

Just the two of us - it's perfect.

I want kids.

Let's try adoption again.

I'm never adopting again.

Let's just have a baby the old fashion way.

Oh wait.  We tried that.  It didn't work.

These are just a few of the ever changing thoughts than run through my head lately.  If you ask how I'm doing I'll give you the standard "I'm good" or "I'm okay".  That's simply easier than trying to explain that my feelings changed in the amount of time it took you to ask me how I was doing.

I have moments where I'm perfectly fine and life feels normal.

And in the same breath I can have a moment that causes me to break down in a full on ugly cry.

Lately the ugly cry comes from not knowing God's plan.

Bringing our eight children into our home and loving them was what God called us to do.  Andrew and I still believe that.  Yet it didn't work out the way we thought it would.

My low moments come from not understanding why having children has to be so hard for us.  They come from not understanding how God is working in all of this, but knowing that He is working.

This morning I heard a song on the radio as I drove to work.  It's a song that I've heard a hundred times, but this morning it spoke to me in a new way.

I may not be skilled to understand God's plan, but He lives.  He always has and always will.

He is always there for me.

I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed what God has planned
I only know at his right hand
Stands one who is my Savior

I take him at his word and deed
Christ died to save me this I read
And in my heart I find the need
Of him to be my Savior

That he would leave his place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You called it strange so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

My Savior loves
My Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God he was
My God he is
My God he's always gonna be

Yes living, dying let me bring
My strength my Solace from the Spring
That he who lives to be my king
Once died to be my Savior

That he would leave his place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You called it strange, so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

My Savior loves
My Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God he was
My God he is
My God he's always gonna be

Tuesday Tunes

It's been awhile since I shared a Tuesday Tune.  Too long really.

I've pretty much given up Christmas music - which makes sense seeing how it is mid-January.

But this one song seems to still be playing on the radio and is still coming up in my Pandora station.

I love it!  I hope you enjoy it as well.

Happy Tuesday Friends!

I have so much going on on this beautiful Tuesday so this post is going to be a bit random.

** Today my parents are celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary.  I am so thankful for them and the example they've set for my brother and I.  They've loved each other through good and bad.    They are two very special people and I wish them many more years together.

** I found this great idea on Pinterest.  Okay so I found lots of great on Pinterest, but this one is my latest favorite find.  Ironing fabric onto the wall.  It is so stinkin' easy!!!  I'm in awe of the possibilities that this just opened up.   My classroom walls may be covered with fabric now that I know this.  Yesterday I ironed this little goodbye above my door.

** I have a new nephew as of this morning.  Baby Will is here and he and Momma are doing well. He is absolutely adorable.  I cannot wait to meet him and love on him.

** Miranda and I are doing a long distance study of the book Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman.  We are three chapters in and I think I can safely say God using this book to draw both of us closer to Him. It is amazing how He is already working in this.

Miranda and I have never met.  We are blog friends.   I discovered her blog through a link up Kelly did one time for small business.  Miranda has been my blog designer and friend ever since.  We have really gotten to know each other over the past few weeks as we embarked on this study together.  It is amazing how similar our stories are.  We both seem to be struggling with the same things in our walk with God.  We had no idea, but God did.  He brought us together and led us to this study.

I'm working on a post about this study entitled..."I want to be like the prostitute".  Interesting huh?

**Since it is Tuesday, you need a tune.

Andrew and I looked like a couple of bobble heads Sunday morning at church.  The sermon was so good.  It hit me straight in the gut and we found ourselves nodding along with the pastor throughout the entire sermon.  We are doing a series called Playlist where we are studying the Psalms.  This past Sunday we found ourselves in Psalm 57.

There were a few things that weren't new to me, but like I said hit me right in the gut.
  - This life is not His chance to glorify me.  It's my chance to glorify Him.  I am here for Him.  he    is not here for me.

 - Like David, we should not measure by what other people would do when making a decision.  We should measure by what god would do.

- Death is a transition, not an end.

Surely he took up our pain

    and bore our suffering, 

yet we considered him punished by God, 

    stricken by him, and afflicted. 

⁵ 

But he was pierced for our transgressions, 

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed. 

Isaiah 53:4-5

Tuesday Tunes

Tuesday Tunes

You might remember this post about the Girls Night Out concert I went to a few months ago.  One of the ladies there was Laura Story.  She is an awesome worship leader.

My daily Bible reading has been in the Psalms lately.  I've been devouring David's words to the Lord.  Something I've noticed is that David always begins by praising the Lord.  No matter the situation.  He may follow it with a plea for his life, but David always praises the Lord first.

It's caused me to really think about my life and if I choose to praise God first.  Sadly, that is not always the case for me.  It's something I'm praying about and working on.  No matter what is going on in my life, I want to praise God first.  He deserves it for no other reason than He is Lord.

He is my Savior.  And oh what a Savior he is.  

This song is free to for you to download on iTunes at Klove this week.  Go grab it and enjoy. :-)

Tuesday Tunes

I'm loving this song right now. Hope you enjoy it.

10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman

Tuesday Tunes: Day After Day

I've mentioned before that KLOVE has free songs for iTunes on their website. They offer a new song every other week or so. I LOVE this. My playlist has filled up pretty quick with their free songs.

Right now they are offering Day After Day by Kristian Stanfill. It's a really good song that I think you will like. Give it a listen and then go download it for free.

Tuesday Tunes: We Are

This has quickly become a new favorite of mine. It has also become my prayer, that I will let my light shine.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Matthew 5:14

Tuesday Tunes: Forever Reign

We've been singing this pretty often at church. It has quickly become one of my favorites.

Tuesday Tunes: Hold Me

I am a huge Toby Mac fan!! HUGE!! The husband and I had the opportunity to see him in concert last year. Best concert I've ever been to. Hands down!!

He helps out Jamie Grace in her new song "Hold Me". He periodically helps new artist get started in the business. How nice is that!

I wasn't real crazy about this song at first, but it has quickly grown on me and is now becoming one of my favorites. It's catchy. Let me know what you think.

Tuesday Tunes:The More I Seek You

Tuesday Tunes: Spirit of the Lord

Tuesday Tunes: God is Enough

There is so much going through my mind today. I've started several post and then deleted them. I'm struggling with getting my thoughts into words. I want to write about a few topics, but I'm not sure how yet. God hasn't given me the words. Maybe I'm not even supposed to share.

I just don't know.

One thing I will tell you is that God has been speaking John 3:30 to me consistently for the past couple of weeks.

" He must increase, but I must decrease."

Lately I've been depending on my own strength and ability. I have convinced myself I'm capable of doing life without Him.

I've been feeling a desire to get closer to Him for awhile now. A couple of months ago he gave me a verse from James.

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" James 4:8

I've been praying this verse ever since, but it was like I couldn't figure out how to draw near to Him.

Now I know. I have to decrease. I have to lower myself on the list of priorities and move Him back to the top. It's where He belongs. It's what he deserves.

I don't belong there.

I heard a song on the Dove Awards that sparked this journey. It's by an artist known as Lecrae. It's not normally the kind of music I listen to, but I was immediately drawn to this song. Natalie Grant joins him in this song singing that God is enough, more than enough.

He is all I need. He is all that matters.

I will be the background and let him lead.


So here's something a little different this week - Lecrae and Natalie Grant singing Background and God is Enough. I hope you enjoy it.

Tuesday Tunes: Like a Lion

We sang this song at church on Sunday. I really like it. There are several artist who sings this song including the David Crowder Band. I think this one by Kristian Stanfill is my favorite.

Tuesday Tunes: Show Me Your Glory

I missed last week. Spring Break got my days all messed up and Tuesday came and went before I even knew it.

But I'm back.

Today's song is new to me. We sang it Sunday morning at church. I'm loving it!!

Tuesday Tunes: Winter Jam 2011

Thought I would do something a little different today for Tuesday Tunes. Instead of picking just one song to share with you, I want to share with you about a concert the husband and I went to Saturday night.

Our oldest nephew, Tyler, tagged along with us. He and Andrew are concert buddies!! Very rarely does one go to a concert without the other one.

Winter Jam is a great concert of several different Christian artist joined by speaker Tony Nolan. It is general admission for $10 every year. Loads of fun!!

This was my 2nd Winter Jam. I have been looking forward to it for awhile, ever since I learned that Francesca Battistelli was going to be there.

The night opened with Joseph Castro. I'm sure those of you watch American Idol know who he is. I only know one song by him. Being the first act, he only played three or four songs.

He was followed by Chris August. I recently bought his cd and I'm enjoying it. You can still get one of his songs, Starry Night, free at KLOVE. Check it out here if you haven't already.

These guys were followed by Newsong and then a band called Red. I wasn't that crazy about either one of these artist. Red was LOUD!!! Just not my kind of music. The guys loved them though.

Next up was my main reason for wanting to go to Winter Jam.


Francesca Batistelli!! She was so stinkin' cute. I loved her outfit. There are very few people who can pull off that kind of look.

David Crowder Band was also one of the performers. We had never seen them before. They did a couple of their popular songs. Half way through their act, he mentioned that he was from Texas.


Wrong thing to say in Arkansas. We might have possibly booed DCB. Their little story continued and then they asked us to call the hogs. Of course, we obliged.


Not the best picture, but that's a whole lot of people calling those Hogs.

Back to the music....I was so excited that DCB played my favorite song that they do. It isn't one you would expect. I LOVE their version of I Saw The Light. They played it and I'll Fly Away. I was thrilled.

I found this video from Winter Jam in NC this year.



The night ended with Kutless and Newsboys.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed in Kutless. I really like their music. I just expected more from their show.

Newsboys, however, was awesome. It was a great ending to the night. At one point they were all raised into the air on different platforms. The drummer was on a round platform that raised into the air and then began to til. It tilted until it was completely vertical. As if that wasn't enough, it started spinning.



It was amazing night. I'm so glad that we went.

Tuesday Tunes: This Is The Stuff

Today's song is one that I honestly wasn't crazy about at first. This is the Stuff by Francesca Battistelli. You all know I love me some Francesca. I posted before about how much I loved her first album. It is one where every single song is a hit...at least to me.

So I was a bit surprised when I didn't like her new song right away. However, the more I listened to it, the more it grew on me. It's catchy and gets stuck in my head. It is a great reminder not to let the little day to day things get to you. We are so richly blessed.

It is on her new album, Hundred More Years, which just released today. I bought this morning and listened to on my way to work. It wasn't an instant hit to me, but there are some really good songs. It just isn't as "fun" as her first album. It's a little more serious.






Here is the link to this week's free download from KLOVE. I already have this song and love it!

http://www.klove.com/music/store.aspx