Off to Boston!

Off to Boston tomorrow! Going to the Prudential Bldg, Fenway Park, and possibly Museum of Fine Arts, then Museum of Science and on a duck tour! Will have pictures when I get back!

A planted seed leads to growing love...

Growing up I remember an "aunt" that used to live at my grandparents house. She wasn't technically an aunt, she was actually my father's first cousin that got taken in by my grandparents. She was around the same age as the rest of my aunts and uncles so it just seem normal to call her "Aunt Carrie". I always remember her very fondly even though I was not particularly close to her. It has been 20 years since I've seen her, and I don't think she keeps in much contact with the rest of the family.

The one memory that sticks in my head is the Christmas when I was 11 though. I remember standing in the kitchen of my grandparents huge house. There were about 10 other people crammed into a kitchen not designed to fit that many people, but it was always the center of all the commotion. I remember my Aunt Carrie pulling me into the dining room to give me a Christmas present. I thought it was odd, because I had never received a present from her before, and I don't recall my brother receiving anything. She handed me a small package and told me to open it. I opened a small cassette tape. (For those of you who are scratching your heads, cassette tapes are what they used to put music on before CDs and way before MP3s.) Aunt Carrie told me that the woman on the cover of the cassette was her favorite singer and she thought that I would really enjoy her. I glanced over the cassette not recognizing the beautiful woman with the long curly hair on the cover named Amy Grant. I said "thank you", gave Aunt Carrie a hug, and skipped through the house, handing the cassette to my mom who dutifully placed the gift in her purse for safe keeping.

I don't remember if I opened the cassette that evening, but it wasn't that much later that I had. I popped the tape into my Walkman (circa 1986 here people...work with me) and put my headphones on and started to listen. Now for all you that remember Walkmans and cassette tapes, there was no "skip" function. You listened to a song in it's entirety. There was a fast forward, but that tended to screech in your ears and eventually over time ruin the tape. So, I would lay on my bed at night during my "me" time and listen to the tape. Over and over I listened to Side A, then Side B.

Now, when I was 11 I wouldn't consider myself "saved". I had been to a Methodist church with my mom, even sang in their children's choir on Sundays. As a tradition we attended Christmas Eve service with my grandparents every year at the Catholic cathedral where my father received his communion and confirmation. But at 11, had you asked me if I had a relationship with God, I don't think I would have known what to tell you. I know I believed in God. I had never doubted he existed. But at that time I didn't feel connected to Him.

Over time Amy Grant was replaced by Def Leppard and Guns N'Roses, New Kids on the Block, Bon Jovi and MC Hammer. Then Simon and Garfunkel, Aerosmith, Seals and Crofts, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Eric Clapton and Queen started their quests to permanently ruin my hearing. Soon, the tape that I was given was long forgotten.

As a teenager, my father became a Born-Again Christian. He attended a church very near to our home with my Mom. I didn't care to go, I was very busy with my own life. During high school I had my friends, homework, sports. Those things occupied every waking moment of my life. After high school, I had college, friends, friends, and more friends, and working. I was having fun working and partying, I had no time for church or God, that was my prime sleeping in time.

It wasn't until I was pregnant with my son at 24 that I really started to connect with God and started going back to Church. I had spent years fighting my father about his "forcing" his Christian values on me to only realize that I wanted to instill those very values in my child. I knew that becoming a Christian didn't make you perfect. But I wanted my son to grow up with some kind of education about God, and to know His love. What started out as me attending for my son grew my love and worship of the Lord God Almighty.

Oh trust me, I've wandered from His path PLENTY of times. I've made HUGE mistakes, even in the past 10 years of going to church. I'd stopped attending at one point, finding that MY sleep or MY spare time was more important than my spiritual education or awakening. But over the past 3 years my son and I have been attending a non-denominational evangelical Christian church regularly. I still have my days where sleeping in overpowers my want for attending service, like I said, becoming a Christian does not make you perfect.

In the past year I have been finding that my love for Worship music is steadily growing. My brother became a born again Christian about 5 years ago and strictly listens to Christian music. Be it Christian worship, Christian pop, Christian rock, Christian hard rock, he listens to it. I have not given up my love of secular music. I've been a classic rock lover for too many years to give it up. But, standing up in church every Sunday singing praise to the Lord has become my favorite part of going to church. Our church is a modern church and, according to what the pastor stated Easter Sunday, we do things a little differently. We have a full rock band lead us in worship every weekend. Not everything is head banging rock and roll, but they definitely get you clapping your hands or stomping a foot or two. I had an epiphany this weekend where I realized that the worship time was my favorite time, and I really loved singing praises and giving thanks to the Lord through song.

After Easter dinner had been eaten and we were all sitting around with full tummies, I went and started downloading some Christian worship songs. Mostly some of the favorites that I know from singing in church, I also downloaded some bands that I wouldn't normally listen to, ones I know I've heard my father and brother talk about(my Dad's still rockin' it at 59!). Sorting through and playing with my iTunes software I came across my Amy Grant collection. I had almost forgotten that I had the songs. My memories of laying on my bed listening to "My Father's Eyes", "Sing Your Praises To The Lord", and "Thy Word" came flooding back. I may not have realized at 11 the impact of listening to those wonderful worship songs were making, but I now know that they have greatly influenced and nurtured my love of Worship songs.