This post has been sitting in my "drafts" since last winter. I had written it on my iPad, copied and pasted it here for later editing, and then forgot about it. I do that sometimes. Anyway, I rediscovered it today, and I think it has a pretty good message so I'm posting it sans editing. I hope it hits home for someone out there. Oh, and I still need to learn this song. :) Amy
I heard a song this morning that I had actually downloaded quite a while back with the intention of learning it so I could sing it at church. But then, I got severe laryngitis, and before I could recover from that we all got the Flu, and then separately battled Bronchitis and Pneumonia. I have been unable to sing much since the last performance of The Living Christmas Tree! I've been a little bit paranoid, knowing that viruses can permanently damage, even paralyze vocal chords. I've done a little singing, very carefully, in choir and praise team recently, but my full range and voice have yet to completely return. I do feel it improving from week to week so I am quite certain it will fully return....soon I hope! It is very hard, for someone who sings all the way to work every morning, to suddenly just sit there silently and listen to songs I normally enjoy singing along with. As a matter of fact, it is often insanely annoying! Singing is not something that has ever come easily for me for various reasons, mostly my severe allergies & honestly... fear. I have always envied people who seem to be able to do it without any effort. When I first start singing for the day, I sound a bit like a rusty old truck trying to start. I have to warm up a while to get rid of the "cobwebs". At any rate, difficult or not, I love to sing. Being able to sing was, when I was in school, pretty much the ONLY thing that made me feel was special about me. I wasn't pretty. I wasn't outgoing. I wasn't a genius. I wasn't great a sports. But, I could sing. It gave me an identity and made me feel special during my teenage years when I really needed it the most. Please don't think I'm saying that I think I am some phenomenal singer. Not at all. But I can carry a tune and get a song across to people without a lot of displeasure on their part, so I know it's not half bad at least, and I enjoy it immensely. Because of my own childhood experiences, it has always been very important to me to help my kids find that "thing" that they were "really good at". It has always been part of my prayers for the boys that they would find "it" and that God would give them the opportunities to use "it" for His glory. Along with having a personal relationship with Christ, which is essential, it's also important for kids to feel special in some way, especially when navigating the rough days of their teens. I think a lot of times we forget how hard it was when we were that age trying to "fit in", be accepted by our peers, and be successful in our social circle. However, when we were kids, we could at least leave that pressure at school. We could leave and go home and not think about it again until the next day back at school. These days, the pressures are 24/7. They cannot "leave it at the schoolyard". With the internet, email, social media, cell phones and texting, that pressure goes where they go. It never stops. In Jr. High I was skinny, had frizzy hair, bad skin, crooked teeth and was painfully shy. I was a perfect target for teasing, but as much as I was teased in Jr. High back then, I can only imagine how it would be amplified these days. I don't think I could have handled it 24/7. I remember my only goal being to get through the day without being noticed, to be as invisible as possible, and I was pretty good at it most days. Once I entered High School, and the miracle of hot rollers and flat irons were invented, I became a little more confident in my appearance, although not much, but I also discovered I had a voice. I'm not sure what might have happened to me had I not discovered that voice, but I do know that discovering it changed me forever, for the better. The name of the song I listened to this morning, the one I was going to learn, is called "Hear My Heart", and basically the message is this....I may be going through a really hard time right now. I may be feeling very down and don't understand why it's happening. I may not even know what or how to pray about the situation so God....Hear my Heart. This blog post has more than one message. The first one is, it's very important for your kids to find that thing that makes them feel special. It's essential that we as parents help them to discover what that special thing is, support them in it, and let them know you believe in them. My parents and family members did that, and it really made a difference. The second one is, in your teens, you can think that there is nothing special about you at all, that your world will never be happy, that no one will ever love you and nothing will ever change...but you are wrong. God has given everyone a talent and/or gift, and we all discover them at different times in our lives. Keep exploring, keep trying, keep going and one day you will discover it and I bet you will realize it's been there all along! The third is, when you are at your wits end and you don't even know how to pray about the situation, simply ask God to "Hear your Heart". He hears the groanings of our hearts when we cannot even utter a word in prayer. He knows us by heart and He never, ever leaves us. I could not have navigated my teen years without knowing that He loved me, even when it seemed like no one else did. He heard my heart.
I heard a song this morning that I had actually downloaded quite a while back with the intention of learning it so I could sing it at church. But then, I got severe laryngitis, and before I could recover from that we all got the Flu, and then separately battled Bronchitis and Pneumonia. I have been unable to sing much since the last performance of The Living Christmas Tree! I've been a little bit paranoid, knowing that viruses can permanently damage, even paralyze vocal chords. I've done a little singing, very carefully, in choir and praise team recently, but my full range and voice have yet to completely return. I do feel it improving from week to week so I am quite certain it will fully return....soon I hope! It is very hard, for someone who sings all the way to work every morning, to suddenly just sit there silently and listen to songs I normally enjoy singing along with. As a matter of fact, it is often insanely annoying! Singing is not something that has ever come easily for me for various reasons, mostly my severe allergies & honestly... fear. I have always envied people who seem to be able to do it without any effort. When I first start singing for the day, I sound a bit like a rusty old truck trying to start. I have to warm up a while to get rid of the "cobwebs". At any rate, difficult or not, I love to sing. Being able to sing was, when I was in school, pretty much the ONLY thing that made me feel was special about me. I wasn't pretty. I wasn't outgoing. I wasn't a genius. I wasn't great a sports. But, I could sing. It gave me an identity and made me feel special during my teenage years when I really needed it the most. Please don't think I'm saying that I think I am some phenomenal singer. Not at all. But I can carry a tune and get a song across to people without a lot of displeasure on their part, so I know it's not half bad at least, and I enjoy it immensely. Because of my own childhood experiences, it has always been very important to me to help my kids find that "thing" that they were "really good at". It has always been part of my prayers for the boys that they would find "it" and that God would give them the opportunities to use "it" for His glory. Along with having a personal relationship with Christ, which is essential, it's also important for kids to feel special in some way, especially when navigating the rough days of their teens. I think a lot of times we forget how hard it was when we were that age trying to "fit in", be accepted by our peers, and be successful in our social circle. However, when we were kids, we could at least leave that pressure at school. We could leave and go home and not think about it again until the next day back at school. These days, the pressures are 24/7. They cannot "leave it at the schoolyard". With the internet, email, social media, cell phones and texting, that pressure goes where they go. It never stops. In Jr. High I was skinny, had frizzy hair, bad skin, crooked teeth and was painfully shy. I was a perfect target for teasing, but as much as I was teased in Jr. High back then, I can only imagine how it would be amplified these days. I don't think I could have handled it 24/7. I remember my only goal being to get through the day without being noticed, to be as invisible as possible, and I was pretty good at it most days. Once I entered High School, and the miracle of hot rollers and flat irons were invented, I became a little more confident in my appearance, although not much, but I also discovered I had a voice. I'm not sure what might have happened to me had I not discovered that voice, but I do know that discovering it changed me forever, for the better. The name of the song I listened to this morning, the one I was going to learn, is called "Hear My Heart", and basically the message is this....I may be going through a really hard time right now. I may be feeling very down and don't understand why it's happening. I may not even know what or how to pray about the situation so God....Hear my Heart. This blog post has more than one message. The first one is, it's very important for your kids to find that thing that makes them feel special. It's essential that we as parents help them to discover what that special thing is, support them in it, and let them know you believe in them. My parents and family members did that, and it really made a difference. The second one is, in your teens, you can think that there is nothing special about you at all, that your world will never be happy, that no one will ever love you and nothing will ever change...but you are wrong. God has given everyone a talent and/or gift, and we all discover them at different times in our lives. Keep exploring, keep trying, keep going and one day you will discover it and I bet you will realize it's been there all along! The third is, when you are at your wits end and you don't even know how to pray about the situation, simply ask God to "Hear your Heart". He hears the groanings of our hearts when we cannot even utter a word in prayer. He knows us by heart and He never, ever leaves us. I could not have navigated my teen years without knowing that He loved me, even when it seemed like no one else did. He heard my heart.
