Throwback Thursday - Music to my Ears

Music has been a big part of my life.  Growing up our house was always filled with music, and both sides of my family are gifted musicians.  My mother is from Newfoundland and my Dad is from Chatham, New Brunswick, and we were always surrounded with the flavor of both of those cultures.  When I became connected with a group of young people from the Queen of Peace Charismatic Prayer Group, I was engulfed in a new kind of music called Praise and Worship, that spoke to my heart a language I knew well. Through the gift of music Jesus romanced me and called me into deeper relationship with Him, and it continues to be one of the most powerful things for me.  Here is an early post about finding my musical footing in a house full of babies.

Music to my Ears
First published January 30, 2008

I love a good praise and worship session. Besides my husband and children, nothing brings me greater joy. There's just something that happens to me when I get lost in the music, and can feel that I'm singing with my whole heart and soul, and not just my voice (which, incidentally, is not very good!) It's one of the things I miss most about the prayer meeting and youth team, and one of the things I like best about going to the LifeTeen masses at Saint Rose. Music just speaks to me louder than just about anything else.

Today I picked up my guitar for the first time in probably a year and sat down in front of the roaring fire in our woodstove to have a good P&W session. The older boys are at the sitter's, and the baby was happily playing on the floor in front of me, so I thought it was a great opportunity. I strummed and sang my heart out through the first song, and the baby seemed to like it. But after that, he got fussy (like I said, it's been a year since I've played - I guess I'm a bit rusty!) but now being fully engaged in song, I didn't want to stop. So I put my guitar down and picked up the baby, while I continued to sing. Now Stephen hears me singing all the time, but I've never seen him so happy about it! He kept giving me these big, mouth-wide-open smiles like the joy inside him was just bursting out! Anytime I tried to put him down and start playing my guitar again he cried. But when I focused on him and made him a part of my prayer time, it brought him a joy I had never seen in his young life. He's always happy, but this was over the top. It made me laugh to see him like that, and we sang together like that for about fifteen minutes!

Singing is such a great way to pray. As a mother, I find it difficult if not impossible to find time in the day, free from distractions and thoughts of other things I could be doing, to take time to pray. But today God showed me that when I do the things I love the most - like singing - and involve the people I love, prayer inevitably will flow from the deepest part of my being, and will stronger than ever before. Not only that, but it will bond my family together in ways deeper than I could ever imagine. Prayer is never far away, and it doesn't need to be in a quiet, secluded, impossible-to-find moment. It just needs to be where you are, with the people you love, doing the things you love, with the One who loves you all greater than you'll ever know.

Little Maestro