Where's My New Song?

I waited patiently for the Lord; 

he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, 

out of the mud and mire;

He set my feet on a rock 

and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,

A hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear the Lord 

and put their trust in him. 

Psalm 40: 1-3

When I was in college my roommate and I were sort of scripture memory buddies.  We would work on our selected passages and then we would meet and check to see how the other was doing on their memory work.  This passage was one that I chose and it has become "my verse" simply because as a believer in Christ this IS my testimony.....well, I don't know how patiently I wait.... but over and over again, no matter the circumstance the Lord has faithfully turned to me and He has heard my cry when I have been in need.  Through his redemption I have been lifted out of the slimy pit of sin and His word is a firm bedrock foundation upon which I can stand. 

Yet despite all that the Lord has done, I often find myself asking, where is my new song? Where is my hymn of praise?  Where is my heart filled with grateful worship?  Have I grown so entitled and unaware that I forget all that the Lord has done? Have I become too busy to notice? Sometimes.....I do forget.... and often I find myself to be too busy...Those times are usually accompanied by a time of self righteousness and exasperated impatience that God is not working according to my plans and on my time table.......

However, when I remember, when I am convicted to pray, when I wait patiently......which I wish were more often...... THEN my heart is filled with a new song and my soul is over-full with hymns of praise and I cannot keep from singing in worship.  I find it amazing and very true in my own life that when my heart is filled with a new song and a hymn of praise, others are persuaded to trust in the Lord.  As believers our praise is our very best testimony of who God is and our most convincing call to follow him.  

How my animal print wardrobe reminds me of God

Please excuse my extended absence from my "caveats" blog.  Over the last several months all of my blogging efforts have been directed toward developing my music teacher blog called melodysoup@blogspot.com.  Since I teach music all day sometimes it's easiest to write what is on my mind and I almost always have school running in the back of my brain..... So I've been writing a TON for that blog and none for this one..... But I miss this blog because here, I can write whatever I want.   It's kind of like taking a vacation and I LOVE vacation.

Since school has started back I've realized something about myself that I never knew...... Did you know that it is entirely possible for me to wear a different animal print item of clothing each day for a little more than a week without ever having to repeat the article of clothing?  I didn't either!  I was truly surprised because ......I suppose I like animal prints ok, but I would never claim them as my favorite choice.  Plus, I would never choose an animal print for my home decor.....So when the school theme was announced as "Wild About Learning" and we were told to find some animal print for the first day of school.... I never dreamed that I would be the one left out of the shopping frenzy.... I REALLY didn't need to purchase anything..... I just had to walk to my closet.  Some of my teammates were rather worried because they didn't own any animal print at all, but they needn't have worried because if you are in the market for animal print clothing THIS is your year..... It is possible to buy all items of clothing from head to toe and from underwear to outerwear all in animal print......You don't even have to limit yourself to clothing.  You can get curtains, bath towels, bed sheets, dishes and furniture ALL in the animal print of your choice.  It's a virtual safari.  

Animal prints look nice on people with my skin tone because God made those prints to blend in and folks with really fair skin and a ton of freckles need a little blending to help them show up.  As it turns out, when the prints are on animals rather than people, the prints help hide the animals either from predators or their prey.... Well unless you are a zebra..... in which case, God may have decided to just make you pretty and quick.....so RUN! .......but I digress.....  

I love the way that God can use seemingly random unimportant parts of our lives to teach us and remind us of who He is.  So for weeks now as I've been proudly proclaiming my "wildness" about all things learning by regularly wrapping myself in whatever animal print suits my fancy that day.  It wasn't long before the Lord brought my attention to the beauty of the patterns themselves and then I realized, THESE are God's creation! He is the artist!    He painted all these detailed and intricate patterns just to hide some animals so they could stay safe and hunt food....to help them hide.....Here I am, resting in His love, a redeemed child of God, .hidden in Christ and the Lord is my hiding place. 

Psalm 32:7 says, "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.