Tag Archives: Music

God Shed His Grace On Thee. . .

I have been brushing up “America the Beautiful” on the piano lately, and of course it has been on my mind today.

Not on my mind enough to convince me to practice piano today 😉 , but I’ve still thought about it.  I first decided i wanted to play it when I read through all the verses; they are so beautiful.

I love all of them, but the last two lines of verse 3 have become a prayer to me.  For my country.

America!  America!  May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness and every gain divine.

Because you don’t have to look too far to see America is losing her roots in God.  Not all that we call “success” today is noble, and not all our gains are Christ-like.  I have been praying for our country for a long time.

But after I read Counted Worthy by Leah E. Good I started praying for more.

I started praying that no matter what happened in America, the church would rise to meet it.  That they would respond in a way that honored the Lord.  No matter what.

Our pastor was speaking recently about common core, and he said that the church often responds in fear or anger, and we must respond in love.

We are the bride of Christ.

We have victory.

We have the last word.

So let us stop responding in fear.  Let us stop venting our anger on those deceived by Satan.  Let us respond in love.

We are more than conquerors in Christ, my friends–if God is for us, who can be against us?

O beautiful for patriot dream that sees, beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears!
America!  America!  God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

*** ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ***

Have a happy Fourth of July, and go get yourself a copy of Counted Worthy, sweet readers.

 

** Excerpts from “America the Beautiful” by Katharine Lee Bates

Catching up. . .

. . . because I seriously need to!

To begin with, my big sister is in Sicily!  And she’s going to be there all summer!  I seriously don’t know how I’m going to survive, but I guess I’ve gotten this far (exactly one week, to be precise), and she responds to my e-mails, because she’s awesomeness.

(Prepare for this post to be a lot of scattered randomness!)

Calling all you sweet Omaha people, I’m doing a fundraiser for our adoption!  You can read about it on the family blog here!  I’m selling made-from-scratch, chocolate chip scones.  I’ve gotten rave reviews on them at every party and gathering I’ve made them for.

We’ve been listening to this song a lot lately:

“Raise your thoughts a little higher,
Use your words to inspire,
Joy will fall like rain,
When you speak life with the things you say”

Little Brother loves it. 🙂  We’ve been saying “speak life” instead of “speak nicely” or something like that, and it works well.  Oh the magic of making something a song!

Plus, I had the best ever Middle Earth geek moment a few weeks ago, and I had to tell you all about it: I walked down to a playground in our neighborhood recently–because I have a “thing” with playgrounds–and wandered around and climbed on top of monkey-bars and walked on fence-rails.  What big kids do at parks.  It had rained the day before so there were some lovely puddles to splash in.  I was just paddling around when I looked down and there, half-buried in the sand, at the bottom of a puddle, gleaming in the sunshine, was a ring.  A ring.  I just stared.  Then poked it with my Aragorn boot.  Then picked it up.  It was silver–a little disappointing, but still cool.  Though slightly creepy.  I put it in my pocket and brought it home with me. 🙂

Happy Wednesday, folks!  What have you been up to?

“The Sacrifice”: Part twelve

Part twelve!  I have a feeling you guys are going to freak out about this one. . .

IMG_2140 The Sacrifice IMG_2136

 

Part Twelfth: Alone

Penelope stumbled onward, up the slope before her. Tripping on tree-roots and fallen logs, and large rocks, slipping on small ones. Branches and thorns tore at her clothes and skin, pine-needles slid beneath her feet—she scrambled blindly forward, her vision blurred by tears. She finally reached the end of the hills, with the mountains, rocky and frightening yet majestic, rising above her; and got her first glimpse of the dragon’s lair:

Continue reading “The Sacrifice”: Part twelve

More Music Videos

So I found more music videos since my last post that I’ve been watching, and I thought I would share them with you all!

Once again, kids should check with their parents.  Especially with the last video, as it has several scenes from movies in it, including several fantasy creatures that are a bit creepy.  Thank you!

A friend of ours sang this song at her graduation ceremony, and I liked it so much I asked Mama to help me look up a video so I could memorize it!

I’ve sort-of known this song for years, but after hearing it again at aforementioned graduation, I decided I needed to find a version I could listen to!

Another song I’ve known for almost forever.  We sang it at church when I was younger, but I could never get the order right, and I recently decided to fix that.

Another Middle Earth song. 🙂  After memorizing “I See Fire” I realized “The Last Good-Bye” was the only Hobbit credits-song I didn’t know.  Needless to say, that was unacceptable.  Still, I didn’t expect to find something this good!  It has clips from all six movies, with video of Billy Boyd singing–and several behind-the-scenes shots!  Also, Billy Boyd acted in The Lord of the Rings, so he’s singing, but also in some of the movie scenes in costume!

So, there’s what I’ve been listening to lately.  The music videos I watch are actually a pretty good peek into what goes on in my brain! 🙂

Happy Wednesday!

Music

Hey, guys!  I found a few (or more than a few! 🙂 ) music videos recently that I’ve been watching, and I thought I would share them with you all!

Kids, please check talk with your parents first.  A lot of these are mostly just lyrics, but figure out what works best for your family.  I have had some trouble with Youtube bringing up unhelpful video suggestions at the end.

This song is soo pretty! We sang it at a Bright Lights conference this summer, and I decided I needed to find it somewhere and memorize it!

I had the opportunity to attend a concert by the Gaither band with my grandparents a while ago, and heard David Phelps sing this song.  It really stood out to me.  We looked it up so the rest of my family could hear it, and I’ve listened to it almost every day since then!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phJo1E94Yk8

It’s from The Hobbit.  “What praise could I say more?” 🙂

The picture at the end annoys me, but I like how the video is made!

For those of you who haven’t heard, I’m crazy about the new “Cinderella” movie.  I enjoyed it more than the old one, though it isn’t necessarily as good for younger kids.  “Have courage and be kind.” ♥

This video was very well made!  She has the original soundtrack playing, and only does the violin for the vocal parts!

Once again, it’s from Middle Earth.  Of course I love it. 🙂

Still Taylor Davis.  And still Middle Earth.  I love how heart-felt her playing is!  She really tapped into the bitter-sweet depth this song has.  And look at the violin she’s playing–I’ve never seen one like that before!

Can you tell I have an obsession with violins?  (No, I don’t play one.)  I love how she practically dances while she plays–she really knows what she’s doing with a violin!  And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched this, and I still haven’t gotten over her dress–or the scenery!  Actually filmed in New Zealand!

And that’s about it.  I just figured out I really like music videos, so I’ve been watching to a lot lately! 🙂

Happy Monday!