Every now and then I have an experience with my children that takes me back to the days when my mom had a fabulous wardrobe of leotards and large, geometric earrings and drove a sweet, earth toned stay wag that was named after a dinosaur.
Yesterday morning on the way to the kids’ school, we were listening to the Passion: Awakening CD. “How He Loves” was playing when we pulled into the parking lot and I brought the car to a stop right when the song was getting really good. Some of you musical people know the name for that part of the song and are saying it to me like I can hear it through the computer screen. Anyway, y’all know which part I’m talking about.
It seemed like such a shame to turn off the car before we got to sing “And we are His portion and He is our prize! Drawn to redemption by the grace is in His eyes. If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking. And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest. I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way that He loves us…” Jackson threw off his seat belt and climbed in the front seat and we sang it together with all our guts.
I remembered being only yay big and in the back of that station wagon, sitting behind my mama’s big 80’s hair and belting out some Amy Grant and Larnell Harris. Nothing in life was so urgent that we couldn’t finish “Angels Watching Over Me” before we got out of the car.
*****
This old church directory photo from FBC Victoria, Texas, came into my life this week. There is no end to how much joy it’s given me. When I look at it I feel loved.
NKJV
Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins.
Proverbs 10:12
Amanda….LOVE that you have time in your day to share some praise & worship with Jackson! LOVE “How He Loves” and sang it for first time in a worship service last Saturday night! LOVE how I can relate to the Moore fam (I’m same age as your mom and have two daughters – oldest is your age…we did same thing back in the day with “Sing Your Praise to the Lord” by Amy Grant and some D.C. Talk on the cassette tapes in the car! p.s. LOVE seeing you make an appearance on the blog.
Rea,Centennial, CO
“I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.” Isaiah 58:11 Message
Emy, Placentia NIV
1Timothy 6:17
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
So sweet Amanda! Thanks for sharing : ) I am about your mom’s age and I remember my mom singing, “Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters” in the car with us. She is with the Lord and I can’t wait to see her one day! She died when I was 15yrs old. Miss her so.
Your friend, Dayna : )
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James 4:10 NIV
That is my favorite part of “How He Loves” & I always have to listen to it before moving on, too! 🙂
Tracy, Denver
“the the if comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come to give you life abundantly.” John 10:10 NIV
Just returned to your blog after several months and so excited to hear about the scripture memory team! I had already started it at the beginning of the year anyway, now I just have to post what I was already memorizing and just ordered the spiral!
Kristy, Spanaway, WA
John 15:16 NIV
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
Cheryl, Vancouver, BC, Canada
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 NIV
Crystal, Whitefish,MT,
Psalm 103:2-5 (NIV)
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits-who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Sonia Australia Zechariah 9:16 NIV
The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How attrative and beautiful they will be.
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matt. 22:37-40 NIV).
I absolutely love the whole stay in the car and belt out the rest of the song (with all your guts).
Thanks for sharing-brought a huge grin to my face and heart.
Feb. 2,2011 Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
I love what you said –that it is the HOLY SPIRIT that tells us to keep on!!!! thank you for that encouraging phrase… and also the book suggestion..
Oh, Amanda, I laughed out loud when I read this! It was just last week that I was remembering the days when Amy Grant’s “The Collection” tape was all I ever let my mom and me listen to in our Olds Station Wagon nicknamed, “The Oldsmobeast.” So, I logged into Napster on my phone (the legal one of course) and found that album and listened to it on my way to work for the first time in over 20 years! I was rocking out to “Angels Watching Over Me” with grown-up ears and thinking, “Oh, THAT’S what those lyrics really are” as opposed to what I’d processed them as when I was little. “But, I never see with human eyes the hands that lead me home…” who knew that was what it said? Definitely got my day off to a blessed start!
Annabeth..HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!
You share your birthday with my Dad who is 93 today.
Love You,
Your Siesta Auntie Marianne from NW Pennsylvania
How Sweet! Farrah Fawcett married Donnie Osmond! LOVE IT!!
I just LOVED reading this!!! We must be the same age because I relate to every detail!! 🙂
BTW. That amazing song was written by a VERY cool worship leader from Morningstar Ministries in South Carolina. John Mark McMillian. When he first started out he was told that he’d never make it. (If they could sense God’s presence when he sang they (whoever THEY is) would have never said that!). Now he’s got his own albums and David Crowder is singing his stuff!
I just love when God proves man’s opinions of us WRONG!!!! 🙂
“He is jealous for me…”
-Danielle
Marie, Justin “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Ephesians 1-18
Loved reading this Amanda! And love the picture too, your Mom and Dad are so attractive in the posted photo. 🙂
Read this on Amanda’s blog a few days ago. So good! I hope my kids have memories like this when they’re grown, but I doubt it, since someone’s always cranky and not in the singing mood, so the music always gets turned off mid-song when we’re in the car. Or Josh is just in a hurry and doesn’t care that much about music.
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Eph.5:1,2 (NIV) Timberlea, Nova Scotia
I can see why this picture brings you joy! It’s great. Love you all. 🙂
Just wanted you to know that I so appreciated the pic of your mom from years ago, shw was and still is beautiful. I would never have known where Victoria Texas was if my son hadn’t moved there for his first job after college working for Dupont. So nice to think of a connection in a wierd way from Pennsylvania.
I have read this post at least a half-dozen times. Perhaps it’s because I love that very song you mentioned. Or maybe it’s my not being able to turn off the car when a good song is on. Or, more probable, it’s because I love to listen to the children I nanny for in the backseat singing along to Veggie Tales. Whichever it is, this post touched me.
I also loved the picture. And this time, I know the reason I love it. Because I’m a scrapbooker. Definitely 🙂
Judi Cox, Topeka, Kansas Psalms 33:11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purpose of His heart throught all generations. NIB
Amanda,
I love that song too. I just heard the acoustic version and I love it just as much, if not more as the original. I’m going to burn it to a cd and mail it to you today. You need to hear it, because it is a blessing.
Thanks for sharing,
Salina (KY)
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I know just what you mean about singing in the car! I have two girls (4 & 7) and we sing in the car together all the time. It is completely normal for us to sit in a parked car, singing at the top of our lungs, until a song is over. It seems such a small thing, but the feeling it leaves me with is the sweetest mixture of joy and love. I pray my daughters will remember these times with fondness the way you do.
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. 1 Cor 2:9
Ellen, Laconia,N.H
And He said to me,”My grace is sufficient for you,for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Corn.12:9 NKJ
Bonnie, Marietta, GA – Finally brethren, whatsoever thing are true, whatsover things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Phil. 4:8 KJV
Tina
Westerville
“March on, my soul; be strong!
Judges 5:21b(NIV)