LISTEN UP | My Top 6 Christian Music Recommendations

1. Kari Jobe: Steady My Heart, Savior's Here, Healer, You Are For Me // 2. Hillsong Live: Forever Reign, Like Incense, Stronger, His Glory Appears, Desert Song // 3. JJ Heller: Pretty & the Plain, Who You Are, Kingdom Come // 4. Phil Wickham: Divine Romance, I Have Decided to Follow Jesus  // 5. Streams in the Wasteland: Title Track  // 6. Natalie Grant: Held, Home, In Christ Alone

***
I'm getting quiet a few emails and FB messages on music recommendations. I guess it never crossed my mind to post my current listens or worship albums we recommend... ay yai yai!

So I'm starting that today! I'll post different genres over time, but today I'm starting with Christian Music. (*If you already got an email from me, sorry these are repeats :)

I'm not huge into Christian music (!) but there are a few artists and select songs I have on playlist repeat. Take a listen and tell me what you think.

***
If you have an artist you love, don't be a hogger! Tell me in the comments section!

Slipping Into Hiding

I don't have a lot to say these days. Most of my writing has been in my hand-journals or my head. Treasuring this little life growing inside of me has caused my soul to sit still for a while. 

I want to keep moving. I want to keep calling and writing and visiting and designing and talking. All that stuff is more natural for me than this stillness stuff.

But I know I am slowly slipping into a hidden season in my life. When I would over hear moms talk about their "hidden seasons" of motherhood, I have to admit, I dreaded them. For a fast paced girl, slowing down wasn't in my predetermined forecast. 

However, the last seven months of creating a human being has whipped me around and landed me flat on my butt. Not just physically, but emotionally and mentally and spiritually. 

Physically, well, let's just say my beautifully growing body looks more like a road map gone rogue these days. But that's okay. I'm turning food into a human. (Did you meet my double chin on Instagram?)

Emotionally, I've had less bouts of pointless crying than we expected, but my heart has swelled to an entirely new level of love and fear. I love my baby girl. I love my husband. I love my life. And at the very same time, I fear for all of them as well. That's new. 

Mentally, I can't stop thinking about who she will be, what she will do. Will she be a rebel? We probably deserve it. Will she love Jesus? I hope so. Will she be healthy or happy? What do I do if when I screw up as a mom? Is labor really as kick-*** as everyone says it is? I don't think I can do it. 

Spiritually, I am more in awe and wonder and reverence of my God everyday. I want to know Him more, I long desperately to know Him more. I am soon to be responsible for raising and training a new little world changer and my relationship with God isn't just mine anymore. She will be watching. I want to know why He chose now and not then to give her to us. I want to tell the world how faithful He is and will always be. No. Matter. What. 

I am starting to see glimpses into the beauty and chaos of what lies ahead. And though your posts about spit up and poopy diapers and 2am feedings scare me a little, I know there's much more. 

So though there's not much to say, this softened heart is being molded like play-dough. Every color, smooshed together, into a big beautiful mess held up by a starry eyed child to her mother as if to say, "Look mommy, I made this flower for you!"

In a ground that was dry and cracking, a flower is springing up and it's not because of me. 

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I, the Lord your God, will not forget you." Isaiah 49:15

- - - - -

The Girl that Sings blog isn't a mommy blog, but I do post updates, stories and topics of motherhood I'm discovering and others I'm wrestling through once a week on Thursdays if you care to enjoy and join the convo.

The Story Behind Job Song

Every song has a story. This is ours.

A young worship leader that Tyson raised up, now leads worship at our home church in Temecula, CA. He called early last week because he was coordinating a worship night with the high school youth group, they were doing Job Song and asked if we could make a video on the story behind it.

First of all, it is always an honor for us when youth play our songs.

With every song we write, we pray it would transcend culture and generational gaps, for the purpose of the Church worshipping as one voice. 

Second, it was a no brainer! Of course we would!

Some of you may know the story behind Job Song because you lived it with us, but I thought I'd share it with you here as well. - - -

I Want My Daughter to Love Her God

I want my daughter to dream. 

In the last days,' God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)

I want her to know that God has chosen her to exist at this time, in this place, in this family, for a reason.

I want her to see the world, not as a broken toy that needs to be thrown away, but as a place of great possibility and beauty.

I want her to see her life, as a value to mankind, not only because of what she can bring to the table, but because of who her God has made her to be.

I want her to bestow grace upon the ungracious.

I want her to speak kindness to the unkind.

I want her to serve those who've never been served.

I want her to love those who feel unlovable.

I want her to move the mountains of impossibility.

I want her to seize the moments of greatness.

But more than all this, I first want her to love her God with all her heart, her mind, her soul and strength. And I know, without a doubt, the rest will follow. -

- - - - -
Thursdays here on The Girl that Sings are specifically for that. I need you and your passionate opinions and experiences. Just remember to be respectful. Bring on the comment conversations.