A whirlwind of thoughts...

These past few days have been very emotional and very spiritual, for me. Tragedy makes you put things into perspective as what is truly important in this world. As I have drawn close to the Lord he has revealed some things to me. There is a song that just keeps popping into my head. It is called The Blessing by John Waller. If you want to listen to it click play and there is a link with the lyrics below.

The first words of the song are so powerful. It says, "Let it be said of us while we walked among the living. Let it be said of us by the ones we leave behind. Let it be said of us that we lived to be a blessing for life." For most of the lyrics to this song go here. One of the most powerful lines in the song isn't on the lyrics but it says, "Will we build up or tear down? The moment of truth now, this day."

When songs come in my head like that I like to dissect them and really look at the meanings in them. Songs are so powerful, as our pastor said a few weeks ago and if you don't believe that then you are lying to yourself! I remember in High School, I always turned to music happy, sad, or whatever mood I was in. I digress. The point is I want to be a blessing for life. I want to teach my children to be blessings. This morning the kids and I listened to this song and discussed what it meant to be a blessing. How blessings and curses are choices that we make. Lastly, we talked about the line about building up and tearing down. I think that one hit home the most with them (the two older) as we have talked about that over the last few weeks. We also talked about how blessings come in many different forms. Gifts of money, material gifts (clothing, toys, shelter etc) and being a good friend.
Money is always a hard lesson for people to learn and quiet honestly I'm still learning how to balance it but feel like God is really helping me release my need to horde my money just in case. That is a huge freedom and God has really blessed us through that. We actually have more when I gave it to him then we I tried to do it the worlds way of saving.
I am a pack rat and J will tell you that I am. I have things that I just can't get rid of because "what if we need it someday". I don't want my children to think that possessions are the end all be all. We go through their rooms about every 6 months and donate toys. I need to get better in this area. Our church is having a garage sale to raise money for the High School kids going on a Mexico missions trip. I want to be a blessing to those kids and donate the things I think I might need later...because really I'm not going to need them or miss them.
Lastly, being a good friend. If I am going to teach my children to be good friends I need to show them how to be a good friend. I will be honest this one comes a little more easily to me. I like people and I enjoy meeting new people and making friends. I still feel as though I need to go deeper and care a little more about their hurts and joys then I currently do. I think there is always room for improvement, right?
This sounds like a huge task, at least I think it does but I know that the Lord will give me strength to work in these areas in my life because "Let it be said of me that I lived to be a blessing for life." I want to choose to be a blessing, how about you?