Listen To Christian Music

When I was a kid we used to listen to the radio all the time in the car.

You should know that there was ONLY one kind of music.

No, not only one kind we listened to, to my knowledge there was ONE type of music.

And that was country!

Dad did NOT listen to any other kinds of music, EVER!

He knew what he liked and that’s all us kids ever knew.

So, to our knowledge, there was only one type of music in the world.

Then one day I got in the car with mom and a song came on that I didn’t recognize. It sounded different.

I mean WAY different.

She was listening to a Christian station.

Trying to be funny like my dad, I teased her about not listening to country music. So, she quickly changed the channel back to the normal station.

If she only knew now what I listen to. (She probably does. Lol)

That instant right there opened up my eyes, and ears to other types of music.

I started experimenting with different stations that I could find when dad or my brother wasn’t in the car with us. Mom was always game to give us a little free reign on the radio.

It took me years to find the Christian station though.

I still remember when I worked for the county. There was one person named Darrell and he was studying to be a preacher. He was fully engulfed in the Christian lifestyle.

Occasionally I would jump in his truck and it was always tuned to the local Christian station.

At first, I would automatically change the channel. Then after a while, I decided to give his station a try. I would listen to it for ½ a day and give it a real try.

To begin with, I wasn’t really comfortable listening to it. I mean what if someone heard me listening to Christian music? What would they think of me?

I should mention that at this point I was not a GREAT Christian. I was what I call a Sunday Christian. I prayed when I needed help and that was about it.

Anyways!

When I got ready to switch the station at noon I took a moment to see how I felt.

I wanted to see if it made a REAL difference listening to Christian music over other types of music.

Here’s what I found.

I felt less stressed out. Some weight was lifted off my shoulders. And my mood was better than it was when I listened to pop or country music.

From that point for the next week, I experimented. Every chance I got (when I was alone) I would tune into the Christian station. Then I would ask myself if I felt any different after listening to it for a while.

I noticed a MAJOR difference.

God wants us to be in tune with him, and when we listen to uplifting music that is centered around God it brings us unconsciously closer to him.

If you have been around me recently you know that I have a new saying.

If you hang out with 5 millionaires, then you will become the 6th. if you hang around with 5 drug addicts, then you will become the 6th. Whoever you hang around is who you become. So be cautious with who you spend the most time around.

This saying goes the same with Christians.

If you surround yourself with great Christians, it is easier to live a God-filled life!

That’s it for now.

Remember that my 7 secrets for living a God-filled life is

Pray, multiple times a day
Read the Bible daily
Listen to Christian music
Look for God’s hand in everything
Talk about God
Proclaim your faith publicly
Surround yourself with believers

Take Action

Do you already listen to Christian music?

If so great!

If not, I want you to do the same experiment I did.

Choose to find some good Christian songs (I like Newsboys, Crowder, Casting Crowns, Jamie Grace, Mercy Me, just to name a few) and listen to them for 30 minutes.

Then after you get done, take a self-evaluation to see if you feel any difference.

I want you to do this for 1 week.

Another thing to do is increase the amount of time you listen to Christian music every day for that week.

Who knows, you might replace more of your time listening to music with Christian music.

Prayer

Lord, I would like to take a lyric from a song to start this prayer. Give me faith like Daniel in the lion’s den. Give me hope like Moses in the wilderness. Give me a heart like David, Lord be my defense So, I can face my giants with confidence. Sanctus Real did a great job giving us advice and wisdom with the song Confidence.

God, we know that there are many different ways to worship you. One of those is through music. Another is through reading the Bible. And another is through praying. Today lord, I would like to pray for your strength in sharing your word with the world. I pray that you help us to never stop sharing your words. Help us to always talk about you. Help us to surround ourselves with other STRONG Christians so we can become better Christian ourselves.

Lord, I also want to thank you for everything you have done for us. I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you and our tribe. One last thing God, I pray that you continue to bless us with guidance and wisdom to move forward in the direction you need us to for you.

We ask all these things in your precious Son’s name.

Amen.

A Little More

If you follow me at all you probably know that I grew up in the Grange.

The Grange is an amazing organization that was created back in the civil war era to help farmers from the north and south trade crops.

Now it has transformed into a family and community organization that has helped bring many things to life on a local, state, and national level.

As a kid, we would always go to the monthly meetings that happened locally. My parents are also very involved at the county level. So we would go to the county meeting every other month. They are also very involved at the state level. So a couple of times a year we would do things with the Grange on a state level.

And you guessed it, they are also very involved at the national level. So we would go to the National convention as much as possible.

As kids, my parents would try their best to get to the national convention every other year.

When I was young, probably in the third grade. We made the trek to the national convention in Peoria, IL.

We didn’t fly, we drove!

So in November we loaded up in our Crown Victoria (Ford) and started heading toward Illinois.

We had just bought this car and it was LOADED! I mean it had AC, cruise control, power seats for both the driver and the passenger, and best of all it had a cassette player! We were traveling in luxury.

The day before we left mom, surprised dad with the NEW Allen Jackson tape that was just released.

Allen Jackson was dad’s FAVORITE singer.

We were all so excited! I mean, new music, a new car, going on a trip.This is just awesome.

As we started the trip we listened to the radio until we’d driven so far that we lost the radio station.

Then dad popped in that Allen Jackson tap. The first time through the tap we all listened with fascination to the songs.

After the side of the cassette tape was finished this car was so fancy that it automatically started paying the other side! WHAT KIND OF MAGIC IS THIS!!!!!!

I still remember that dad was about to eject the tape and flip it over, but he didn’t have to and was in awe of just how cool our new car really was.

Little did we know that this magic of not having to flip the tape over would soon be detrimental to everyone in the car except for dad. Lol.

Usually, we would listen to one side of an album then we would pop out the tape, and as we turned it over mom would search the radio stations looking for another country station we could tune into.