In late July our family landed in Montana during our approximate 6500 mile trip. That time in Montana served as the culmination of thoughts swirling in my head and burnings of my heart for over 2 years. That month and a half probably looked like some type of vacation to those on Facebook or Instagram. But without a doubt it was the most fruitful time and strategic step we have ever taken as a family and as a married couple.
With that said, as part of that time, Grace and I instituted a specific schedule based on seeking the Lord, that would serve the vision and heart we have as a family. And it has bore much fruit over the last 6 months. We would see glimpses of the same type of fruit prior to that time but we knew that we could no longer “wing it” in seeking to act on the vision that was in our hearts. If we did, we would continue to get consistently shipwrecked, grow easily discouraged and eventually give up under the pressures of this age. Especially living on the road for stints of time as well as all the distractions that this life has to offer. The amount of pressure that our last trip created on all levels of life, is insane, to say the least. And the temptation of the flesh is to reach for comfort when the pressure bares down. Therefore, locking some things in place concerning how our life functions, was on the Lord’s heart for us and it was a gracious gift He gave while we were in Montana.
To give you a glimpse, I now spend part of the morning with the kids while Grace is able to break away and pursue the Lord alongside life’s logistics. While I am with the kids we take time to “zero in” on the Scriptures, worship and listen to the Lord. We usually focus on a portion of Scripture and then either sing about it, pray around it, craft it, act it and a host of other things. Sometimes we spend a week on one short portion of Scripture.
So, where am I going with this? Well, today I sat down to work and happened to hit a button on the keyboard of my computer as I cleaned it. It brought up Voice Memos that have been downloaded from my iPhone. Most voice memos recorded on my phone are from my times singing around Scripture with the kids. I record some of our times in hopes that at some point I can use it to form a song that we as a family can sing together again and again. For instance, I have only formally put together one song called Strengthen Me that was birthed from snippets of our family singing around the Scripture together. When our family sings that specific song, it means a lot because it was birthed in the midst of us crying out through difficult times.
Now getting back to the story, while looking at iTunes on my computer screen I clicked on one Voice Memo that was recently recorded in our family devo time with the kids. It was at that point that I felt like if I can’t take tons of time to sit and formally write a blog post every so often, why not do small posts on some of these songs from our devo times, while posting the raw song to hopefully encourage someone who listens.
So, here I am. Ready to ramble a little about specific devo times we have as a family and then post some raw audio to go with it.
It seems that our family’s renewed vision could bear fruit worthy of renewing my blog as well. Here’s to trying.
Stay tuned.