"It's a Lord I Lift Your Name!"

Without going into too many details I will say that there was once a time in my life where the very simple song, "Lord I Lift Your Name on High," was a very powerful tool for me.

I was afraid, and lost and needed hope. I needed a Savior.

In that moment full of shear panic and stress, I remembered my mother telling me once as child that if I ever I felt overcome by the enemy that I needed only to invoke the name of Jesus and that the best way to do that was to sing a song about God. The only problem in that moment was that I could not recall a single song about the Lord.

Now consider this, I have sat in church every Sunday my entire life as preacher's kid listening to and singing every hymn in the book since I was old enough to sit in a pew, and probably even before. And not just Sunday mornings. Sunday nights, too. And Wednesdays! I have been to more youth and children's camps than I can remember as a participant and a leader. I have sung in adult worship choirs and led children's choirs. Singing and praising Jesus through song was just as much a part of my upbringing as lullabies and nursery rhymes. In fact, many of the songs I know my parents and grandparents sang over me were hymns. And on that night when the enemy pressed in, I had just that day been doing a lot of driving, two hours one way and two hours back, and I had listened to the Christian radio station the whole way. But in that moment, my mind was scrambled it seemed, and nothing, not one single note came to me.

Me with two of the women who taught me hymns as a child, my mother and grandmother.

I leaned in hard at the door of my heart pushing in as close as I could, trying fervently to heed my mother's words. Somewhere deep within in the distance I faintly heard a whisper of this song. A flickering like an old home movie in my mind of youth camp at Latham Springs. All us kids with arms lifted high and singing to the Lord, as Daddy and Roger sang and played the guitar.

We probably sang that song a thousand times that summer. So much that it almost became too worn out or tired in our feeble minds, but in that moment the power of those words that my human brain had grown accustomed to as a preacher's kid rang out true.

The gospel preached in just a few short lines.

"You came from heaven to earth/To show the way/From the earth to the cross/My debt to pay/From the cross to the grave/ From the grave to the sky/ Lord I lift your name on high!"

And the instant those words left my lips the clouds that surrounded me parted, the sky opened up and I was free from what had been entangling me.

I taught that song to Campbell recently. I wanted to start teaching him some praise songs as part of our bedtime routine and I knew that one had fun hand motions he would enjoy.

(Side note, if you know me, you know how much I love that his little repertoire of bedtime songs now includes Pedro the Lion's, "Lullaby," "Moon River," "Skinnamariny Dinky Dink," "You are My Sunshine," and now "Lord I Lift Your Name on High." Next on my list is James Taylor!)

I hadn't really considered at first the magnitude of what I was teaching him. Not fully. But then one night as we sang, it sort of hit me that they were just words to him in a way. And so I wanted to make sure he understood, at least on his own level, what the words meant. I wanted them to have a power of their own for him.

It was near Easter and so we read the little book that my parents had given him a couple of years ago that very simply tells the story of what that time of year is all about. I explained to him that the message of that book was the same as what he was singing and tried to very carefully help him understand it on a most basic level. I wasn't sure he really got it.

But in the last few weeks since that night it has become evident to me that in some ways he understands Jesus and that song I taught him more than even I do.

Each time we pass a church with a cross on it as we go from place to place, he gets excited and exclaims with great joy,

"It's a Lord I Lift Your Name!"

That one phrase has convicted me greatly each time he has said it. It's as if the Lord has reminded me that this is exactly what I am to be as a parent, as a true Christian, to the world around me.

For in his faith like a child he has changed the way I see the cross. When I was almost timid to share with him about death and resurrection, fearful that he could not wrap his young mind around it, the Lord was at work even in his young heart showing him what the cross was made to be. No longer a symbol of death, but an arrow pointing to God and to love and to the power of humble men and women lifting high His name.

I pray that I too can become a "Lord I Lift Your Name."

I pray that when my girls, when Campbell, when my husband, when the world looks at me, I will be pointing them to Jesus and to the power of what I have seen Him do in my life.

I feel a very strong conviction lately that great and mighty things are at work in the life of my family and in the life of this campus. It's as if all the troops are mobilizing and getting into position and we are starting to see the fruits of our labor. And thus, the enemy is at work overtime. He hates the strongholds we are breaking that He has held for so long over these cottages, and he hates to see God's children moving toward the light.

Please pray for all of us here as we work day in and day out with the children in our homes.

Please pray for us to hold steadfast to our callings despite the pressures we face.

Pray for us to see what is happening for what it truly is.

Pray for us the thick skins to endure.

Pray for us to seek and to find the scriptures to sustain us.

Pray for us to lean on each other and on Him.

This may sound strange to pray for a bunch of adults, but pray for us to have Godly friends that we find here in the area. Many of us are transplants to this area and our families are far away. We need Godly council and love right here at home, too.

Pray for us to not grow weary but to be renewed by the Spirit who is at work in this place.

Pray for us to see the good works we are doing that so we may be encouraged by them.

Pray for us to hear that still small voice whispering His songs of praise

powerful enough to sustain us.

Pray for us the strength to sing them back to Him.

And, most of all, pray for us to be the living embodiment of what we sing.

We are so thankful for all your prayers. We honestly could not do what we do without them. Its a busy time of the year and much is going on so as always I will leave you with pics below of our life lately here at BGC.

Bug measures up to the apes at the zoo. We recently took some vacation days and just sort of had a stay-cation, visiting the Houston Zoo one day. Thanks to a friend of our Karen Harris, for hooking us up with awesome tickets!!!!!

Bug and Dada going ape!

Campbell with his favorite, the elephants!

He could have stood here all day watching them!!

We are so proud of our senior Billie for making the decision to go onto our college and career program and for getting accepted to Lone Star Community College.

We are also very proud of the $5,000 scholarship that she received at the awards banquet.

Brianna also won some awards for band recently. We are proud of her accomplishments receiving superior rating at solo and ensemble for UIL and for earning 2nd Lieutenant honors in their band rankings.