I Can't Keep From Singing!

This past weekend, I got the chance to spend the whole weekend with two of my best friends: Katie Duncan and Ashlee Gormer. Katie and I have been planning this weekend for at LEAST 3 years. When the weekend finally came, I was beyond excited! We had so much fun. We rode around Monroe, played Wal-Mart Bingo, danced to Payphone, and went to church. Katie and Ashlee go to Bible Baptist Church in Monroe, Ga. This is also the church that our music school teacher, Stephen Butler, holds the position of Choir Director. He had NO IDEA I was there, we were planning on surprising him. To be honest, I was surprised that we had kept this a secret! When we walked into our Sunday School room (he taught our class), he freaked out. I was so happy that he was happy to see me! haha. To some people, that would've been a horrible surprise.

I ended up staying til the night service and sang with Stephen and Ashlee. We sang Justin and Jason Myers' song "I Love To Sing." Man, they didn't know when they picked the song, but I needed to be reminded of that fact alone: I love to sing! We rocked it and then I had to head back to little ol' Blairsville shortly after.

While I was "on the road again," a song came on my iPod entitled: "Remind Me of The Cross" by Brian Free and Assurance. This song talks about whenever we feel like we need to complain, that God would bring the Cross back into our minds. Well, that Sunday afternoon, I took it a totally different way.

While listening to the song, all I could think about how truly blessed I am, and how much I don't deserve anything I have. My mind travelled through the weekend. I had so much fun and many memories were made. I just couldn't understand why Jesus would go through all that pain just so I could have blessings like Katie, Ashlee and Stephen (just to name a few of course). So, being the emotional person I am, I cried and prayed. I prayed for Katie and her family, Ashlee, Stephen, their church, and their choir. I prayed and cried until I had to look at my GPS on my phone.

Now that car ride home was an experience on it's own. God showed me so much in that car ride, but little did I know that I was gonna need that weekend later through the week.

This has been a trying week. We have no money. At all (the man daddy was working for wouldn't pay him...). I saw my daddy cry because he didn't know how we were gonna make it. I decided it would be better to go and work this semester instead of going to college to save for college and pay my way through and help the family. And today mom just told me that we may not be able to drive to Hayesville to go to our church anymore because we can't afford it. That was a hard blow.

After knowing most of this story, I just didn't know what to do. I texted Katie Duncan and told her most of what was going on, and she promised that she would be praying. After that conversation, I decided I was going to go to bed. I laid down and was listening to my iPod. I put it on shuffle and listened for a while.

I was about to take my headphones out of my ears and go to sleep when this song I had never heard came up. I looked at the song title and artist. It was "I Can't Keep From Singing" by Sisters. I decided to listen to it because I love Sisters and it seemed like a song I would like. The song talked about how they knew that life wasn't a bed of Roses but they couldn't help but sing because of all the things God has done in their lives.

As I laid listening, I thought about the weekend I just had (before I knew all about the stuff at home). It was the BEST. I knew God had orchestrated the whole weekend to remind me that He loves me. Even if I am going through a valley, I still have a song to sing (which reminds me of another Brian Free and Assurance song)! Everything will work out the way it's supposed to, but until then, I have my family, my friends, my music school family and church to lean on. "I can't keep from singin', dancin', gotta tell the world about the freedom that I've found!"