Music - How I Pray

I love music. All kinds. I like everything from Boys II Men to Frank Sinatra to Nickelback to John Denver to Stevie Wonder to Boston to Beastie Boys to Air Supply...well, you get the idea. I believe my love of music was instilled in me from the start by my dad. He's a real music lover as well. His tastes don't venture oput quite as far as mine. He sticks to R&B and disco and Motown for the most part. (Yes, yes my dad is white) But my dad always cranks up his favorite songs and really ENJOYS them! Music can be powerful like that.

Often this is how I pray. More than anything else, for probably about the past 5 years or so, I've listened to Christian music. I love it. It's not the sweet sappy cornball stuff people tend to think it is. It is often very powerful, very current music. The lyrics are relevant and timely. At least the songs that I enjoy are that way. I listen to it most in the suburban with the kiddos. They love it too. They sing right along and we even discuss the meaning or point of the song's lyrics when it ends. It's a great teaching tool that way.

There are other times though that the kids are just spacing out looking out the window and I am able to drive and listen more deeply. I pray the words. I offer up the joy I feel from the song as a gift to the Lord. I talk to God through the song. This is how I pray. I find that I am taken closer to Him in these moments than the times when I try to pray a formal prayer. So, in this way the music has been such a blessing to me. It has gotten me to a place in my prayer life where I rely less on words and more on just being in His presence. I can just "absorb" Him into my heart. It is an awesome and often overwhelming feeling...I feel a little embarrassed so I'll end here.