Week #10- Free To Be Me

Yay! It's officially the tenth week of my songs! :) And even though I have like 200 favorite songs, I am running out of new songs to write about :)

The only reason is because I am trying to do a variety of artists and a lot of the songs I want to do are from one or two artists :)

But I will try to find more, new songs to write about.

In honor of the tenth week :) I will do a song by Francesca Battistelli. Right now it's a very popular song and the music video just recently premiered. You can watch it *HERE*

Francesca has also recently gotten engaged so yeah! :)

The lyrics for 'Free To Be Me' you can read *HERE*

Both of these links are on Francesca Battistelli's website.

Just for some background, Francesca wrote this song after she backed into a lawyer's car, (hence the lyric 'I got a couple dents in my fender'

Of course, she was upset, but on her way home she came up with this song and realized that even though she had her problems, she was free to be herself. She knew that God made her a unique person, as He did with everyone.

Like all the other songs I have written about, this song can apply to everyone. God made us all special and He made us all different. One of my favorite lines is, "perfection is my enemy."

We can try our very hardest but we will never be perfect, and we shouldn't want to be perfect! If we spend our whole lives striving for perfection, then we will never be happy with who we are. God made us in a special way and we have to come to the point where we realize that He made us the way we are for a reason.

This song really has some amazing lines in it so I would encourage you to read the lyrics and watch the video :)

It's amazing to know that we are all free to be ourselves, no matter how many times we may screw up or how many times we feel like we aren't good enough, we are free to be exactly who we are! Whether we have dents in our fenders or rips in our jeans, the way God created us is special and unique just because He created us.

-Amy

Week #9-'Whatever You're Doing' by Sanctus Real

I'm back :)
I haven't written in awhile but I know it's time to talk about another song. I'm sitting here looking through all of my songs. There are so many that I want to do but I am trying to get a large variety of artists and all the songs i am looking at are by artists that I have already done, so I will try and pick a different one.
One of my favorite bands is definitely Sanctus Real and there are at least 3 songs by them that I want to do. One of them talks a lot about being 'real' which I know I have talked about before in my first song. It's called 'I'm Not Alright'. Click *HERE* to see the music video.
It's an amazing song, but I am actually going to do a different one today.
I am going to do 'Whatever You're Doing', click *HERE* to see this music video.

Click *HERE* for the lyrics.

So, I absolutely love this song. Mostly because when you're going through a hard time or basically trying to live life in general, sometimes you don't realize that God is working inside of you. You forget that He is working on you and changing you second by second, day by day.
I love the lines in this song that say, "Whatever you're doing inside of me, it feels like chaos but somehow there's peace."
I just LOVE that line. Just knowing that God is working inside of you and doing all these things, but you can still have peace. I am the kind of person that "freaks out" a lot. I get stressed easily and sometimes I don't take the time to relax and i never feel that sense of peace. When I listen to this song, I realize that God has given me that peace. Even though He is constantly working inside of me, He has still given me peace and I can rest in that.
We can all rest in the fact that God is working like crazy inside of us and though it may feel like chaos there is still peace.
Another good line that I love says, "It's hard to surrender to what I can't see, but I'm giving in to something heavenly."
That goes along well with the song 'Surrender' by BarlowGirl. I talked about how we hold on so tightly to our lives and never just let them go and surrender them to God. It's when we do that, when we surrender our lives completely to God, I think that we see Him working. It's at that point that we feel the peace come over us. When we just release everything we have to Him, we feel that sense of peace. Even with the chaos, there will be peace and it will feel heavenly.

:) Amy

"Would you really leave me God?"

So, this morning I was sitting at the table and typing up a little... "article" I guess you could call it, so I am going to post it :) Here you go:

So, for years and years and years, for as long as I can remember we have the “Footsteps in the Sand” story on our bathroom wall. It has been there since I was very young and every time I walked into the bathroom, I knew it was there. For all those years and years, I thought that I knew the story and just assumed that I had read it before.
Well, one day I walked into the bathroom and looked up at the wall where it hung. I had accidentally dropped it a few minutes earlier and when I went to hang it back up, I actually looked at the words and started reading them. I read the whole story and was amazed. This story had been on my wall in a small picture frame for so many years and I had never taken the time to read it. I just assumed all my life that I already knew what it was about; when in reality I had never read or understood it, until that one day in the bathroom. For me, it definitely felt like one of those “God moments” if you will. I read the story and it just opened my eyes. The best part of this story is the very end. There is this man and his whole life there have two sets of footprints in the sand. His and God’s right next to his. His whole life, He has known that God has been right there with him. Then, when he reaches one of the hardest points in his life, he looks down and notices that there is only one set of footprints in the sand. So, he says, “God, I don’t understand why when I needed you most you would leave me.” So, then God replies to him, and says, “My son, my precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you only see one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.” AMAZING! That’s all I could say after I read that. It just really made me feel so glad to read that.
One of my favorite books of all time that I would recommend to ANYONE is ‘The Shack’ by William P. Young. I know that the amount of criticism towards this book is huge, but from my experience reading it as only a young teenager, I can say that it’s a life-changing book. In the book, Mack (the protagonist) goes through the hardest point in his life when his youngest daughter, Missy is abducted and killed. Mack deals with a loss of hope, and a loss of faith through this. Years later, God (whom Mack calls, Papa) writes Mack a note and asks him to return to ‘The Shack’ where Missy’s clothes were found drenched in blood. After much thought, Mack returns to the Shack. The rest of the book talks about his encounter with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Of course, like anyone, Mack thought that God left him, during this time in his life. We all, as humans, believe that when we need God the most, He leaves us. But it’s not true. Just like the Footsteps story, and just like Mack in the Shack, when we are at our hardest, lowest points in life, God is there. Just like he is there every other moment in our lives. We tend to think that just because our lives are terrible, God is not there, but the truth is, He is. God is there when we feel like we don’t need Him, and God is there when we need Him most. He is not just there when we need Him, but He is there, carrying us through whatever situation.
If you ever look down and see just one set of footprints in the sand, never think that God left you, because he never would. When you see one set of footprints beneath you, you will always know that God is carrying you in His arms.
The bible says in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.’ Says the Lord.”God made a promise in His word that He would never leave us. I know He never will. Even when it feels as though He has, we have to hold tight to our faith and know that he never will.

Shoes... and the Bible....

So, for the past few days, I have really felt like taking pictures! I don't have a very large family, so instead I walk around looking for things to take photographs of.

Today I found my brother's shoes (black and grey checkered Vans) and my mom's leather bound bible.
Here are the results of my picture taking yearn and my boredom :)

View all the pictures and more *HERE* (youtube video slideshow)

Who I am Hates Who I've Been- Week #8

OK, so I know that I need to do another song. I was going to do a Sanctus Real song, but changed my mind. Then, I was going to do a FireFlight song... changed my mind again! :)
I think I'll settle on one of my all time favorite songs (by all time favorite songs, of course I mean in my list of top 200!) called 'Who I Am Hates Who I've Been' by Relient K.
Check out the music video *HERE*.

OK, so... I asked my brother if he had anything to say about this song so I could add in one of his (not so famous) quotes... all he could say was, "It rocks."
So, I could leave it at that... or like usual, I could share the lyrics and give my personal view on this song........
We'll go with the second one.

Since my blog is getting longer and longer, I think I will post the link for the lyrics instead because then my blog won't make you scroll down for hours :) So, click *HERE* for the lyrics to Relient K, 'Who I am Hates Who I've Been.'

Now, on with my personal view....
The first line of this song says, "I watched the proverbial sunrise, coming out over the Pacific ..."
My dad always says he just absolutely loves this line because supposedly seeing the sunrise coming out over the Pacific is almost impossible. This verse goes on to say, "You might think I'm losing my mind, but I will shy away from the specifics." and more...
But anyways, here is just the chorus...

I'm sorry for the person I became.
I'm sorry that it took so long for me to change.
I'm ready to be sure I never become that way again
'cause who I am hates who I've been.

I really love this song because it's so true. The person that we have been either years ago, or even months ago is a different person, (most likely) than the person we are today. My dad always says, "I hate that guy I was back then."
and its true. Even with myself, I am so upset with the person that I was months ago. The things that I did, said, and the way I lived was different than the way it is now (not that I'm fully satisfied with who I am now, but it's different).
For me, the beauty of this song is that we can take the person we are now and the person we were back then and look at the two, and see how God has changed us.

You can look at it like a movie, where the main character starts out living wrong and doing wrong things, but by the end of the movie, he has changed into a new person.
Just think how amazing it is that God can change us all. God can take what we were and change it into what we are now. We all may hate who we used to be, but what we became as a result of that is always better. We all learn, we all grow, and we all change through Christ and I just love that!

Later in the song the lyrics say, 'And who I am will take the second chance you gave me.'
We are so lucky that we have a God of second chances, a God who forgives and then changes us. I think that we all have things in our past that we are not proud of, but the fact that God gives us a second chance, a second try, and changes us through that is just amazing!

By the way, I encourage you to watch the music video! It's great!!! Click *HERE* for the link again.

Flowers =]

Ok, so I haven't written about a song in awhile, but I promise it's coming! ... Soon!!

But anyways, until then, I just made this picture with all of my flower pictures in it and wanted to post it. Enjoy! :)

Who Owns You?

Neal Boortz asked the question on his June8 radio show: “Who owns you?” He was, of course, approaching the question from the present political situation in the US. His point was that if the government continues to grow in power and influence, the government will ‘own’ us. In other words, they will ‘control’ our lives, by controlling our healthcare, our industry, our spending power etc. etc. His conclusion was his Libertarian gospel of self-determination and personal responsibility. The last thing he said on this subject was: “I am my own.”

I certainly agree with many of Neal’s talking points on limited government, personal responsibility and fiscal discipline, but the 2 quotes listed above triggered other thoughts in my heart.

He asked: “Who owns you?” Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (New International Version)

He concluded: “I am my own,” yet the verse above says the opposite. This thought process is like many others of faith – it is multi-faceted. We were purchased with the sacrifice of Christ, but it doesn’t seem like the emphasis was on ownership in the possessive sense like a master to a slave. We see the facet of adoption in the redemption. We see the facet of marriage in the redemption. The redemptive, purchasing, sacrificial love of God produces in us the response of voluntary surrender to Him. When he said: “I am my own,” I immediately thought of this verse: My lover is mine and I am his; Song of Solomon 2:16 (New International Version).

Why must I control? Why must I self-determine? Why must I be the Pilot-In-Command and relegate Father to the right seat? Can I respond to what He has done with surrender? Can I rest in his easy yoke and his light burden?
I am not my own. I am loved by Father.

Galatians 2:20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

****Post written by Mark Yarick (my dad)****