'By Your Side' By Tenth Avenue North

So, it's time to blog about another song, but before I get to that, I just want to inform everyone who cares... about my life. I started college classes on Monday, and they are going good. It's definitely different than of course, what I'm used to but I like it. I am super tired all the time, but a 3 day weekend sure is making up for it :) So, I'm taking English, History, Ethics, and Algebra, and so far, I'm enjoying them all. So there's the school part of my life.

Also, I pre ordered BarlowGirl's new CD, Love & War and as of today it is coming out in 13 days :) So, I am super excited! Also, as far as I know, my family and I will be going to another BarlowGirl concert! This year, on November 13, BarlowGirl is coming to Florida for their Live Superchick/BarlowGirl tour, and we are planning on going, so of course I'm super excited for that!

It's going to be a great end of the year :)

September- BarlowGirl's new CD, October- Close family is coming over! :) November- BarlowGirl Concert! and then of course December-CHRISTMAS!

(To read more about BarlowGirl's new CD and hear song clips, click... *HERE* (Which will lead you to BarlowGirl's fansite) or you can just go to their website. BarlowGirl.com.

So, there's some lovely info about my exciting life. :) Just kidding.

Now, it's time for the song of the week. So, this week I'm choosing 'By Your Side' by Tenth Avenue North. This is a band that actually grew up in my Dad's home town of West Palm Beach, Florida and met at Palm Beach Atlantic, before it even became a university. The band name 'Tenth Avenue North' comes from the name of the street where 2 of the band member's house was located. So anyways, 'By Your Side' was one of their biggest hit songs that hit #1 and stayed there for 3 weeks. It will also be one of the tracks on WOW 2010 coming out this year in October. Read the lyrics *HERE* and watch the music video *HERE*. (If you wish to)

This song is written from God's perspective, talking to us, which sometimes I don't like songs like that, but I really like this one. The chorus of the song says:

I'll be by your side wherever you fall

In the dead of night whenever you call

Please don't fight these hands that are holding you

My hands are holding you

So, lately... well for awhile now, when I talk to God (which is all day, every day) I always tend to say to Him, "Please just hold my hand the whole way." That's what seems to get me through my days. Like, on my way to class this week, I always just asked God to hold my hand the whole way and not let me go. For me, whenever I'm nervous or anything, it's just so reassuring to know that God is by my side and with me all the time. It's reassuring to know that my hand is in His and he will not ever let go, which is exactly what this song is saying. I can't even go on and one about this song or elaborate it anymore. All I can say is exactly what the lyrics say. God is just always with us. Through our dark nights, through our tough times, through the fire, through everything, God is always by our side, holding us. So, when we're dealing with something hard, isn't it just the biggest reassurance to know that God is with us through it all? God is holding our hand the whole time. Whether we're starting school, starting work, dealing with family issues, or whatever, God is there with us as we go through it. His scarred, big, strong hands hold our small, weak ones as we deal with the troubles of this life. Not even just the troubles, God is by our side through the great times in our lives too, since we all know that life isn't all bad. :) God's there through it all, good, bad, easy, hard, he's there, By Our Side, leading us through.

The bridge of the song says:

And I, I love you

And I want you to know

That I, I'll love you

I'll never let you go

I think I've mentioned enough that God loves us SO much, but hey, you want to hear it again? Can you ever hear that enough?! :) My favorite line is the last one. "I'll never let you go."

We can screw up a million times, and completely fall, but God won't let us go. His hand will be in ours even when we fail, and He'll be there to pick us right back up, because He'll never let go of us. We are his children and His love is greater than anything mistake we could make. His strong, powerful hand is there, holding us and ready to pick us up. He will never, ever let go of us... NEVER!

*Amy :)

Update and My Coupon Mom :)

Ok, so just for a little update, I am starting college tomorrow. (nervous as can be)

I will probably post about it after my first day or week, so you can hear all about it :)

I will also write about another song soon, when I get the chance, and start thinking of new ideas for my blog.

I think that when I hit 20 songs of the week, I am going to stop and start something new :) If that's ok. (At the moment, I'm thinking picture of the week :)

I also wanted to share a blog with you.

My mom is a coupon mom, as is my Aunt. My mom saves hundreds of dollars on groceries (if not more) each week. She has finally decided to share her gift with the world so that others can also save lots of money, in this time of economic meltdowns.

So, she has started a blog called 'Coupons... make shopping a pleasure' (named after the wonderful Publix's motto)

So, please check out her blog here at http://happy-savings.blogspot.com/

She has just started today, but it will continue to grow over time.

I made the lovely 'Dutch' banner :)

Have a great week everyone!!!! Those who are staring back at school, good luck!!!!

*Amy :)

Broken by Lifehouse

I decided to go ahead and do another song since I've been late every other time :)

So, there's a movie out now called 'The Time Traveler's Wife'

I haven't seen it, but I have seen many trailer and previews for it. The preview that I have seen many times now plays a song called Broken by Lifehouse. Just by listening to the song, I could feel lots of emotion. It's an amazing song and I based that opinion just on hearing it from a commercial and a preview for a movie that I probably wouldn't go see.

So a few days ago, my brother heard the same song on the radio station in the car, and I was like, "I thought it sounded like a 'Christian' song." I said this because we listen to what you can label as 'Christian' radio. So, from that I assumed that this was a 'Christian song' by a 'Christian band.'

Well anyways, yesterday I looked it up and discovered that this is not what we would label as a 'Christian band' but just a normal rock, alternative group. I watched the music video for the song, which you can see *HERE* and read the lyrics, which through my eyes seemed as though they were talking to God. The lyrics, much like the song are very powerful and after researching and reading comments, I found out the story behind the song::: Jason Wade, member of the band had a friend that lived in Nashville who needed a kidney transplant. Wade flew out to Nashville to see his friend while he was in he hospital and when he spoke to him, the chorus of this song is what his friend told him. It was basically his friend's words to God.

Here are the lyrics to the chorus:

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart that's still beating
In the pain there is healing
In your name I find meaning

So, here's someone who is at the end of their life, breathing their last breaths, and the only thing that they are holding on to, the only thing that is keeping them alive is God. I love that so much, because it doesn't only have to apply to someone who is at the end of their lives, but it can apply to all of us. No matter what we are going through, it can be a reassurance to us to know that we can always hold on to God, we can always find meaning in His name. Another section in this song says,

I'm hanging on another day
Just to see what you will throw my way
And I'm hanging on to the words you say
You said that I would, would be ok

More meaningful, powerful words. I think that it is just such an amazing thing to know that through anything we go through and through anything that happens, we can hold on to God, and we can be assured by his words that say we'll be OK. There is nothing else in this whole world that has that reassurance. There is nothing else that we can hold onto with our lives besides God. His hand is holding all of ours.

If you wanted a mental picture, it's kind of like falling off the end of a cliff (popular movie scene). When you look down, the fall is endless and you know you would die, but right when your last finger slips off the edge, a bigger, stronger hand catches you and keeps you from falling. You hold on to that hand with your whole life. It's that same way with God. No matter how hard our lives get, no matter how often we think we're going to fall off the cliff, God always catches us and we can always hold on to Him.

So, that's the message you get from a band that is not labeled "Christian."

*Amy :)

One Word... LOVE

Wow, so it’s been a crazy, crazy, tough week. There are so many songs that could describe this week. One that’s really big on my heart, especially for my family is a song called ‘She Walked Away’ by BarlowGirl, but because of the circumstances, I’m actually going to choose a different song for this week. Besides, haven’t I done enough BarlowGirl songs? Or could there ever be enough? Haha, no, I’ll go ahead and do a song by yet another female artist named Britt Nicole.

So, today my Dad talked a lot about relationships. Not our relationships with each other but God’s relationship with us. Sometimes we find ourselves doing all these crazy things to get God’s “acceptance” or to "find" God’s love, or to gain something, but maybe in reality all God wants is US! He just wants a relationship with us. It doesn’t have to revolve around anything and we don’t have to do anything for it. So, I was thinking and looking for a song to describe what he was saying. A few came through my ahead like ‘Psalm 73’ by BarlowGirl, ‘Love Is Here’ by Tenth Avenue North, and many more, now that I think of it, but I will choose ‘You’ by Britt Nicole because I haven’t done one of her songs yet.

Read the lyrics to this whole song *HERE*

And I will post the words to just the chorus:

“You

I'm coming back to

You

The only thing I know worth living for

Will You take this heart and make it more like

You

I give it back to You

It's obvious no one could love me more

I'm Yours

I'm coming back, yeah

I'm coming, coming back”

So, I chose this song, because it talks about really just the love that God has for us. I say it all the time but when my dad mentioned the relationship thing, I realized it’s more than just saying ‘Ok, God loves me’ but it’s really knowing that we don’t have to do anything for our relationship with God. God doesn’t need us to go to Vacation Bible School every day every year, or read the whole bible in a year, or have perfect attendance in Sunday school. God doesn’t need us to do anything for His love. God doesn’t need us to do anything for our relationship with Him. We don’t have to plead God every day to love us because He already does and nothing could change that. Not one single thing that we do in the world could change the love that God has for us, no matter how often we screw up, God will always love us the same way. God doesn’t need us to do all these things because all He wants is us, the exact way we are. All he wants is a relationship with us. I like the line in this song that says “It’s obvious no one could love me more.” Nobody in this whole entire world could measure up to the love that God has for us. Nobody’s love in this whole entire world is worth as much as God’s love. God really is the only thing worth living for, God‘s love is the one and only perfect love. There’s another line in this song that says,

‘Back to Your love so true and so simple

don’t understate it or complicate it’

God’s love is so deep, yet so simple. There is nothing complicated about having a relationship with our Holy Father. Why complicate it? Why make such a big deal about it? God’s love is perfect, real, true, and amazing. We cannot change the overwhelming love God has for us and we will never be able to escape it… ever! My Dad’s main point and mine also in this post is that there is nothing we have to do to make ourselves worthy of God’s love, there is nothing we have to do for God. God doesn’t want anything from us but a relationship. A relationship based only on one thing and that of course is his Love.

*Amy :)

P.S. (This post sounds a little unhappy, I didn't mean to make it sound like that! Haha, this is such a happy, joyous thing!)

Rachel (Pictures)

Wow, it's been a crazy week!

I've been gone all week spending time with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins, and a lot has been going on! I wanted to blog but each day the time got shorter and then it ran out! Yesterday, my cousin, Rachel and I took a lot of pictures of eachother so I wanted to post some of my favorites that I took and also some that she took. I will be writing about a new song soon, I promise, but until then, here are some lovely pictures. Credit to the pictures of me goes to Rachel Hammond (beautyofarose.blogspot.com) and the pictures of Rachel, I took! :) Watch video of all the pictures I took of her, *HERE*!!!

Rachel

'Butterfly Don't Fly Away'

So, I was just outside a little while ago and we have like tons of flowers and plants all around and on our front porch. While I was outside, I noticed this one buttefly that woud fly around and sit on all of the flowers. He was so pretty and no matter how close I got, he would sit still on the flowers. I just wanted to share 2 or 3 nice pictures that I took of him. I loved how he wasn't afraid of me like a lot of bugs and animals would have been. :) He even flew up and hit the lens at one point, but my finger was too slow :)

"I'm Looking At The World Through Goggles."

Ok, so first of all...

I got the most amazing comment today from someone on my blog. I get comments sometimes, not often, but when I do they are great! It really makes me overjoyed when people read my blog and really like what I write or post, so first of all, if I can't thank you personally because it's anonymous or whatever than THANK YOU, so much! I blog for myself but also for you guys, and the sweet comments that I get make me just want to write something every single day! But unfortunately, I don't think my brain can hold that many thoughts :)

Anyways, I got the best comment ever today and because I couldn't respond to this person personally, I have to do it in this post. So, if your name is Annette and you commented on my blog, then, THANK YOU SO MUCH from the bottom of my heart! Your comment meant the world to me and I just cannot thank you enough.

So, now that I got that out of the way, (which I HAD to do!) I have something to post about (finally) I think about things to blog about all the time, and yesterday one finally hit me!

I was swimming in our pool with some of our friends and I usually don't wear goggles or anything, I just close my eyes when I go under the water, but yesterday I wanted to see underwater so I put on a pair of my brother's goggles.
When I went underwater, I turned over on my back and went to the bottom of the pool and looked up. With the fog in the pool, my terrible eyesight, and the fact that it was getting dark out, I couldn't see much. All I could see was a thick, foggy cover that separated me from the sun shining through the water. (I wish I could have taken a picture!)

This kicked my mind into 'thinking gear' and I started comparing what I saw to the way we see the world. When we look at life or the world in general, we usually see it as a terrible, bad place, right? With the economy slowly spiraling down, and all the disagreements that we have with the government, we kind of see the world as a bad place, usually. It's kind of like what I saw through the water. From where I was, all I could see was the foggy, dark layer. It looked bad, just like how we see the world, but maybe we're just looking at it wrong.

Through this thick, foggy cover, I could also see something else, something less 'grey'. I could see the sunlight. Through this dark, blanket of water, I could see the sun shining high above me, and when I took the goggles off and came up above the water, it was bright and sunny! I think that this compares a lot to how we see the world. We are seeing the world we live in or maybe even our lives through this foggy layer or cover. Maybe, just maybe, that's the wrong way to look at it. Maybe we should be looking at it "without the goggles." The world isn't all bad, it's not all "foggy and grey." Look outside and look at the trees, the flowers, the blue skies, the white clouds. It's all so beautiful, but you can't see the beauty unless you look at it without your goggles. If you look at it through the thick, foggy layer, then all you see is 'a dead tree' or 'a cloudy, dark sky.' But if you look at clearly, then you will see a beautiful tree, beautiful nature, beautiful clouds, and a warm sun. God created this earth with such beauty, and because of the goggles we are wearing, we can't see it. I started out talking about the state of the economy, well it's not all bad either. Sure it's not in good shape, but God has a plan, right? Don't we believe He can do anything? Without the foggy layer, we can say, "Well sure, the economy's not as good as it needs to be, but hey God can do with it what he wants."

There are a trillion and one amazing things about life and about the world, but we can't see or experience these things if we're under the water with goggles on. We have to come out of the water and look behind or over the layer that's keeping us from seeing it. I know we can its there, and I know that we have the ability to see it, but we have to want to and we have to try to. Life is amazing, this world is amazing, let's look at it in an amazing way!