Saturday, May 3, 2025

Parts, Statement of Faith

Soprano: https://mixcord.co/acapella/p/Rt-Uxtj2xMvjqnI5cuHbIQ/



New choir seating

This seating chart is from the directors point of view. Sopranos are to the far right, altos at the far left. seating chart

I’VE ADDED SECOND ALTO to the tenor section.

Those from other campuses will be seated in empty chairs when they’re present. FULL-TIME BELLEVIEW SINGERS NEED TO SIT IN ASSIGNED SEATING.

We will resume half choirs, Alpha & Omega, after the Summer schedule. I’ve already prepared the seating chart for that.

This is a new OLD song. Please know the parts for Sun night: Statement of Faith

Here’s the playlist of TtF songs: YouTube TtF playlist, there is at least one song on the YouTube playlist that you can’t get on Spotify or other players. Spotify TtF25
I sure do love and appreciate all of you!!! ❤️‍🔥🤟🎶

Friday, September 15, 2023

Monday, December 30, 2019

2020 Clarity

Having 20/20 vision does not necessarily mean you have perfect vision. 20/20 vision only indicates the sharpness or clarity of vision at a distance. Other important vision skills, including peripheral awareness or side vision, eye coordination, depth perception, focusing ability and color vision, contribute to your overall visual ability. (From https://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/eye-and-vision-problems/glossary-of-eye-and-vision-conditions/visual-acuity)


Thursday, June 1, 2017

When What's New Isn't Shiny

Numbers 16:30 (KJV)
But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that [appertain] unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.

"If the Lord make a new thing..."

My entire life "newness of life" seemed the most marvelous and magical occurrence. I grew up in a church-community, so "newness" meant the drug addict was cured! It meant the sinner was saved! It meant the destitute had family! 

As an adult I am STILL stumped by how downright awful, "newness of life," can be.
When newness comes it is unsettling. All that was comfortable and known vanishes. It's akin to physical therapy for the body... What used to come naturally requires deliberate effort to parts of the body maimed. And many times, like Jacob, we never walk the same again. 

A couple of years ago, about this time, my neck locked. That was only my third visit in my life to a chiropractor. I never have problems with my back, or neck. But it was a difficult time, and I obviously didn't roll with the stress of it well. The chiropractor was a man in his mid-thirties, and I felt so sorry for him. Every time he would touch me I would start crying! It had NOTHING to do with the pain. I was just nervous & my emotions were especially tender. Touch triggered emotions, not pain. He, of course, didn't know what was going on in my head. He would take my face and head in his grip, I'd tear up, and he'd drop his hands to his side with a sigh! I was so embarrassed. I kept trying to breathe deeply and calm down. I finally took his hands in mine & told him, "You have GOT to ignore my tears. They mean NOTHING. You are not hurting me in any way. Just go for it!" But, he was too affected by my tears to help. I can't remember what he sent me home with, but he didn't adjust me. He couldn't. 

I pray that in all of my LOATHING of change and newness, God doesn't respond to me like that chiropractor. I NEED every adjustment my Jesus sees fit to give me. I NEED every loss. I NEED each new lesson. Newness isn't always pleasant. Sometimes we've chosen wrongly what seemed delightful, and we have to give it up. We have to let him swallow it up & bury it. Going on without what we held so dear is not easy. Learning to find new pleasures (for me) is not enjoyable. Learning to live in new territory without the old "security blanket" is not jolly, or magical.

For some of us we have to learn to live without relationships that should have been dependable. For others we have to learn to live with new health conditions. For others we have to learn to break bad habits and start new ones. The list could go on, & on. It does go on, & on. And your newness is on the list. But we can rise to the occasion and do this! 

My personal prayer today...

"Please, Lord, do not withhold newness of life from me because I cry, because I fear, because I express concern. My earnest plea is that you utterly do exactly what you want in, & through my wisp of a life. Spare not for my crying, Father."

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Take Your Child To "Work Day"

In the church community we call the day the congregation gathers to spruce up the interior and exterior of the grounds, "Work Day." Some congregations do this more often than others, but it's a needed effort, even when a congregation can pay a maintenance staff to work throughout the year. Going to Work Day the last time does not aleviate your needed hands, and mind, and help this time. Your own house needs constant "this time" help. So does God's House! 


It’s Work Day at my church, but I’m in Missouri for a wedding. Habits HURT when they are broken, and it is our habit to be at Work Day! I say "our," because I’m thinking about when I would take 2 and 3 year old Morgan and Madison to Work Day.


Parents with small children, I KNOW it’s stressful, and even feels like you don’t get much accomplished, but I promise the couple of hours you put in FAR OUTLIVE the time you and your children were on site. It does far more than the "partial jobs" you might contribute because you’ve had to leave it to wrangle a wondering child. When you do this stage properly (by building Kingdom-first habits) you get to BASK in my present stage of being the mom of young adults who habitually weigh all their decisions by God's scales! I am living out such goodness right now in my 18 and 20 year old children! 


Do you know WHY our (carnal) world/society came up with, "take your child to work day?" It is because even they know how longterm-productive such a "non-productive" day is! If they have that much insight, shouldn’t WE? 


I must add the impressions we leave on our teen offspring when we take them to a non-kingdom event though the church has something scheduled. It says to them, "You can pick-and-choose your faithfulness." Perhaps your family needs a family-away day. If your teens know you're ALWAYS at EVERY church event, and they see and hear your lament at being forced to choose another event, I think that's fine. But it should be so rare it doesn't happen more than once a year. It's not as if the church calls all-hands-on-deck for a Work Day every week. I would suggest spending the first hour of the family day contributing at the Work Day, before heading out to enjoy family time. It instills in very impressionable teens: kingdom-first (kingdom-first, of course means, God-first.) I often hear great men and women of God say about their upbringing (if they were raised in a church community) "My parents were at the church every time the doors were open!" They do not merely mean "when the doors were open for a worship service." They mean their parents modeled for them how to WORK for God, give their talent and time to God. This has been the example I have tried to follow because I want Morgan and Madison to be THAT in the Kingdom of God. "That" doesn't just happen. It's cultivated by parenting on and with a purpose. 


Today, with my adult children who are still fluttering about my nest, we will have a conversation after the wedding here in  Missouri, about how our contribution at Work Day was missed. We will talk about how much we would have benefitted, and how the Work Day would have benefitted by our three sets of hands and feet. We are out of state, but God's House's to do list is not out of mind.


TAKE YOUR CHILD TO WORK DAY.

Every. 

Single. 

Time. 

Why? Because habits HURT when they are broken, and these kinds of habits will be a safeguard in our babies' lives as they go through the many stages and trials life brings.