Ancient Words

Holy words long preserved
for our walk in this world,
They resound with God's own heart
Oh, let the Ancient words impart.

Words of Life, words of Hope
Give us strength, help us cope
In this world, where e'er we roam
Ancient words will guide us Home.

CHORUS:
Ancient words ever true
Changing me, and changing you.
We have come with open hearts
Oh let the ancient words impart.

Holy words of our Faith
Handed down to this age.
Came to us through sacrifice
Oh heed the faithful words of Christ.

Holy words long preserved
For our walk in this world.
They resound with God's own heart
Oh let the ancient words impart.

CHORUS x4

We have come with open hearts
Oh let the ancient words impart.

I'm totally addicted to this song right now. We sang this at church today as we did last week too and two weeks before that, we were supposed to sing it, but we never did. I love the part that goes, "We have come with open hearts, oh let the ancient words impart." I get a mental picture with that. I think of a heart opened up with light shining through or shining out for all to see. What do you see?

Now this morning at practice, one of the pastor's kids asked why we were playing this song again this week and I don't know, it just sounded a little negative to me. Right before we actually got started playing some of the songs, there was an argument. I hate when we're rehearsing and two of the kids get into an argument. I know Sundays can be especially stressful for pastor's kids, but why do we have to argue? Often enough there are complaints about how often we play certain songs. Now I'm a complainer normally about certain stuff, but I don't complain about what we play. Who said we were worshiping the ones who complain about how often songs are sung anyways? We're not. We go to church to worship God, not the ones who are leading the worship music. I say whatever the pastor feels lead to sing, we sing or play. It's for God, not our own selfish, personal benefit. It's worship. I don't like getting in between their arguments because I've had bad experiences with their arguments already. They tell me that they aren't arguing. Yeah, right. I have a little brother too. I know what it's like.

Today, my Sunday school teacher said she was looking forward to me playing the flute in church. By the way, if I haven't mentioned it before, I play flute and piccolo in band, but flute at church and sometimes piano too. On Friday, as I was walking to the funeral home where the band was meeting to set up for the parade, I was praying and one thing I said was that I wasn't going to play my piccolo for my band director, my parents, or even the audience. I'm playing for God. At church as much as I know people love the sound of my flute when I play, truth is I'm not playing for them; I'm playing for God. That's my contribution on Sunday mornings. Sure, it sounds good, but that's not the point.

At the point this morning when the two kids were arguing, I sighed and just looked up. I was kinda fed up and irritated. Next thing I know, our pastor who was playing piano this morning, suggested that we pray. I was glad he finally remembered, and I was just about to mention it when he said it. And anyways, I was supposed to remind him a few weeks ago when we first talked about it.

You're probably wondering what I'm talking about. As I wrote somewhere above, I also play piano. I love it. It's definitely my favorite instrument. I've been playing for about 9 years now and I've had the same teacher for all those years. It's amazing he's been able to put up with me. Haha, well actually even if he wasn't my piano teacher, he would have to put up with me because he's my pastor too.

Piano lessons are probably my favorite part of the week besides church and sometimes youth group. I've had many spiritual conversations with my piano teacher and a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I wasn't happy with all the arguing that was going on in rehearsal. So I asked him if we could maybe pray before playing on Sunday mornings. He agreed and knew we should have been doing it all along.

It could be that over the last couple of months, I've become a really big prayer warrior that made me say this. It also could have been what I saw at a church I visited this past summer. This summer I visited my aunt and some friends in Washington D.C. and was able to go to church with my friends. One thing I noticed right before service started was the music minister was going around praying for each of the instruments. At least that's what it looked like to me. I'll bet he was praying for those who were about to pick up those instruments.

Ok, I know this is starting to get to be a really long blog and I'm sorry about that, I just have too much that I want to say. I think I have one more thing to say about prayer. There's a song my pastor started to have us sing in July for the month. It's Psalm 101:1-2.

I will sing of your love and justice;
to you, O Lord, I will sing praise.
I will be careful to lead a blameless life--
when will you come to me?

All that month it seems, I was praying that prayer and at one point I mentioned it to my pastor. He thought it was because of youth group. Little did he know, I was praying about my future and my career. I remember this summer when he told me to be in prayer for the youth group. I was kinda upset about that because I was being stubborn for one and didn't understand what prayer would do for any of us. As Joyce Meyer says, patience is the ability to keep a good attitude while you wait. Obviously I didn't have a good attitude at that point. Ever since I wrote on Facebook about worrying and prayer, I feel like such a prayer warrior. That's all I want to do. I'm a behind the scenes type of person, and prayer to me, is behind the scenes because you never know really who's doing it and some don't know that it may be you who is praying for you. I hope that made sense.

Oh one more thing about Ancient Words. My fellow "worship team members" as I'll call them, would think I'm crazy right now. Why? Because I'm still listening to the song. I love it and can't get enough of it.