You're My Rest (a very personal post)

One of my friends from Texas recorded a song today that my dad wrote years ago called "You're My Rest." (The song is copyrighted, btw...just fyi.)

At any rate, Steven Hansen pulled out his guitar yesterday when remembering my dad, Charlie, and gave me permission to share the link. For those of you who don't know, my dad was a worship leader for most of his adult life and wrote hundreds of songs. Steven now serves as worship leader where my dad served for a number of years and they worked together on music "stuff." Given the fact that these songs are copyrighted, I asked my mom first if she'd mind my sharing this with you and she was ok with it. I'm pretty excited to share it because I'm of the opinion that my dad not only had great talent but had one of the most passionate hearts for worship that you could ever want to meet. He was serious about learning more of who God is - and my dad diligently sought to apply Biblical truths to his life. One way he did that was through music.

One of my strongest memories of my teenage years was of wanting to buy various music albums. (Most of which, by the way, were contemporary Christian.) My eyes would roll and I would inwardly heave heavy sighs as dad would read through the lyrics, pointing any theological flaws that he found within. Sometimes he'd tell me the album was so flawed he'd rather I not listen to it. Sometimes he would tell me that it was ok to keep the album, but he'd rather me not purchase any additional albums by a particular artist. Of course there were those times where dad would get really excited about an artist himself and I knew I was "safe" when it came to those artists. (For example: Steven Curtis Chapman won hearty approval for my dad because he includes scripture references for all of his songs which dad pointed out was important if you wanted to back up the words coming out of your mouth!) I didn't get his concern then. I'm getting it now and find myself agreeing more strongly and passionately about music and lyrics myself. (Also, I should point out that dad really enjoyed non-Christian music as well. But if an artist labeled themselves as Christian, by golly they'd better be serious about it!)

These memories and thoughts still pound away in my head as I select music for myself and my children these days.

Needless to say, one of the things that most attracted me to Jonathan was the fact that he is a musician himself and has a passion for worship also. The beat goes on.

I, unfortunately, have just about ZERO musical talent. I played piano for a few years. My dad cared more about learning theory than I did. I hated practicing. My dad studied voice in college. I can carry a tune in a bucket but it doesn't get much more impressive than that. In order to keep this all in the family, I had to marry someone who could play piano and sing. Makes up for me and gives our children hope. (Jonathan has a great musical heritage himself so we've got it coming down the pike. *Carrie crosses her fingers* Interesting side note - Jonathan's mom and my dad both attended the same college at the same time, both in the music department. They never met but had multiple mutual friends. This was discovered when Jonathan and I got married. Kinda cool, huh?)

But more importantly than the musical talent that I trust will continue on through many more generations to come, it is even more important to both Jonathan and myself that our children would be passionate worshipers. We want them to know God and find their rest in Him. They have a marvelous legacy of faith on both sides of the family but today I want to share one of "Papa's songs" with you all, in hopes that it may bless.

Without further ado - "You're My Rest."