I was born into a very Christian family. Even today I am still learning of all the things my family has done for the church. My great-grandfather is the oldest example that I know. He was a preacher back in his day. He and my great-grandmother had many children and they taught every one of them how to sing and/or play an instrument. They traveled around in a group and sang at churches and other events. Two of their record covers are on display in a local restaurant. My grandmother was the oldest child from that family. She married my grandfather after just two short months of dating I believe she said. They actually just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary the other day so I thank the good Lord for that. My grandfather was also a preacher before he retired. Together they had 4 sons. One day while driving home, they crashed into a drunk driver. As my uncle has told it many times, my grandmother was the only one conscious when the rescue workers got there. She just stood there and prayed and prayed as my grandfather's, uncles', and dad's bodies were laid on the side of the road. All of a sudden my grandfather awoke and in a state of shock, spoke in tongues for 45 minutes straight, going around and blessing all of the rescue workers. Eventually two of my uncles and dad awoke also, but the baby was dead. My two uncles also became preachers, my dad became worship leader at the church for a little while, my aunt is the worship leader there now, my mom lead over children's church for a number of years. On the other side of my family, a different great-grandmother was a very devote Christian. Even after she grew old and was not able to go to church, my dad would go down to her house every Sunday and have a Bible study with her. My other grandmother is a very faithful Christian who has attended church for years. I was both sides of my family's 4th grandchild. On one side, I was the 4th grandson, and on the other I was their first grandson. I went to church and when I stayed over a grandparents' house we would talk about God and there was always a Bible lesson and prayer before bed.
Anyways, enough about my family. I didn't say any of that about to boast that my family is more Christian than yours or anything like that, but I was just showing how much of a Christian setting I was raised in. I remember back when I was 8 years old. I was over my grandparents' one day and my older cousin and I were watching some kind of Christian show on TV when she asked me if I had asked if I had been saved yet. I don't really remember how I responded to that, but I know it weighed on me for some time. A few nights later as I sat in my room, I asked Jesus into my heart and that was the first time I became saved.
Soon though, came the great split in the church. For reason that I didn't understand at the time, and still to this day don't know what happened, but there was a disagreement in the church. The result was a split. My family as well as my aunt and uncle and some of my grandmother's brothers and sisters left that church and formed a new one, while my grandparents and uncle who was pastor at the time and aunt stayed behind at the old church with the majority of its members. The new church we formed built nicely and was great and all, but there was a split in my family for years from that disagreement. I was no longer as close to my cousins as I used to be and I had no clue as to why it all had happened. Then, as time wore on, my dad is a truck driver and he began a stretch where he had to leave out on Sundays so he wasn't able to go to church, if he didn't go my mom didn't go, and if she didn't go we didn't go. This began years of being in and out of church and moving from church to church with really no spiritual stability in my home. Also, I've always been a science person. I was the kid that had a telescope and a microscope and all of that. I've known my career calling ever since I was 8, I've always known that I was going into Meteorology. As I grew older I looked to science to explain the answers to my questions since my spiritual walk was so weak and basically non-existent. I grew up further and further from God until I got to the point to where I wasn't even sure if I still had faith anymore. My family made attempts to get back into church, but I always thought I had better things to do with the time I would have if I didn't go to church. When I did go, I just sat there as the worship service happened and didn't even pay attention to the preaching, or if I did I would question the things he was saying. I also could not stand to listen to Christian music, it just hit a wrong nerve with me. It was also during this time that I got into a lot of sins and issues that I am dealing with today.
As a little side story, I joined the band when I was in 7th grade. My 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grade years I played the trumpet, and I moved over to French Horn my 11th and 12th grade years. After I graduated high school I gave band up because I knew I wouldn't have time for it in college even though I really wanted to keep playing. My aunt who as I mentioned is the worship leader tried for years to get me to play in church, but I never thought I was good enough for that, nor did I really have a desire to do it. However, about this time last year the issue was brought up again and for some reason, maybe it was because it had been a year since I had played, I began to pray to God and said that if he provided me with an instrument, I would play every opportunity I got. Well, January of this year that prayer came true. For some reason I desired to go to church more this year and really made that my secret New Year's Resolution. One of those Sundays I was talking to my aunt after church and was talking to her about if I had a trumpet I would play. Well the pastor heard me telling her this and asked if I played the trumpet. I told him that I did and he told me that he was looking for a trumpet player for the teen drama that was at the end of the month. He is the brother-in-law of my high school band director and I told him that I would look around for a trumpet and asked him to look around too in hopes he would ask my old band director. My great-uncle ended up lending me his. The week of the drama, I was in my dorm down at school when my playstation messed up, and I felt as if this might be God's way of getting me to write the music that I was going to play that weekend. All that week in my free time. I wrote just a short little fanfare for the drama, but for some reason I also felt lead to try my best to write sheet music for the song "Midnight Cry". I spent the entire week picking out notes on a piano app on my phone until I felt that I had figured out the right combination of notes to write the sheet music to the song. I played the trumpet at my church that weekend, and I can honestly say that it changed my life. Sure, it had been over a year since I had last played and my lips weren't in the best of shape, sure I struggled with the high notes and the durability of the song, but as I played that song for the entire church the next Sunday and I got to the part where it goes "I can almost hear the trumpet as Gabriel sounds the call" and I felt an energy inside of me like I had never felt before. I then began to play every Sunday during the offering. It was just me and the instruments playing instrumental music. Sure I didn't sound the best starting out, and sure I didn't have many songs to choose from starting out, but I was playing for the Lord and so those things didn't matter and the church absolutely loved it. Over the months I felt myself getting better and better, getting back into the shape of playing again, everyone in the church says they love my playing and that they can tell I'm becoming more anointed and I can feel it too. There is rarely a time anymore that I can't feel the Spirit moving through me as I play my music for the Lord. I'm not saying that to brag on myself or to toot my own horn (pun intended), but to rejoice that the Lord has taken me and molded me into something I thought I could never be.
Just this week I sat back and noticed the changes in my life. I attend church every Sunday now, Sunday nights and Wednesday night when I'm in from school, my playing has become anointed my the Lord, I actually sit and worship now, I actually listen to the preaching now, I am now constantly listening to Christian music on Pandora now, I constantly find myself singing some sort of Christian song, I now find myself constantly reading Christian articles and posts on websites, I am reading the Bible again and actually getting something out of it and understanding it, the Lord is helping deal with those sins and issues from before where I have no desire for them, where I used to want to have no part in the church I now love being in as many parts of the church as I possibly can. My grandmother can now rejoice that one of her two wild grandsons has finally calmed down and found his way back into church.
Sorry that this post is so long, and I hope that you all read through it all. The Lord is changing my life. I am drawing closer to him each day and loving every second of it. I know I still have a long way to go, but this is my story as of now. I hope you all enjoyed it and got something out of it like I did. I hope to soon figure out how to upload music onto here so you can hear my playing, but as for now thank each and every one of you for reading my story.
Anyways, enough about my family. I didn't say any of that about to boast that my family is more Christian than yours or anything like that, but I was just showing how much of a Christian setting I was raised in. I remember back when I was 8 years old. I was over my grandparents' one day and my older cousin and I were watching some kind of Christian show on TV when she asked me if I had asked if I had been saved yet. I don't really remember how I responded to that, but I know it weighed on me for some time. A few nights later as I sat in my room, I asked Jesus into my heart and that was the first time I became saved.
Soon though, came the great split in the church. For reason that I didn't understand at the time, and still to this day don't know what happened, but there was a disagreement in the church. The result was a split. My family as well as my aunt and uncle and some of my grandmother's brothers and sisters left that church and formed a new one, while my grandparents and uncle who was pastor at the time and aunt stayed behind at the old church with the majority of its members. The new church we formed built nicely and was great and all, but there was a split in my family for years from that disagreement. I was no longer as close to my cousins as I used to be and I had no clue as to why it all had happened. Then, as time wore on, my dad is a truck driver and he began a stretch where he had to leave out on Sundays so he wasn't able to go to church, if he didn't go my mom didn't go, and if she didn't go we didn't go. This began years of being in and out of church and moving from church to church with really no spiritual stability in my home. Also, I've always been a science person. I was the kid that had a telescope and a microscope and all of that. I've known my career calling ever since I was 8, I've always known that I was going into Meteorology. As I grew older I looked to science to explain the answers to my questions since my spiritual walk was so weak and basically non-existent. I grew up further and further from God until I got to the point to where I wasn't even sure if I still had faith anymore. My family made attempts to get back into church, but I always thought I had better things to do with the time I would have if I didn't go to church. When I did go, I just sat there as the worship service happened and didn't even pay attention to the preaching, or if I did I would question the things he was saying. I also could not stand to listen to Christian music, it just hit a wrong nerve with me. It was also during this time that I got into a lot of sins and issues that I am dealing with today.
As a little side story, I joined the band when I was in 7th grade. My 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grade years I played the trumpet, and I moved over to French Horn my 11th and 12th grade years. After I graduated high school I gave band up because I knew I wouldn't have time for it in college even though I really wanted to keep playing. My aunt who as I mentioned is the worship leader tried for years to get me to play in church, but I never thought I was good enough for that, nor did I really have a desire to do it. However, about this time last year the issue was brought up again and for some reason, maybe it was because it had been a year since I had played, I began to pray to God and said that if he provided me with an instrument, I would play every opportunity I got. Well, January of this year that prayer came true. For some reason I desired to go to church more this year and really made that my secret New Year's Resolution. One of those Sundays I was talking to my aunt after church and was talking to her about if I had a trumpet I would play. Well the pastor heard me telling her this and asked if I played the trumpet. I told him that I did and he told me that he was looking for a trumpet player for the teen drama that was at the end of the month. He is the brother-in-law of my high school band director and I told him that I would look around for a trumpet and asked him to look around too in hopes he would ask my old band director. My great-uncle ended up lending me his. The week of the drama, I was in my dorm down at school when my playstation messed up, and I felt as if this might be God's way of getting me to write the music that I was going to play that weekend. All that week in my free time. I wrote just a short little fanfare for the drama, but for some reason I also felt lead to try my best to write sheet music for the song "Midnight Cry". I spent the entire week picking out notes on a piano app on my phone until I felt that I had figured out the right combination of notes to write the sheet music to the song. I played the trumpet at my church that weekend, and I can honestly say that it changed my life. Sure, it had been over a year since I had last played and my lips weren't in the best of shape, sure I struggled with the high notes and the durability of the song, but as I played that song for the entire church the next Sunday and I got to the part where it goes "I can almost hear the trumpet as Gabriel sounds the call" and I felt an energy inside of me like I had never felt before. I then began to play every Sunday during the offering. It was just me and the instruments playing instrumental music. Sure I didn't sound the best starting out, and sure I didn't have many songs to choose from starting out, but I was playing for the Lord and so those things didn't matter and the church absolutely loved it. Over the months I felt myself getting better and better, getting back into the shape of playing again, everyone in the church says they love my playing and that they can tell I'm becoming more anointed and I can feel it too. There is rarely a time anymore that I can't feel the Spirit moving through me as I play my music for the Lord. I'm not saying that to brag on myself or to toot my own horn (pun intended), but to rejoice that the Lord has taken me and molded me into something I thought I could never be.
Just this week I sat back and noticed the changes in my life. I attend church every Sunday now, Sunday nights and Wednesday night when I'm in from school, my playing has become anointed my the Lord, I actually sit and worship now, I actually listen to the preaching now, I am now constantly listening to Christian music on Pandora now, I constantly find myself singing some sort of Christian song, I now find myself constantly reading Christian articles and posts on websites, I am reading the Bible again and actually getting something out of it and understanding it, the Lord is helping deal with those sins and issues from before where I have no desire for them, where I used to want to have no part in the church I now love being in as many parts of the church as I possibly can. My grandmother can now rejoice that one of her two wild grandsons has finally calmed down and found his way back into church.
Sorry that this post is so long, and I hope that you all read through it all. The Lord is changing my life. I am drawing closer to him each day and loving every second of it. I know I still have a long way to go, but this is my story as of now. I hope you all enjoyed it and got something out of it like I did. I hope to soon figure out how to upload music onto here so you can hear my playing, but as for now thank each and every one of you for reading my story.
I appreciate you taking the time to read this long thing haha