Wash Your Hands & Say Your Prayers, Because Jesus & Germs are Everywhere

Well hello there! My name is Katie and I’ll be your blogger for today. After an unexpected, lengthy hiatus from blogging, to which I certainly do apologize, I am back! I promise to get back into my more regular routine of writing. Let me just take a moment and blow the dust off that has been accumulating on my keyboard over the last 2 weeks since I wrote anything here. Ok, much better.

After my last post about DIY Shiplap, which received such a great response from all of you readers out there in blogland, I decided I should really get into a regular routine of posting more of those easy, do-it-yourself home projects. I have a few more of them lined up for posting this month and next, so stay tuned for some great inexpensive, but attractive ways to update and add slick style your home.

About 2 days after our shiplap wall project was completed, I started to feel kind of like I was maybe coming down with something. As a mom, there are times when you feel a sudden rush of panic wash over you when you think you could actually be out of commission for a few hours, days….or dare I say, gulp, a week! Usually I can take a couple of Echinacea, suck it up and pull through, but that just wasn’t happening this time. I succumbed to the mega cold. On the couch. Sleeping. Blowing my nose in endless tissues. Fun times. Pretty much all bets were off for me to accomplish much of anything for a few days.

By the time I did start feeling a little bit better I had already told my cold where it could now go, especially since I was scheduled to sing worship at our church the following weekend. Funny how our bodies often have a way of listening to us the same way a toddler does when asked to leave the candy store empty-handed. Thank goodness for Mucinex, humidifiers and throat coat tea with honey. I managed to make it through our mid-week rehearsals ok, and tried to back way off singing through our set list on my own during the rest of the week. But by Saturday, when we had our full band rehearsals scheduled for 3 hours, I was getting nervous. My voice was anything but hoarse, my ears were still plugged up and the cold I had “kindly” asked to go take a hike, was setting up camp in my chest. Lovely.

My voice had managed to hold out alright through our Saturday evening service, but would it make it through another 2 sets of worship the following morning for our Sunday services? I went to bed hoping and praying it would. I woke up realizing that I could barely squeak out a word, let alone a warm up note! This is where one enters into “war room” prayer mode! I texted our worship pastor and asked him to please be praying for me that morning, as my voice was not holding up well. I prayed that God would allow my voice to overcome the sickness and that I would still be able to perform well for our congregation.

If there’s one thing to know about me, it’s that I really do believe in the power of faith. There’s a reason I named my blog and shop Have a Little Faith. God is powerful and spiritual warfare is real, people. Good vs. evil is around us working in many ways that often times we don’t even realize or understand. But let me tell you, on Sunday morning, the devil did not want me on that stage leading people’s hearts to enter into worshiping their Savior. But you know who did? God did. And I chose to cling to the faith that God would get me through a scratchy voice, a sick body, and He would ultimately prevail.

I have been fortunate enough to see God moving in many ways recently in the lives of those who are around me. Recently there have been HUGE answers to prayers that came to fruition, things that have been heavily covered and lifted up. It has been wonderful to see firsthand how God has been working in people’s lives and hearts. All through faith. Faith to believe in something greater, something that isn’t always easily identifiable, but in its own right is very real. One of my favorite quotes that I often correlate with my own faith is, “Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I; But when the trees bow down their heads, The wind is passing by.” -Cristina Rossetti

This is a great interpretation. One of the songs we sang this weekend has a line in it that says, “faith makes a fool of what makes sense…” It’s such an accurate representation of the word faith in and of itself. I don’t visibly see God moving, but I do objectively see him moving through events in my own life and the lives of those around me, in the answers to prayer that affirms He does listen, and in the moments He speaks to me in other ways.

I ended up working my way through a very slow, but progressive warm-up this Sunday morning, gained enough of my voice back to feel comfortable and when I stepped up to my microphone, I prayed the prayer I always do when I am honoring God through worship music, “Lord, use me. I offer myself as a vessel.” It is through faith and through God’s great plan that I am blessed enough to be given this gift to sing, and it’s an even greater privilege to get to help lead worship for the hundreds of people who attend our church.

I’m so thankful that our God is a faithful God. It just goes to show, wash your hands and say your prayers, because Jesus and germs are everywhere.

*Special thank you and photo credit for worship photos to Thom Jewell Photography.