praise!?

Living here in the United States, where we are so independent and so self-sufficient it is hard to understand (at least for me) praising God.

I always praised my kids when they were young. Told them how good they were (when they were good) and I told them how much I loved them. 

But with God, He is is always good. He is always just. He is always almighty. He is always loving, always kind, and so many other qualities.  He is always worthy of praise.  

And the way I praised my kids hardly seems adequate for Him.

Maybe if we lived in a kingdom where you were forced to praise your king all the time words would flow easier. However, I doubt they would be sincere, probably only forced. 

Somehow when I tried to praise God, I have felt like my words were hollow and not sure I could figure out how to make them extend from my heart… does that make sense?

Since I have felt so inadequate at it. I decided to turn it over to God. I told God that if I am to praise Him (which I know I am), He would need to teach me.

So that has been my prayer for about the last month, Lord teach me how to praise You. 

Recently, without realizing it, I found myself humming hymns all day. ( I never hummed.) 

I was raised Catholic so we didn’t have a lot of hymn singing in my church. Because of that, I really don’t know a lot of words to the hymns. But I found myself humming  them anyway.

And also, I have been waking up every morning with a song in my head… a Christian song! I used to occasionally wake up with a song but it was from my teenage years… which were far from Christian. Those songs are gone, and God replaced them with songs praising Him. 

And now I am working on memorizing scripture that praises God so that I can use His words to honor and praise Him. 

I never thought that praising God would put me in such a good head space but it does.  It relaxes my mind and draws me closer to my Creator God. 

(A side note here, the other day I was telling a friend about the humming and she told me how healthy it is for you.  Psychology Today states that it can reduce stress, calm the mind, stimulate the vegas nerve and lower heart rate… no wonder I have been in a better headspace.)

Then the other day I woke up not with a song in my head for the first time in a month or so but with these words creating a start to this poem.

The King’s Court

She walked through the field with her head held high as a queen gracefully walking into her court. Frosted grass was her carpet, trees stood guard. 

The dog was her court jester; the cows were the courtiers huddled together whispering secrets to one another…looking up with respect as she strode past them. 

And she felt regal as she continued humming the song “Be thou my Vision oh Lord of my heart”.

She knew no king had a court as fine or spectacular as God had given her in her field.

No man-made court could be as magnificent as the one she walked through each day. She held her head high because she was a daughter of the King and when she walked through His court, she found Him waiting for her there…daily. 

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—” Psalms‬ ‭103‬:‭2‬ ‭NIV‬‬

 “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. John‬ ‭1‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬