Day of Praise

Mo, Jan 28, "Day of Praise"

"Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name." - Psalm 103:1

My poor dad.

When I was eight, I would praise the Lord with "all my inmost being" every time we went to church so much so that even my left leg got involved. Ya see, my left leg would start praising God by tappin' up and down, usually while we were sitting and listening to the sermon.

However, my praises had a tendency to drive my dad, (who always sat on my left), and his right leg, nuts.

And then, like magic, without even looking, he'd reach over and touch my left leg and send my praise of God directly to my right leg!

It was amazing!

Then, without looking, he'd reach toward my right leg, and before he even touched me, he could send my praise of God to my neck, which would swirl my head all around like a praise-filled bobble head doll.

And then, he'd finally turn his head and look at me.

To this day, I have no idea what expression he had on his face because his look would freeze my whole body.

For at least three or four minutes.

And then all my praising God would start all over again.

My poor dad.

But now I'm forty-eight. And I hope my dad can see the payoff.

Now I just lift my heart and voice all the time. And I lift my hands a lot of the time. And I really can't get enough worship.

I could worship at church seven days every week, probably three times a day, and I wouldn't get tired of it.

But since my current station in life as a father of three amazing middle school, high school and college kids won't exactly permit being at church that much, (though, I'm quite sure my kids would love to worship that much too if it was practical), I just walk around with a song of praise to God in my heart.

Most of the time.

I do have my moments.

But all the time I really do walk around, thanking God for my dad, who endured my younger years of worship, and for my kids and my mom and my church family and all you Day of Praise friends who send inspiring stories and/or uplifting brief replies.

I know today's Monday, but I pray that the praise of God will overflow from us all so much that we, well, maybe move a person or two to look our way and wonder what in the world all the leg-tappin' and head-bobbin' is all about.

"Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name." - Psalm 103:1

Praise God!

Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson