M&Ms for Breakfast, Oh! And Bluegrass Festival

When school first started back, I posted a list of things that I wish to change this semester. Now here I am, week three into the semester, and I am still holding on! Sort of...

I promised myself that I would go to bed early and wake up early... and I do go to bed early. Every night at 10:30 is lights out, but when 7:00 am comes around its so hard to get up. But I do. I have to. This morning I woke up even earlier, in enough time to shower and make coffee. I also promised myself I would eat healthier, which I have. My parents caved and bought Bek and I meal cards so that we would've have to buy groceries, which makes it tougher to eat healthy, but not impossible. And this morning I ate m&ms for breakfast. Yeah, not okay, but they were amazing and I felt cool eating them, though I will probably regret it later. I think I've lost weight since I've been back in school, so that is cool. I guess its a combination of all the exercise walking up the hill, eating healthier (except the candy) and not stressing as much. Because, according to Grandmama, stress makes you fat. Which explains a lot.

Oh! I wanted to post about the bluegrass festival, so I will do that now. My family has been singing together a long time, about 12 years, officially, but really we have been singing together forever. There is a picture of my dad singing with Rebekah on his hip and mama singing with him with myself on her hip. So yeah, we've been singing longer than my youngest two sisters have even been alive. Anyways, all of that to say, we also play bluegrass instruments, though I've never really considered us a "bluegrass" band. My sisters and I do a lot of contemporary praise and worship stuff like Kim Walker, Christ for the Nations, etc. And my family, I guess we lean towards the bluegrass style, but we're still gospel. But also a little country/worship/whatever. We're just ourselves. 

This past weekend, my aunt Jennifer, who is part of a group called "Friends of Bledsoe" invited us to come sing at a music-festival type deal at Bledsoe State Park in Gallatin, TN. So we went, and it was so fun, but these people were not joking when they said they were Bluegrass. There were old men in overalls playing dulcimers, banjos, and guitars. At one point, I felt so country, I even took my shoes off... hehe

The first band that was supposed to perform wasn't there on time, so they asked my family to open it up (at 11:00 am) even though we weren't supposed to perform until 2:45. So we opened, and we closed, and we sand several times in between. It was so relaxed and really cool. And it was such a GREAT opportunity for ministry. 

There's something my dad says every single time we sing somewhere and that is, "we're not entertainers. We are not here to perform for you. Everything we do is about worship, its about Jesus, so don't just sit and watch, worship with us." And I LOVE that that is what we stand for. And I love that he tells everyone that is what we stand for, because we see such results from it. We got to minister to a few people between singing and really got to minister to one man in particular. He had big tears in his eyes as he talked to us and, according to him, that's a big deal because he "doesn't cry." 

Anyways, all glory goes to the Lord, because he is great and greatly to be praised. I think we will see good things come out of this past weekend. And pray for the gentleman that we met, God is really doing a work in his life.