Stop Wishing, Start Doing!

It has been a few years since I’ve written a blog post. I got married, had a baby and life was just crazy. Unfortunately, music and writing took the back burner. My son just turned 1 and I am finally ready to jump back into it all full speed ahead!

I often struggle with juggling it all: being a mom, working a fulltime job, being a singer/songwriter, and serving in church, just to name a few of the things going on in my life. I make excuses for why I don’t accomplish what I hope to, but at the end of the day it comes down to priorities. I was making excuses instead if prioritizing and setting goals. I felt that I didn’t have enough time, money, resources, connections, and the list goes on. Until I realized that I needed to be able to get by on what I have before God will entrust me with more. I need to be able to be more deliberate with my time and resources.

Instead of wishing that I could quit my day job so I can have time to shoot videos, I need to designate time on specific weekends or weeknights to get it done. Instead of wishing that I had an expensive studio and equipment like other YouTubers I know, I need to be appreciative of the software and equipment that I already have that gets the job done just fine. Instead if wishing that I was better at guitar, I need to practice and challenge myself and grow my skills.

And this is where I am at. Working on being content with what I have, and pushing myself to excel with the things I have already been given from God, trusting that He will provide new and better things when and if the time comes. In the meantime, I am very excited to be back into doing what I love and serving people through music and media. Here’s to a great 2018!

“The Heart of Worship”

I  was blessed today by getting to be a part of leading an amazing worship set at my school, Davis College.  The week has been full of lengthy practices and a crazy busy schedule, causing quite a bit of stress for everyone involved on the worship team.  There were times when I myself was feeling less than excited about attending draining 4 hour practices, but getting to lead God’s people in worship today was worth it in the end.  Today’s worship set brought me back to that place where I was able to really lose myself in worshiping my savior and just stand before God with so much joy overflowing from my heart.  I was able to get back to that place where I first fell in love with praising God through music, and it was very refreshing.  After the set, my best friend told me that my smiling face reminded her of how Moses’ face must have looked when he came down from the mountain after speaking to God and was glowing.  I think her analogy was probably pretty accurate.

 I believe it is so important to give your passions to the Lord. I gave my passion to God through worship today and He blessed my works.  Not everyone may be able to lead worship through music, but there are endless other ways in which one can worship the Lord.  What is important to God is the genuineness of our heart and that we are truly giving our all to Him.  I also believe that when we use our passions to give glory to God then He will always bless us in return.  My blessing came through the joy I felt after singing praises to God at today’s service.  What is your passion and how can you give it to God so that you can bless others and be blessed yourself?

“As a chosen one I’ll never be the same…”

I was in a singing contest at one of the local casinos near my town last year.  It took place over about 5 weeks, starting with 20 contestants and working it’s way down to 12 through audience voting, each of the contestants competing for $5,000.  It was an awesome experience, but after making a complete change to Christian music over the past year, I was uncertain if I should enter the contest again.  After much prayer and thought put towards the situation, I was taken back to an experience from last year that I will never forget.  It was the final round of voting and I was the last performer out of 12 to sing.  The contestant who went before me was an amazing singer and I was nervous to follow her.  She ended up singing a powerful rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”.  She got a standing ovation and I was back stage shaking in my boots.  I had no idea how I was supposed to follow her performance and wasn’t feeling very confident at all.

That is when something amazing happened.  As the girl who sang before me was exiting back stage, she grabbed me by the hands and began praying before I could even figure out what was going on.  She prayed something along the lines of “Father God, please help Hailey to do her very best and to use the talent’s You’ve blessed her with to glorify Your name in an inspiring way for everyone watching. Amen.” And she was gone.  Immediately my feelings of anxiety turned to overwhelming peace.  I took the stage confidently knowing that no matter what happened, I was going to glorify God through my positive attitude and performance.  I rocked the stage and ended up getting first place.  The girl who prayer for me won the whole contest and I was so proud of her and grateful that she won and was giving God the glory through it.

That is why I decided to do the contest again this year.  I wanted to be able to give people the hope that I was given last year and glorify God in a place where it might be unexpected.   Some people might frown upon my taking part in a casino affiliated contest, but Jesus ate with sinners.  If I spend all my time in churches and houses of worship, how will I reach the unsaved?

I am approaching the final round of the contest at the end of this week and my heart still longs for the same thing: to bring glory to God’s name and show people that through God nothing is impossible.  I want people to see God in me on stage and then find Him for themselves.  This is my prayer, whether I get first place or last place and will be my prayer long after the contest is over.

“Testimony….”

Being a Christian, one will often get asked about their testimony?  “What made you come to Christ?” or “How did you get started in all this?”.  My testimony story isn’t one of those sparkly “I was doing all these bad things and then I got saved” or “I had a life changing moment and found Christ” stories.  My testimony is more of a “falling more in love with God over a lifetime” stories.  I grew up in the church and was always surrounded by good influences.  Sometimes I feel like my story isn’t as good as someone who has a scary life threatening accident, or someone who found Christ after being in the worst of places, but I know that God doesn’t care where we came from, He cares where we end up.  Everyone’s testimony to finding Christ is amazing, because so many people are living lost, broken lives, and we have been found.  So never think that your testimony isn’t special or cool enough, because you would be surprised how it can lift someone else up.  And everyone’s testimony is cool enough for God.