you are what you listen to.

So this is something I've been thinking about for a long time now. Something I've been fighting for a while, a soul struggle I've had to think and cry and pray over. Because here's the thing-- I love music.

I don't know how how many times I've said "I can't live without music" or "I'd die without music!" It's always been special to me, and I've always had a high emotional attachment to it. But recently, my love of music has developed into something that I need to deal with before the Lord. 

Please don't hear what I'm saying today as legalistic or judgmental. I'm going to be using specific examples of music today because I want to share specific and personal struggles, but I would never want to appear like I'm judging your heart here. Because I don't know your heart. What I do want to say here today on my own little soapbox is my struggle with music and what God has revealed to me through his Word about the whole crazy, catchy thing.

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I was raised in a home where we all loved music. My parents both have fabulous voices, something my older brother inherited the full gift of, and we all loved listening to music. On roadtrips, while decorating the Christmas tree, during schoolwork. Classical, acoustic, or rock (Petra, baby!)-- it made no difference. We all had a certain special fondness for music and enjoyed sharing it together.

It was almost always exclusively Christian, the rare exceptions being carefully evaluated by our parents. But as I began listening by myself as well as with my family, my tastes developed, and I began to find that Christian music is often, well, lacking in diversity and talent. With sparkly tools such as Pandora and Grooveshark, I've been finding all sorts of new music! This could only be good, right?

Wrong. Because while I haven't been listening to songs that contain profanity or blatant sexual content, the world's message has been serenading me all along.

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Music has been around forever, because it's God's idea, and He takes immense pleasure from His creation. He had musicians play and sing regularly in His presence in the tabernacle (1 Sam. 13.14, 1 Chron. 16.5-7), and His Psalms constantly encourage us to sing Him a new song and enter his courts with praise. Jesus sang with His disciples (Matt. 26.30), and we're even told to speak to each other "in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." (Eph. 5.19) Not to mention the countless references to eternal praise and song found in Revelation! Music is a means of glorifying God given to us by God. 

So really, music is His. He made it, and it's His to do with as He will. The question is, are we living like it?

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Like everything under the sun, music has grown tainted by sin over time. It's still God's creation, but a sinful people have taken the tool of worship He's given them and turned it into a device for their own distraction and amusement. 

And like many Christians across America, I bought into the lie that it's just music. Meant for our own enjoyment and pleasure, not really affecting my mind and heart at all. But I was ignoring a crucial  and oft-forgotten verse of the Bible...

"Do not love the world or anything in the world." (1 John 2:15)

This is not a suggestion, guideline, or encouragement. This is a command. Now, obviously, John is not referring to the entire earthly world. What he is referring to is the fallen world which denies Christ to love in its own sin. There is no middle ground with Christ, and if we are not for Him, we are against Him. Does your playlist reflect that?

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I have sixteen Pandora stations and twenty-two Grooveshark playlists. These are the soundtracks of my life, and what they are constantly crooning into my ears affects me. I've always known this, but sometimes it's more convenient to ignore God's truth than to live by it. But it's a deadly mistake.

As Bob Kauflin effectively pointed out, music is a carrier of the world's morals (or lack thereof) and ideas. What is says does affect me, whatever I choose to believe, and if I'm not carefully selecting my music, I'm opening the doors of my heart to all sorts of worldliness I would normally reject. 

Take my recent delight in the Brit-pop band One Direction. After hearing their single "One Thing" I was hooked, and since there wasn't anything wrong with that song, I promptly made a playlist including all their music. "Everything About You" quickly became a favorite. There wasn't any profanity or openly crude talk, so it was fine, right?

Wrong.

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Consider the lines,

"Every minutes like our last

So let's just take it real slow.

Forget about the clock that's ticking."

Fun, upbeat, and happy. But within these words lie blatant transience. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." It's the sort of thing Solomon warns us against again and again, and here I was pumping it into my head. And furthermore, the chorus continues,"From the way that we touch, baby/ to the way that you kiss on me." 


I've shared with you all my determination to safeguard my purity and save my first kiss for the altar, and here I was listening to a song that glorified intimate touch in a young love relationship. And then there was John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change," where he and his friends choose to be indifferent to wrongdoing.

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Finally, one of my favorite songs-- "The Longer I Run" by Peter Bradley Adams. The lyrics say,

"When my blood runs warm with the warm red wine, I miss the life that I left behind.

And when I hear the sound of the blackbird's cry, I know I left in the nick of time.

Well this road I'm on is gonna turn to sand, and leave me lost in a far off land.

So let me ride the wind till I don't look back, and forget the life I almost had.

"If I wander till I die may I know whose hand I'm in.

If my home I'll never find

And let me live again.

"The longer I run then the less that I find,

Selling my Soul for a nickel and dime,

Breaking my heart to keep singing these rhymes,

losing again.

"Tell my brother please not to look for me.

I ain't the man that I used to be.

Cause if my Savior comes could you let him know;

I've gone away forward to save my soul."

I had never thought about the lyrics before, and if I had, I justified the lyrics by the beauty of his voice and the music. This was blatant disobedience and denial of Christ, and I've had to fall on my face before God and repent of it. Within this song, we have a man drinking himself to intoxication so he'll forget his past, which is reason enough to avoid this song. But then he goes on to deny the fact that God can save him and move on to save himself. This is outright blasphemy, and I'm ashamed that I could listen to this song without thinking about the dishonor I was going the Lord.

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Kauflin says, "We may assume that God gave us music just to make us happy, not holy; He actually gave us music to make us happy and holy."*

Music is a tool God has been gracious to give us for our sanctification, but we throw it away to pursue the catchier beats and more harmonious tunes of the world. But their attraction is fleeting and dangerous, laced with poison that can deeply harm our relationship with the Lord. 

Like everything in life-- clothes, books, movies, relationships-- we need to surrender our music to the Lord. Because it's really not ours to begin with. And as with everything in life, when we surrender our idols and fractured hearts to Him, He makes us new. He washes us in the pure water of the Word. 

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Chances are you just nodded amiably to what I just said. But can I challenge you for a moment to evaluate your iPod, your CD case, and (double ouch) your blog playlist? Can we count how many secular songs exist there? Now, can we tally the number of worshipful, God-glorifying songs? Or maybe you only have four or five secular songs, but they dominate your iPod. 

I'm not trying to bash every secular song ever written, now. But consider Kauflin's words...

"There's no doubt [secular bands] are creative. What we can forget is that non-Christians companies and bands are also more creative in deceiving us to love the world. They aren't trying to care for our souls; they want us to buy their product. They want us to forget there's a God to whom we're accountable for our every word, thought, and action. If you consistently choose ungodly music as your companion, you won't be the exception. You too will suffer harm."

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I know that I've lived that life of forgetfulness and walked down that road of deceit. It's often very subtle and gradual, but that makes it no less destructive.We all know the patterns. "Just this one song. This one time. Again." And if this pattern is evident in your life, you're also suffering the spiritual consequences.

We watch movies by unbelievers and read books by unbelievers, so I'm not saying that occasionally listening to secular music is wrong.  I enjoy a story well told, especially when put to music! The key here is moderation. Most Christians wouldn't watch a movie filled with immorality and profanity fifteen times a week, but they'll regularly tune into a song riddled with the same. And for most of us, the evil influences are more subtle. 

Personally, I have adopted the philosophy that 90% of my music should be Christian. If we are listening to more secular music than Christian, we're opening our minds to all sorts of immorality, subtle or not. Secular artists are not trying to encourage you in your walk with God; honestly, are your listening habits aiding you in the sanctification process?

Music was meant to be a means of bringing glory to God, to "proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light." It all comes back to the Gospel; to hearing the glorious truth of his mercy and responding to it by overhauling our lives, including our iPods. So are you following God's divine plan for music? Or have you deviated form His path and created your own?

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

(Psalm 100:4 ESV)

***this post, and my thinking, was heavily influenced by Bob Kauflin and his chapter "God, My Heart, and Music" in C.J. Mahaney's Worldliness. All Kauflin quotes were taken from such.***

looks I love: nautical style

It's fresh and clean and (mostly sort-of) timeless. Stripes are its icon and anchors its mascot. Frankly. I love nautical style, from my first sailor dress at age five. I now have a nice long maxi skirt in nautical stripe, but there are subtler ways to incorporate it as well-- a scarf, bracelet, or crisp reds and blues. How do you like your nautical?


p.s. Check out this nautical giveaway at "A Ray of Sunshine." It's possibly the best ever.

emotions.

This morning, I woke up with a Niquil hangover, a stuffy nose, and a headache. Alá a sinus infection. Now when I have a cold/sinus infection, I'm five times more likely to go to pieces and become ridiculously emotional and/or sappy. It's sad and pathetic, but it's true. So today I'm cuddled up in my favorite sweater and scarf with a cup of hot tea, writing and choking up over songs, books, quotes, and other such beautiful things.

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Winnie the Pooh, for one. I've always loved him. I had a stuffed animal, Legos, playhouses, and all the books plus some duplicates. I still have the gorgeous, red-covered first edition books, and they still feed my soul. His honesty and simplicity and sweet-heartedness just make me teary.

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I was a Civil Wars fan basically before all my friends and most of my family, but it's gone to a whole new level lately. Joy's voice is jubilant and sounds like its coming from the bubbling overflow of her heart, and John Paul's voice is raw and deep and beautiful. Together, they make haunting music. Poison and Wine will never leave my head.

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Hot, warm chai in a Starbucks cup warms my hands and hearts, and the smell floats through the house like Christmas. Drink it black, splash it with milk, or add a spoonful of honey; it's delicious whichever way you choose to sip. I'm sort of addicted.


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Adele's Someone Like You is haunting and beautiful and real music. The lyrics are poignant and the music {especially the piano} is nostalgia itself. Every time I hear it, I get weepy. It's the story of two broken hearts, but it is true of friendships, as well.


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The future is seeming scary right now, but this quote just made me fall on my face before God and worship Him for His righteous sovereignty. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds tomorrow, and who am I to worry and second guess? Sunday's sermon by Pastor Crotts was yet another reminder of worry's futility and trust's eternal value.


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Mr Knightly. Gosh, I love this guy. Mr. Darcy is chill and all that, but Mr. Knightley and Mr. Tilney will always be my favorite Austen heroes. The way he smiles, the way he gets in Emma's face, the way he watches out for others... it's all so perfect.

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I finished Les Miserables and, wow. Just wow. It was beautiful and full of feeling and heroes and enfuriating characters. Basically, it was one of the best books I've ever read and certainly the longest. The scope was stunning and the way he talked extensively about every character was unlike anything I'd ever read. Now I don't know what to do with myself!


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So I started looking at old vacation pictures and found this from two years ago and got all choked up with nostalgia n' stuff. I remember this beautiful trip, the friends I met {and have stayed in touch with} and the smell of the salt and sound of the waves. I can't believe the changes that have taken place, in my little brother, in our family, and most of all, in my walk with the Lord. 


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Now, for comfort food-- chili over vermicelli. It's a family recipe that pretty much knocks the socks off of everyone who's ever tasted it. And afterwards, banana splits. Probably the only thing that could make being sick feel marvelous!

five things.

I finally saw X-Men: First Class and generally liked it, with mixed feelings.The highlights included James MacAvoy (♥) as the wise, kind, and charming Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as the dark and troubled Magneto, and Jennifer Lawrence as the once cute-and-almost-innocent Mystique. All three were very well suited to their parts and had some pretty dynamic chemistry.

Rissi's blog is a favorite of mine-- her movie reviews are honest, refreshing, and spoiler-free, and her posts on life and culture are always poignant and beautiful. Her post on the contemporary princess was no different; her thoughts on femininity are true and inspiring and very thought-provoking. "Being raised by a different approach about things like dating and other “worldly” pursuits has given me a perspective in which I try (notice the emphasis) to see things from the perception of a girl who is not of the world but must survive in it..."

You guys know that my aunt has been very sick, requires a bone marrow transplant, and you also knew my dad was the donor. Well, while we were in D.C. on Saturday, a video journalist showed up to interview my aunt, uncle, and dad. The video turned out so well-- if you'd like to see it, check it out here. You can hear a little more about our story and how you can pray for us!

While we were on our trip, I started Nicholas Spark's Dear John. It infuriated me so much that I stopped reading. For someone who claims to be a believer, Mr. Sparks sure does write a worldly representation of true love. John was a jerk who tried to get as physically close to Savannah as possible, and Savannah was a flirt who eventually let him because "this is what people do when they love each other." And she was supposed to be a Christian!

I've been fighting a cold/sinus infection since Maryland... but I can really feel it coming now. My allergies are going to kill me! Instead of swimming, I'm passed out on the couch sipping orange juice in my yoga pants with HGTV blaring. Thank the Lord for no school tomorrow!

a guy's thoughts.

Doesn't it make sense that if we're talking about being brothers and sisters in Christ, we might need to give a bit of thought to what's going on in a guy's mind regarding this subject? Duh, AnnaKate! I mean, we can guess and conjecture and even quote, but the best thing to do is get it straight from them.

I stumbled across The Anonymous Antagonist over two years ago and had the privilege of meeting and chatting with its author, Daniel Wilson, recently. He even wrote guest post not too long ago! When I decided I wanted to give you guys a glimpse of this whole brothers-in-Christ-issue from a guy's point of view, Daniel immediately leaped into mind. He's a great writer with strong Christian convictions, and I can't wait for you to hear what he has to say!

1. Is it possible for guys and girls to be good friends in the Lord?

Yes, I think it is possible. Although, it can be difficult. Men can sometimes become attracted to the lady, and the lady can sometimes be oblivious to it. 

I think it is possible for both sides to be mature and only remain friends, it's just that men tend to be immature first. It is in human nature for men to be in want of a partner. 

That's not to say every guy who is friends with a girl will immediately try to date her. They can be perfect friends and remain friends for years to come.

2. What do you look for in a friend?

Well I haven't been in the market for finding new friends much. They usually just appear out of thin air without me having much of a choice in the matter.

But if I have to choose, I want a friend who is willing to accept my opinions without squashing them. They can argue with me and try to convince me of something else, as long as they aren't trying to insult me while doing so. 

I also like friends who don't take things too seriously, unless it's obviously a serious situation. But other than that, not taking everything anyone says to "RED ALERT" is always more fun. 

Friends with a good sense of humor, I adore. 

3. In your opinion, does modesty in dress help a friendship?

If we're talking about a guy and girl being friends, then yes. It does matter. If the girl wears immodest clothing, it may become a stumbling block for the guy - or any guy! 

Which of course can lead to the end of what was supposed to be an "only friends" situation. 

4. When would you say that friendliness becomes flirtatiousness in a conversation? How can a girl avoid coming off as flirtatious?

When the girl or guy begin talking about personal matters. But once again, it depends on their relationship. I've had personal talks with girls, but it was never because I was interested in them. Only trying to work out or solve something. 

A conversation can be an act of flirting no matter what the content of it is. However, talking about personal matters can be a massive stumbling block. 

A girl can avoid looking flirtatious by only talking to guys when in a large group of people. Maybe not talking as often to any single guy. Also, facial expressions, body language, or distance can lead a guy on and give you the look of a flirt. As well as talking often to multiple guys. It's not really fair to the lady, but it's just how things look from the outside. A girl can be completely against flirting, yet still appear flirtatious. It sucks, but it's life. 

5. Physically speaking, how close is too close?

Once again, it depends on the relationship. I have a few girls I know that are basically sisters to me. That's hard to understand if you've never had a fake sister, but it's possible. We hug sometimes but it's no big deal. 

With any other person, you should try your best not to be "sleeping" on them. I don't have an actual distance you should keep. Just keep the distance you would if the guy's or girl's parents were in the room. That doesn't help much. Try asking your parents and they might give you a distance rule to keep. 

There you have it! I really enjoyed his practical suggestions. Thanks so much, Daniel!