So He has been busy today. The birds’ singing roused me out of sleep this morning, even though it was still dark. As my brain was waking up, my spirit recalled a teaching by our worship pastor, Vince Gibson, about how birds’ songs in the darkness caused the pores, or stomata, of leaves to open up so they could receive the dew of the morning. Vince called us to imitate creation. He said our songs of worship would “open our spiritual pores” so that we could receive the dew of Heaven.

That is enough to sit on all day long. But there’s more.

With this thought in mind, I thanked God for his attention to detail and asked Him for reminders to sing in the dark so that my praise might open up all that God wanted to water in our lives and our girls’ lives.

Then while driving the kids to school, the Lord replayed a comment from Kelly Wyatt last night.  “Praise is dangerous,” she said. She retold how Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns even though they were in prison. All of a sudden there was a great earthquake and the chains were broken and doors swung open for them but also for all the prisoners around them.

That’s the kind of praise that changes your life and the lives of others around you.

As I arrived home I found this leaf.  He doesn’t miss a beat does He?

Then followed a conversation with my friend who is about to have her fourth baby. The two of us talked a lot about peace. And rest. And how do you do that when you have a lot of little people pulling at you all the time. She made this beautiful comment.  God said to her, “You keep asking for peace and rest and then you think you will give it to yourself.”

Selah.

After I got off the phone I  prayed for her. And for Christ be the source for both of us.  She and I are in very different seasons. She is in the newborn—toddler stage and I’m in the  tween—teenager stage but we share the same desire to be good moms, to love our kids well, and if we are honest, to “do it right.”

And, we both know, we won’t do it right. And that is terrifying.

How Lord? my spirit asked. How do we do this great task and stay in your peace?

For the hundredth time, my thoughts went back to the pending decisions Chuck and I must make for our girls. Time is running out and we must choose paths that will set the trajectory of their lives. But no pressure…right?

Then He speaks.  “Just as birds sing in the dark, you can sing in the dark.”

The Spirit connected all these moments to reveal that the birds don’t have all the answers. Nor do they take  responsibility for God doing His thing or the leaves doing their thing. They just sing. They do their part. The birds trust God to do the rest.

I am not God in my girls’ lives. But I can do my part. I can worship in faith, even in the dark, without answers, knowing that He will open their hearts so the dew of heaven will fall on them. I can praise The One who holds their lives in His hand and be confident that  “as surely as the rising of the dawn, He will respond.”

Yes, praise is dangerous. So sing, even in the dark.