Good O'l Hymn Sing

I love all kinds of music, but growing up sometimes I just dreaded going to church on certain Sundays just because, I knew we would be singing just the hymns. In my thinking they were all super slow and boring and what was the point of even singing them...they were for the older generation and that was it. I felt like we did it just to make sure the older people were happy. It was a duty we performed once a month. A dreaded duty.

Finally when I turned 13 or 14 I started playing piano for church and lo and behold I had to learn how to play all these wretched songs. As I grew in my playing ability all kinds of different people taught me how to play the hymns all different kinds of ways and as I learned how to mix, change the key, make them faster/slower I grew to like them little by little. Eventually as I matured and went through difficult trials I actually read/sang the lyrics and as I read/sang them I realized how amazingly profound they really were.

The authors that wrote all these amazing pieces of work put tons of thought and effort into the lyrics. They actually thought about and pondered their words...it was never a mad scramble to throw new music out onto the table...it was something that they worked on sometimes it was never meant to even be a song. Sometimes it was just a poem expressing their great love for an amazing savior and than someone came along, read it and made it into a song later down the road.

Now I am definitely not disregarding Christ Tomlin, or the David Crowder Band or any of the other modern worship bands..in fact I love their music. But sometimes what means the most to me and my soul when I am feeling lonely or depressed or sometimes just plain happy is singing and playing some of the old hymns. There is something about the truth and thought that is in them that makes you actually think about how amazing the God we serve truly is.

One of my favorite hymns is In Christ Alone. It first sympathizes with our pain and shows us that we can rely on Jesus, but it doesn't stop there it then goes onto describe how and why we can rely on him. I love that because, allot of our modern songs just say things about relying on him and his love but they don't always explain how he does this or why he does this. Most of the hymns says certain things and than explains those certain things which it sometimes just what I need.

I love my church down here in Georgia in fact it is one of the best churches I have ever been to. I fell in love with their music and band. I love the atmosphere that we worship in, I love how we worship all together as one big family. I love the modern and up-beat feel of the music. And normally this is what I would rather listen to and play.  But sometimes...I just long to pull out the old hymn book and just have a good o'l hymn sing.  

Minnesota Country Girl

Due to the fact that I have been given plenty of crap from both Northern and Southern people alike about being country, I have decided to clarify the term country.

First off being country does not automatically make you a southerner. If you live below the mason-dixon line this does not automatically make you a country boy/girl. If you live above the mason-dixon line this does not automatically make you a city boy/girl. In other words there are both country AND city people in both the north and south. Believe me I have now lived in both north and now south, I have met the same amount of city people as country people in both places. Promise.

Second, people in the north DO have country music. Country music is not just for people in the south, we Northern people also have a genre called country and last time I checked its the same people that y'all/you guys listen to down here. Some southern people have told me that country music does not apply to those of us who come from/live in the north.....ummm guys we have trucks, beer, girls, fields and we hunt and fish as well, it's not just you guys from the south. Also if you don't listen to country music or don't like it, this does not automatically make you a city person. Country music is not the only kind of music that exists.

Now thirdly, since moving to Georgia I have been accused of becoming a southern country girl; I have also been accused of being a northern city girl. May I propose to you my lovely southern and northern friends that I am a northern country girl. (GASP) Yes I can be from the north and still be a country girl to the core, and I can also live in the south and not be southern! Ever since moving here to Georgia I actually miss the country. I miss having woods for miles and miles right outside my back door. I miss being able to bike down to the river to go swimming. I miss trout fishing in southern Minnesota. I miss hunting those pesky deer on a cold November morning. Yes I definitely miss my home in the country. I also miss the snow, the northern accent, good coffee, the many many lakes, lefse, ice skating, long car rides listening to Prairie Home Companion, and everything else northern and Minnesotan.

Although I miss my home in Minnesota I am learning to adapt to the country of the south. I now enjoy caving, fried chicken (and fried pretty much every other food), blackberry picking, camping in the south (which is different than camping in the north), and now I am ready to try chicken and waffles, and alligator hunting. Note none of this makes me southern.

Now to tell you what makes a person southern or northern and country or city. First you have to have lived in the south or the north for at least 10 years and you have to have a northern or southern accent (Of course there are variations of both but, you get the idea.) If you are northern you own at least one parka if not two or three, you say "you guys", a toboggan is something you ride on to go sledding, you usually love cold weather, you talk very fast, and you know what lutefisk is. If you are southern you talk very slowly, really hate anything cold unless it is sweet tea, a toboggan is a hat, you say "y'all", and you know what chicken and waffles is. If you are a country person you like to hunt, fish, camp, and pretty much just do anything that involves the outdoors. If you are a city person you don't mind living downtown in a big city, you could probably go your whole life without going somewhere where there in no cell phone service, and you probably like to do things that are indoors. Now you guys must realize that these are just the basics on how to tell the difference...I could keep going and going but, than this post would be more like book than just a post.

So I am proud to say that I am a Minnesota country girl. I love everything cold and everything adventures, and now I am learning how to love some things southern. But please realize that I will probably never be a southern girl and I know I will never be a city girl. I am proud of my northern self, and I love all my southern city friends, northern city friends, southern country friends, and northern country friends.