Shout Out to Sarah Western

I'm not a big tech junkie. I do like listening to music when I work out sometimes, but a lot of times, I like to just run to clear my mind. When I wanted some tunes, I would bring my old cd player with my "Gym Mix" cds that I burned. That didn't last long though because the cd player stopped working. So I used an old cassette player and listened to a tape of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. But that got old pretty quick. So I've been without a personal music player for several months now. Until last week when my stinker Mom and brother sent me an ipod shuffle. They are pretty incredible. The thing is this shuffle came with a stipulation- it was only for inspirational music.
See I sometimes have a hard time not listening to voices of negativity and doubt. It's like a runaway train. My mom's hope was that sending me a shuffle with uplifting music would help in some way to counter those negative thoughts.
Don't get me wrong, my mom is babe to do that for me. But at first I thought some of the EFY, Kenneth Cope, etc songs were a little cheesy. Plus I'm not used to having the option of listening to music at my convenience. But this morning I was getting ready and thought, why not? So I pulled out the shuffle and it made a big difference. I know this may sound a little cheesy, but the music really did help bring the Spirit into my day and drown out destructive thoughts. It was a great way to start the day and good to have these songs stuck in my head. I particularly like "The Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns. It reminds me that we have a choice of what we listen to.
This experience reminds me of one Sarah Western blogged about last week. So I will add my voice to hers in saying that music really can influence us for good and can be pretty powerful if we allow it to.