Last night I had the most vivid dream that I've had in a long time. I was on some sort of "American Idol" type of show as a contestant. There was a whole production set up with producers, make up people and tech assistants swarming around. I was getting prepped and it was almost my turn. Suddenly I was hit with the (true to real life) realization that I CANNOT SING. I am not just being humble. I think I am the only non-musical Korean-American in the whole country. I do not play any instruments, I can barely plunk anything out on the piano. I am not even good at listening to music. I, seriously, do not have a good singing voice. I do not even karaoke, ever. I cannot imagine having a voice that’s good enough for public consumption in any way. It's really not my thing. Am I getting my point across?
So there I was, waiting to go on. I was desperately trying to think through all of the songs that I know to find one that I could sing in a decent range (I think I came up with a kid song from Barney or Raffi or something). I woke up really nervous.
I also woke up being tackled by two of my three children so I promptly forgot the dream. However, the dream came back to my mind in vivid colors during the musical worship portion of our Sunday morning church service later this morning. I asked God, "What was that dream all about?" Here was His response:
"You think that you have a bad singing voice but to me, your voice, especially when you are worshiping me in song, is the sweetest, most beautiful voice possible, because of who you are to me. You are my precious daughter and everything that you do in love, I love. And, by the way, this is how I feel about your parenting. You think of yourself as a mediocre, struggling, “this is not really my best area of talent” mom but I see your mothering as delightful and gifted. You see all of the ways that you don’t hit the right notes, but I receive what you do for the children that I created as a work of art.”
So how’s that for affirmation? God thinks that I rock as a mom. I know, in my heart, that it’s only partly true but, hey, I’ll take what I can get.
That's a really cool post. It's to sense the Lord's heart and joy when I pray for others, but it can be hard to hear when He's affirming me. I'm glad you were able to hear it.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching my Korean-trained perfectionist husband always find the failures in his efforts, this is especially meaningful.
I like this post. I like how you bring up how God loves to hear those worship in song who feel like they don't have musical talent. I think that most people who feel like they don't have talent would accept that God loves to hear them worship anyway...now to parallel that with other things we dont feel we are good at...like parenting. I like it. I like your juxtaposition. It makes me think :)
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