Higher, Higher, Lift Jesus Higher

Want to know one of my dad's favorite songs?

"Higher, Higher, Lift Jesus Higher."

I think the first time anyone in our family had heard the song was back when we lived in Iowa. A man would preach for us on Sundays because we were at the time lacking a pastor, and he had a big family. That family, I believe, introduced us to "Lift Jesus Higher."

I remember when we moved to South Carolina, we didn't really hear that song again, at least for a while. Then the Sunday school went up and sang it as a special.

I found out later that that very same morning, Daddy had been flipping through the songbook, looking for the lyrics to that song.

They're really great. Want me to link you to them? I'd show them here, but I think I'd reach my general post length before I'm done.

Besides, my professor says linking is good for advertising, somehow. Not completely sure how, but I'm going to trust her.

Have a great day, lift Jesus higher, stomp Satan lower, and cast your burdens unto Jesus! =D

Golden City Repeats, Or Lack Thereof

I'm sitting here listening to my mom play her music in the background, and it's playing my high school math teacher's favorite song: "Golden City."

One year, he promised no homework for one class period to the class that brought him that song on CD. One of my classmates took him up on that, and my teacher spent the entire class period playing that song on repeat.

By the end of class, we could all sing along.

The rest of that year, he'd play that song often throughout his classes. We all got used to it, and some probably got a little sick of it.

Me, I just kind of went along with it. I liked the tune and what I could hear of the lyrics. It probably wouldn't have made my list of favorite songs, but I had no complaints to my teacher playing it so often.

Then the next year, and the next. I don't think I ever heard him play that song even a dozens times in all, especially my senior year. What happened?

I have no clue. He claimed that he still played it often, but those times just happened to be in other classes.

Hmmm... I should ask my brother, who still has that teacher for math, if that teacher ever plays that song in his class...

Music Pt. 2

Okay, so remember in a previous post I said something about how different music has different effects, but I didn't know how to go into any detail? Well, I did some research for my biology project, so how about I share some of the info with you!

There's an online article called "Music & How It Affects Your Brain, Emotions." It talks about the part of our brains that processes music. Apparently, music is super effective, because the part of the brain that understands it is the part that also deals with motivation, emotion, and reward.

The article even said that our brains automatically put a pattern to the music we hear! I guess that means we can kind of guess what note is coming next even in a song we haven't heard before?

And you know those goose bumps you sometimes get when listening to music? According to this article, that's the composer taking advantage of what he knows we'll expect and purposely changing it. Incredible, right?

Oh, and I found a website called Dove Song that talks about the differences between positive and negative music. According to this source, here's positive music: "has beneficial qualities and is emotionally and spiritually uplifting, perhaps even healing; can be relaxing, calming, and mentally invigorating." And negative music "stimulates the negative emotions: anger, frustration, depression, hatred and fear."

Whoops, running out of room to continue in this post. But tomorrow, maybe I'll tell you about one or more of the experiments I found. If you don't want to wait that long, all of them are also on that Dove Song website. =)

Let Your Word Be Born

How many of you are familiar with the song "Let Your Word Be Born"? I've heard the chorus for years, but only yesterday in the song service in church did I realize the lyrics of the first verse.

"It was a tiny, simple stable,
"All beaten and worn.
"Hardly a place
"For a King to be born.
"He didn't choose someplace special
"To reveal His Majesty,
"So I know if I'll give Him control,
"He'll be born in me."

How humbling, and how true. We're so unworthy of Jesus Christ as it is; had He chosen a palace or something, He might have had more followers because that was what the world was expecting, but we wouldn't have a chance at salvation.

I love it. So wonderful! x3

Anyways, that was on my heart today. A rather short post, but here it is. Have a great day! ♥

Music

I love music. It's so wonderful!

Too bad that can't be an all-encompassing statement, though. It definitely hinges on what kind of music.

When someone asks me what kind of music I like, I think my answer is somewhat weird, although it's true. My mom plays a lot of Southern Gospel music, and I really like a lot of the songs that are played, especially the older ones. Really, it's the only kind of music I'm generally exposed to, aside from Disney.

Oh, don't get me wrong. At restaurants they have all kinds of music blaring in the background. But I don't listen to it if I can help it. Rock, rap, country (lyrics, mostly), et cetera. I know what kind of music I don't like. But for some reason, I still sort of hesitate when it comes to what I do like.

I'm so weird.

Have you seen anything about the way different musics have different effects? On people, animals, and plants? I haven't. But I'm thinking I should soon. Doing some sort of project on that was tentatively offered as an extra credit thing for biology, and I need all the help I can get.

Well, if I find out anything, especially any unusual details, maybe I'll share them in another post some day. =) Until then, have a great day!