How Great Thou Art

This past Sunday in Mass, the meditation song after receiving the Eucharist was How Great Thou Art. Immediately after it started I thought "Yes! I love this song!" I promptly found it in the hymnal with every intention to sing along. When I finally found the page, I opened my mouth to sing, but it wasn't words that came out of my mouth, it was tears coming from my eyes. "Why am I crying?" I thought. "This is a really powerful song, but I want to sing it!" And then it hit me, this song reminds me of Meemaw.

Meemaw is my maternal grandmother who passed away in 2008. She was the epitome of what a grandmother should be - warm, loving, caring, giving, joyful, gentle, faithful - I could go on and on. Meemaw played piano at her church for years, this was one of her favorites. I just knew she was up in Heaven playing it as we sang.

From that moment on, I sang when I could get the words out, but I mostly just remembered Meemaw. Our family gatherings are definitely not the same without her, but she is always remembered. For now I know she is enjoying constantly praising the Lord with all the saints and angels and sending down her love and encouragement.

Singing Christmas Carols

Cousins and Meemaw - June 2007

How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God! when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul! my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul! my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul! my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul! my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art! 

2 Thessalonians 2:16

I have been thinking about starting a blog for what seems like two years now. So why has it taken me this long to get something going? Well, what's a blog without a title? I knew I wanted it to be something that encompasses my life. Titles such as The Wagner Way and I Could not Ask for More came to my mind, but they never sounded right. I didn't think about it 24/7, but it has seriously been in the back of my mind for two years.

It finally occurred to me that the verse I've had on my personal email for the longest time is such an inspiration to me.

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word."

This verse brings me so much hope. The Lord, Our Savior, gives us everlasting encouragement! And gives us the strength needed to be fervent servants for Him everyday. I then thought about what this means to me in my everyday life, and how Jason and I needed to be encouraging to each other. Our first two years of marriage have been full of encouragement, two big examples of this are how he encouraged me to find a new job that made me happy and I encouraged him to get his Masters. I also thought about our future family and how we are going to have to give encouragement to our children, from their first roll over to their first job. Not only that but they will be encouragers to us as they push us to be better parents. Our lives are full of everlasting encouragement, not to mention everything we get from our family and friends.

I know we won't see the encouragement as evident everday, but hopefully having this blog will be a reminder. It may especially remind me to be the encourager the Lord has called me to be by his grace.

Aside from that, why am I starting this blog? I have no little one, and therefore there will be no stories about their first roll, crawl, word, or the funny and cute thing they did. At least not yet. I don't have a job that would make for fun story, unless you want to hear about the excel problem I tackled. Really I just want a place I can write down my thoughts and tell a story. If your're interested in reading about them, then great! I know Jason and I have big things to look forward to in the future, this will just help serve as documentation of our journey.

“Anything done for another is done for oneself.” - Blessed Pope John Paul II