REHEARSE

   Psalm 92:1-2

“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, 

and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; 

to declare Your loving kindness in the morning,

and Your Faithfulness every night.”

Aladdin

     I was home-schooled growing up so my parents were great about making sure we had extra curricular activities to do.  I tried sports and just didn't love it.  At the age of 10, I went to Orange County to stay with my Auntie and auditioned for a traveling Children's Theater Show - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  I fell in love.  I was hooked. My Mom was introduced to a local (San Diego) Children's Theater Company (the coordinator just happened to be another home-school mom we spent time with every month at park day.)  Christian Youth Theater (CYT), was where we landed.  I was in love with theater but by no means a natural. I struggled to sing on key and due to several processing challenges that I deal with to this day, dancing was my greatest challenge.  It is so interesting that it was also my favorite aspect of theater.  When we would rehearse,  I would learn my choreography, write it all down and go home and practice for at least an hour a day.  I couldn't believe that some kids would not practice a minute at home and still know the moves the next week.  Each show, there was always a break-through point for me.  I would rehearse over and over and over and then at some point it would click.  My muscles and brain would get it and I would experience a freedom and joy in dancing that was quite unexplainable.  It was that freedom and joy that made me go back and do over 30 shows in my little theater career from age 10 -18. 

Little Mermaid 

    I share all this to lay a platform for this concept of rehearsal – a very dear concept to me.  In Psalm 92:1-2, God is telling us what is good!  Whenever God is telling us what is good, we want to turn our hearts toward what He’s saying - to perk up and listen.  It is good to “sing praises - to declare His loving kindness and faithfulness - morning and night.”  I don't know about you, but when I am struggling through a hardship or trial of any depth, praise and worship don't come naturally to me.  We have other scriptures commanding us to “do everything without grumbling or complaining” because THAT is the human tendency.  We grumble and complain instead of worshipping our God.  To worship in the original language means “to declare or show forth.”  I was blown away!  It means ”to stand boldly out - opposite!”   What!?  This life will always have various trials.   I love the word - boldly. It is a word of power and action.  By God's Spirit, we can stand boldly in worship because we know the truth and bottom line of every unpleasant situation.  The bottom line is we are GREATLY LOVED - the fiery trials are but for a moment and never without purpose for our good and God's glory.  

      Maybe that bottom-line truth doesn't get you excited.  It doesn't always get me excited either. There’s a thought that creeps in my head,  "that's nice, but I'm suffering now."  This is where REHEARSAL comes in. The truth is unchanging, but what does change is the affect we allow it to have on us. Rehearsal of the truth will click and produce a freedom and joy to dance in the midst of our trial.  To KNOW the steps of truth and break forth, to declare with our lives that God is love and He is faithful.  As we do this, the world and other believers will see the way we live as a beautifully choreographed life that shows forth His love and faithfulness. 

Ways to Rehearse God's Truth in Your Own Life

•               Read your Bible every day.  Start small -10 minutes. 

•               Put verses on 3x5 cards - truths you know you should believe in, but you just don't yet. 

•               Put verses on your mirror with a wipe off pen.

•               Put a blank piece of paper in a picture frame and write on

         the glass with a wipe off pen.

•               Get the children's CD's called Sprouts. Scriptures sung to music, whether you have kids or not. 

•               Set a daily recurring alarm on your cell phone with a simple

         truth in the subject line. 

There are many other ways to rehearse the truth into your heart - these are just some that I do. 

Declare:  

H5046

נגד

nâgad

naw-gad'

A primitive root; properly to front, that is, stand boldly out opposite; by implication (causatively), 

to manifest; figuratively to announce (always by word of mouth to one present); specifically to expose, 

predict, explain, praise:—bewray, (?) X certainly, certify, declare (-ing), denounce, expound, X fully, messenger, plainly, profess, rehearse,. report, shew (forth), speak, X surely, tell, utter

Little Mermaid with my youngest brother

Aladdin with Jen and Peter