Counting my blessings: 16

K-Love

I am so thankful for K-Love Radio. K-Love is national and listener-supported, which means they are funded by their listeners and Christian sponsors. For me, that means no commercials and positive news.

The radio in the kitchen is almost always on in the background. When we're in the van, we listen to K-Love, Christian kid's music, or audio books. I simply cannot count the number of times that my kids have heard a song on K-Love and asked me to turn it up. Songs that are not about drinking, drugs, sex, or violence. No, they don't focus on the pleasures of sin and make it sound desirable. The songs focus on God's love for us and our love for Him. They help us keep our focus on Him.

One day last year my oldest daughter turned on the laptop and she found K-Love on the computer. From the dining room, she exclaimed, "Mom, I have positive, encouraging K-Love on the computer!" She was so excited that she could listen while working on some of her school work. All 3 of my daughters ask to listen to K-Love. If they are going to listen to music, I can't ask for better music than worship music!

I stopped listening to pop/rock in the early 90s when a song had the lyrics, "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me." That was the breaking point for me. People can argue that lyrics don't mean anything, but for many people they actually do. The more someone hears something, the easier it becomes to believe it. I don't care what the rest of that song says, that one line was enough to turn me off. Since I've been listening to K-Love, I have gone back and listened to some of the music I used to like and I just don't like it much anymore. There may be a good beat and talented musicians, but the lyrics ruin the music for me. The music on K-Love is uplifting and keeps my focus on Jesus. However, if you don't love Jesus, I can understand why you may not favor K-Love.

Let me jump aside for a minute and share a short story with you. There was a time last year when I was having a really bad day. I was in the kitchen with tears streaming down my face. K-Love was on the radio and the phone rang. I don't know why I answered it (well, I do now, but didn't then) because who would want to answer the phone while crying? I was prepared for a sales call when I was greeted by my name with a question mark. Hesitantly, I confirmed it was me. On the other end of the line was a K-Love prayer partner just calling to thank me for my support and ask me if I had any prayer requests for which they could be praying. Wow. What timing could be better than that? I don't believe in coincidence.

God uses K-Love that way. There have been many times when a song comes on that speaks directly to me. A couple months after my third daughter was born, I had pain. It was an unspecific abdomen-side-going-straight-through-to-my-back pain on my right side. It was worse than labor. Really. I thought I was dying. It was taking my breath away. I didn't know if I was having a heart attack or appendicitis. I don't remember much of the ride to the emergency room other than "All Because of Jesus" by Fee was playing on K-Love. I remember feeling so distant, but recognizing the song and saying outloud, "Yes, it's all because of Jesus I'm alive." The timing of that song got me through the ride. There are countless other times that the timing of a song could only be explained by God's timing. (In case you're wondering, all turned out fine that night. Fluids helped - there may have been pain meds involved. I may have been dehydrated, but I also had kidney stones and soon after found out I have a hernia that is exacerbated by some food choices. Lots of water and being more cautious about what I eat resolved the problem rather quickly.)

If you don't have K-Love in your area, you don't have to miss out. If you want to give them a try you can listen online.

Tamara is hosting this Month of Thanksgiving. To read what others are thankful for, or to link up your own post of blessings, hop on over to Branch of Wisdom.