The power of suggestion

A few months ago, my friend sent me a short audio clip of Akon's Lonely. I thought the opening that features a chipmunky voice was so cute that I set it as my alarm ringtone. On hindsight, it was a bad idea. It never occurred to me that I will be waking up to these words:

Lonely, I am so lonely
I have nobody to call my own ...

I knew the power of words and the power of suggestion, but the little wisdom I had was not put into work when I set this as the alarm ringtone, and what more, I am one who snoozes a lot.

This went on for months. My days had not been entirely great lately and I had not been fervent in prayer. I used to wake up and the first thing I would do is say, "Good morning, Lord!" but not anymore for awhile now.

One morning a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly realise what I have been listening to every morning as I start my day! I changed it almost there and then.

And this is what I hear now as I wake up, written by John Rutter, sung by The Choirboys:

The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
To shine upon you and be gracious
And be gracious unto you
The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you
The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you
And give you peace, and give you peace
And give you peace
Amen, amen, amen, amen

Obviously I will not be listening to the whole song having to wake up and get ready for the day, but since I already have that song in memory, I find that I have been singing it quite often in the past two weeks, and what a difference it has made.

I woke up with a "Good morning, Lord!" today. And I was praying. I was revelling and looking forward to a great day* - and a life that is connected to Christ, as vines are connected to the branch.

Here is the song sung by The Choirboys:


pearlie

* until I got a call from an angry husband who got locked in the house because of some mis-communication. Ouch!