Top 100 Workout Songs!

Music is something that I would venture to say all of us love. We listen to it at home, in the car, and on our electronic devices. Some of us even like to listen to it when we work out. Personally, I love the music mixes the trainers pick when I am working out to one of their Team Beachbody programs! The right beat can definitely make you feel motivated to move to the music!

I especially like to listen to music when I walk/run! That's why I was really intrigued by this article that asked people what their favorite running songs were. Click here to see the list of the top 100 songs (and see if any of your faves are on there!). For the most part, I agree with a lot of their picks (actually, the top nine of those songs ARE in my iPod lol). I have MANY of the songs on that 100 list; including lots of them that I think should have been ranked a lot higher. There is also a list of the top 90's songs too! I also have some that didn't make the list; like Mandisa's "Overcomer" or "Good Morning". I'm also a big fan of Jeremy Camp's music as well. Toby Mac, Kutless, and a lot of good Christian artists are positive, motivating, and uplifting. Helps keep your focus on God and how He's giving you the strength to get through your workouts too!

Grace and peace to you, my friends!! Whatever your taste in music, I hope that you can find something that gets you movin' and motivated!! Be infused! God bless you!

Restored

Yesterday, I mentioned that I had been listening to a lot of Jeremy Camp (and painting in my "Restored" shirt that I got at his concert). It's not only the song that just seems to be the anthem of my heart right now, but the whole concept of it. In the song, Jeremy sings: "You have restored me from my feeble and broken soul." I keep thinking about God restoring me just as I'm restoring my own house to a better state. If I can take an old outdated house and make it like new again, how much MORE can God do that for me (and in me)?! If there's one thing that He's been showing me most in this process, it's that He is definitely restoring my feeble and broken soul. I feel renewed and like He has breathed new life into me. I can't even begin to put it all into words! All I know is that I am in such awe of Him and all He has done (and is doing).

Grace and peace to you, my friends! I hope that you watch this video and listen to the words. Let it sink in. Soak up the fact that God takes great joy in remolding you and restoring you! He can turn you into a new you; inside and out! Be infused! God bless you!

Preparing a Place

"It won't be long now," I keep thinking to myself. Every day, I survey the progress that has been made in my house and see the old interior continue to change and transform into something new and better. For me, it gives the verse about being a new creation fresh meaning (2 Corinthians 5:17). Watching the old, dingy, gross, and filthy things be made clean and new makes me think about what God does for me in the interior of my heart! It's amazing to think about and to witness!

I have mentioned in my blogs lately about how emotional things have been for me. I'm still trying hard to process it all and allow God to work in my heart bit by bit just like we've been working on the house. So many things have been stirring in me. There have been many moments where I have been overwhelmed to tears; both happy and sad ones. I am so humbled, blessed, and grateful to have this new house (as well as so much help and team effort from my parents in making it a home). I have also been wrestling with the sad tears and have cried here and there as I've been painting by myself and frequently listening to the music of Jeremy Camp as I do my work. His music has always been so heartfelt, genuine, and full of praise and gratitude towards God. I also want to have that same humble heart that's fixed on God; a God who loves and heals me of my brokenness. I even wear the shirt I got when I first saw him in concert in 2005 when I was pregnant with my daughter. It says "Restored" on the front of it. To me, it couldn't be a more appropriate shirt to wear when I'm painting because not only is the house being restored and made new, but so is my heart and my life!

These past couple days, I haven't been able to shake Jesus' words from my mind from John 14:1-4:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 

Those verses are resonating with me more than ever before! This house, that God so graciously provided, is for my children and I. At this moment, I am preparing this place for us. We will be together; living and thriving in our new home. We also invite the Lord to be with us; giving back to Him what He has given to us. This house will become our home together and I pray it will be abounding in the fruit of His Spirit as we invite and welcome His presence into our home and our hearts. Where we are, may He be also! Always!

I can only imagine the place He is preparing for every one of us! I think about all the work that my family and I are doing on this house and just how much is being put into it. Though, even as we do our best, there are going to be mistakes and imperfections. Nothing usually ever looks exactly right. You end up finding flaws and living with the "it'll be ok for now" type things until you can put more time and money into something later. Yet, it's alright! Our earthly homes don't have to be perfect (and they aren't/won't ever be). This home, even as homey as it's becoming, is still not my true "home". My real home is in heaven; with Jesus in the PERFECT place that He is preparing for me. I kind of laugh to think of Him constructing a place, painting rooms, and doing home improvement work. Heck, he could just say the word and things would be completed without him ever having to lift a paint brush or power tool! But, I'm sure that it's not anything like that at all. He's not in heaven doing heavy construction. I don't think He meant things quite like that. I'm not sure exactly how or what He's preparing, but I believe that He's just waiting for God to say "Ok, it's time! Go and get them!" It's like when you are preparing to receive guests into your home. You prepare for an event (like the house warming party I will most certainly have) and you receive your guests at the proper time; when everything is ready. Right now, I don't know the day or hour of my own house warming party, but I know the day is close because my house is becoming more and more ready as it gets completed. That's just like how these end times are. Prophecies are being fulfilled and soon, everything will be completed. Then, the day and hour will come and it will be time to go home!!

I am just so awed and amazed by all these thoughts! It not only thrills me, but comforts me and helps me to remember that no matter what, my home is with Jesus and I'm never alone. I just keep thinking about the words to Jeremy Camp's song "Right Here": "Everywhere I go I know you're not far away. You're right here. You're right here." I feel like He's always saying that to me, "Melissa, I'm right here." He is. He's always right here with me. No matter what. I am SO GRATEFUL for that!

Grace and peace to you, my friends! Watch and listen to "Right Here" (right now lol) and let it speak to you. Jesus is ALWAYS right there with you. He's not just in heaven preparing that place for you, He IS with you. We don't have to feel alone or like He's far away from us. He never leaves us and wants us to be with Him. We need to invite Him to be with us; to be at home in our hearts. Nothing feels more like home than when you've made Him at home in your life! Be infused! God bless you!!