"What a lifestyle praise looks like essentially at the very core is praising god even when we don't want to. That's what I have to tell myself, even when I don't want to, that doesn't change God in his worthiness of praise. So what I really encourage others to do is to evaluate their life and break it down into, not only a lifestyle of praise, but even down to more of the nuts and bolts of life. Your thoughtful life. Again praising him even when you don't want to or praising him when circumstances just don't make sense. And then also, praising him with our words.
Just to give you a little anecdote, I'm all about getting down to the nitty gritty and for me, a couple years ago, when I was really saying, okay lord, I'm going to integrate my faith into every square inch of my life and so I need to start evaluating ways that maybe I need to tweak in my life to make you known more and make me serve you and a better way, in a more worthy way. So I started taking out, and it was pretty hard, I have to admit, I stated taking out the, even in texting, even saying OMG. So like if you pull it out and everyone's saying OMG, all the time. Not even on texting, or on Facebook but they always say, oh my god. And as just kind of a way of agreeing with somebody or in conversations with your girlfriends and that was a very much a part of how I just spoke.
And I just decided, Lord, if I'm going to revere you with everything that I have, I've got to take your name and make it more holy with my speech. Because if we really knew who we were calling upon, we wouldn't take his name so lightly. So that's really just kind of my heart of living a life of praise is looking at the nuts and bolts of how we revere god and live authentically through our thoughts and our actions and especially our speech."
Originally published Tuesday, 14 October 2014.
