I am fascinated by the idea that the very first memories we actually have, the ones almost etched in stones in our brains, are the ones that may give us a clue into everything else we do, believe, are and accomplish in life.

Suze Orman, on a PBS special, said that she always asks her clients to talk about their very first money memories so they can understand how they have developed their philosophies on it.  I knew for my dad, who lived in total poverty as a kid, that he had formed his inner vows about working very hard because he sometimes, as a young boy, felt his step-dad wasn’t really trying hard enough to support the family (out drinking and carousing instead of providing).  For my dad, it resulted in workaholism to the max.  Work hard to eat-no excuses.  Wow, he definitely instilled that value in me.

But today, I am thinking of the very first songs I ever knew.  Besides “Jesus Loves Me,” and “The B-I-B-L-E” and perhaps a few other children’s Sunday School-type songs, there were two that go so far back into my brain I recall being in church singing them while I was yet 2, barely 3 years old.  And when I say I was singing them, it means I was wailing them out as I thought (even as a tiny tot) if you were going to sing, you should just flat-out-Vestal-Goodman SING!  :)  These two songs are grooved deeply into the thick forest of trees that are my brain’s thoughts and memories.

I shall not be, I shall not be moved

I shall not be, I shall not be moved

Just like a tree that’s planted by the water

I shall not be moved.

I could actually see a green-leafed tree by a running river in my mind’s eye, even as a child.  I was just going to be like that tree if it killed me!  And there was also this song, reminding me to burn for Jesus~

Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning

Give me oil in my lamp, I pray

Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning

Keep me burning ’til the break of day.

Sing Hosanna, sing Hosanna, Sing Hosanna to the King of Kings

Sing Hosanna, sing Hosanna, sing Hosanna to the King!

Now I wonder: Did I latch onto these particular two songs as a toddler because they already resonated with my heart to live with passion and zeal and be wholehearted in my ways – because who I was to be was already written?  Or did they, these simple songs, with piano and organ and perhaps a tambourine as accompaniment, being belted out by the very sincere and holy group at the Eastside Nazarene in Des Moines shape a small child by the singing?

Which way it happened, I am not sure.  But I find them both to be engraved in my heart and soul and continued prayers with melodies.

NOTE TO SELF:  Sing.  Sing loud.  Sing with conviction.  Stay leafy-green and deep-rooted (drinking from the streams of living waters) and burn like a wildfire all the way to the end.