My mother’s song:

I remember my mom. She was a young widow raising nine children alone. She only had a third grade education and labored mostly as a cleaning lady and a short order cook. Our family was very poor. What I remember most about her is the song (her humming while she worked) she kept going in her heart.

She obviously had her moments of fear, depression, and doubt, but somewhere along the line she made a decision to add her soundtrack. I remember her singing and humming the negro spirituals she had heard in her childhood. Her father, an uneducated sharecropper and itinerate preacher in the deep south, was a gifted musician. He played guitar in his home where he conducted church services.

My mother’s tune entered my heart at a very young age. I can almost remember the day and the exact moment when I was awakened internally by her sound, and to this day it has remained with me. One day she was humming her familiar tunes and it struck me like a gentle knife piercing me in my throat. I was struck speechless and could only wonder...what was that??? 

My own song has blessed me over the trying ups, downs, and vicissitudes of life. The Lord has given me a “song of deliverance” in the night seasons. “He put a new song in my mouth even praise to our God.” Maybe your soundtrack is singing the blues, a melody of whining, complaining, and negative words. Perhaps you are holding onto this song of self-pity because you feel that you have a right
to express yourself in this way...your pain is real... The offense did happen, and your story in reality is a sad, sad song.

Unless you change your tune (your life’s soundtrack) with the help of God, you will continue to wallow in the negative sounds of your own making. I challenge you to do what my mother decided to do...sing a victory song anyway...in spite of what is happening around you. She changed her story, her mind, and her sound which in turn changed her mood and affected the whole atmosphere. Lift up your voice, and lift your spirit!

The Soundtrack of Your Life
(Your Song Matters)
By Dorothy J. Ross