|
|
Dalton
Roberts |
|
|
A
dear friend sings in nursing homes and uses my gospel CDs in her work.
When she emailed me about it, it made me remember all the great joy that
has come my way since I heeded some wise words from my mother. Mother
never was excited about me playing music in nightclubs. She would find
ways, as mothers do, to let me know she was not comfortable with it but
it was something I had to do and I always knew it. So I kept right on
doing it. Seeing
she couldn’t influence me to not play in the clubs, she adopted a new
tactic. Mothers are good at claiming all the territory for the Lord that
they possibly can. So she would say, “If you’re going to write
country and rock and roll songs, the very least you could do would be to
write some for the Lord. It’s more important for you to tithe your
time and talent than to tithe your money because God only has one of you
and if you don’t do what you have talents to do for Him, it will never
get done.” I
would always do what all boys do when Mama sets in on them. Yes, I’d
promise her anything to ease her off my case. One day I was asked to help raise money for a wheelchair for a nursing home and suddenly my promise to Mama popped in my mind. I asked the nursing home administrator if she’d get some groups to sell a gospel album if I would write one. She agreed so I began writing the songs.
I
had never written a gospel song in my life. I had to so some spiritual
tuning up before I could write the first song! But when they started to
flow, they came with such power, ease and clarity that it became one of
the great spiritual highs of my life. It
was part of the tithing of my time and talents. Then I started getting
requests to play in churches and nursing homes and all kinds of groups
that couldn’t pay me. Now I don’t even ask a nursing home whether or
not they can pay me unless it is a big commercial operation that should
pay for such programming. When
I go to play for nursing homes full of sick and poor people, I receive
such joy that I sometimes radiate like fireplace embers long after I
return home. The Lord said, you know, that we were actually visiting Him
when we visited the sick and needy. Can anything be better than to play
for Him? I
have a new saying: when I play for money, I get money; when I play for
the Lord, I get the Lord. That’s
a deal you can’t beat. Visit Dalton’s website at www.daltonroberts.com. His writings are gathered at www.ipsfeatures.com. Write him at DownhomeP@aol.com.
|
