I will only sing your praise.
I wrote these words on my hands. I wrote this on little scraps of paper I carried in the pocket of my scrubs. I reached into my pocket and felt the words resonate in my soul while the waves of anxiety rolled over me. I wrote it over and over. On lined paper. Construction paper. The side of coloring pages. Napkins.
I played the song again. I turned it up louder. I hit repeat. I sang it with no music. I sang it in the shower. I repeated it while I tried desperately to fall asleep.
I will only sing your praise. I’d never heard a more beautiful song of praise.
Yall have been so gracious in your response to reading and following my blog! I am thankful that God is using my words to speak to you.
The biggest question I get it WHY did I start a blog? Maybe you’ve been wondering that, too.
The answer is really pretty simple. God has long given me a gift with words, specifically with writing. I remember being in kindergarten and loving the opportunity to write a story about a given topic. By third grade, my teachers were warning me prior to beginning the task to keep it short, so that my story would fit on a single piece of paper. By fifth grade, I was writing in contests for the school; something I continued yearly until I graduated high school. I won an award my freshman year in college for a piece I submitted that I had written to be read at my grandfather’s funeral and for another piece I created about my first experience tasting sushi.
But none of those things made me feel like I had anything worth saying.
In the background of my life, I kept a journal. Writing in it has always been my way of processing the things around me and figuring out how I feel about all the stuff that happens in this crazy world. But it has always just been for me.
As I have grown more in my faith, God has revealed to me that He speaks to me in a way that I am then able then share with others.
It started with my husband.
I would be listening to a song or reading a passage and suddenly feel overcome with a need to write. Fervently, I would type out a reminder in my phone with words that I was not even thinking, just letting my fingers flow. If I happened to have a pen and paper nearby, I’d scribble on those, too. I would read the words back and think, “Hmm.. what does this even mean?”
I started sharing them with Ben. He would decipher them, and often say he felt they were meant for him. I became more comfortable with this kind of receiving and sharing, which led to a whole host of snippets saved in my phone.
At first, I thought maybe I should write a book, thinking other people could likely relate to the things I was experiencing and writing about. So, I started out with my book, writing several chapters and lots of notes as to what I thought should be included. But most of the chapters were a bit short. And I am a bit short on the time that it would take to research and really create a full-blown book.
A few months ago, I was in the shower pondering what my next move should be when I felt the words start a blog press upon me. My initial thought – that’s weird. The only blogs I read are the ones where SAHM share their amazon fashion finds.
But ok, I figured I’d look it up and see what all it would entail to create a blog. It took me literally 30 minutes to set the whole thing up. The name is a play on words for my last name Salter, if you missed that.
From there, I just write what’s on my heart and hope you like it! Some of the posts are something I wrote in the drive-thru of McDonald’s after picking up my kids. Some are written sleepily on the couch while catching up with my husband after we put the kids to sleep. Some I wrote a long time ago. And some are based on texts I have sent friends.
I never know what song or sermon will strike me.
Sometimes our pastor says something during his sermon that is a bit of an aside that leads me to jotting down a line or two. After mulling it over, I will turn those words into a post. Most of the time, I hear something I like that resonates with me. I sit on it for a while until I feel like I have a good grasp on it, then I write my little heart out. My husband is my editor in chief and usually reads over them for me while I create the graphics.
And listen, we know they are not perfect and that there are typos, as well as spelling and grammatical errors. But the point is that we are getting God’s word out, and that we are providing you as readers an opportunity to reflect on God’s word.
I’m glad you like my work and are encouraged, but I hope that you also feel challenged to seek God in your own situations, and then see the world in a little differently. I do not give you all of the pieces and do not go into a lot of detail. My prayer is that these posts give you a taste for God and that you then set aside time to spend with him in order to grow your faith and plug in your own experiences.
I am just here to share what God shares with me. I want to show you that there is no other way than with Jesus. There is no peace without a Savior. Even when your situation seems bleak, when there are no other alternatives, when the chips are all on the table, with the bank account says $0.00, when the clock says 11:59, when you’ve consumed one too many whiskeys, even when it hurts, and when you feel like you have failed, there is a place where you can still sing God’s praise.
There is always something to be thankful for and someone who can help you turn it around. My writing is from an overflow of my heart and the miraculous ways God has and is working in my life.
Thanks for joining me on this sweet, sweet journey of turning salt into light and allowing me to sing His praise.
Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth.”
Proverbs 16:24 “Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”
Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Salty but Sweet 