Tuesday's Musical Notes - "It's A Beautiful Morning" (The Rascals)

Rules of Civility #15 - "Keep your nails clean and short, also your hands and teeth clean, yet without showing any great concern for them."

Hey there!  It's Tuesday and "It's your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day".  It's the day after Monday and it's not yet gone with the wind.....It's the day for the blog about Music and The Messiah...in short....It's the day for Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!  Let's get started shall we?  Open your books to page 85 and find the chart about how Americans spend their leisure time.  It should look exactly like this:

Leisure time on an average day

      Minutes

Watching TV     170 (2.8 hours)
Socializing and communicating   37
Reading      18
Sports, exercise, and recreation  18
Playing games; using computer for leisure 26
Other leisure activities   18
Relaxing and thinking    17

Total leisure and sports time   298 (5.0 hours)



NOTE: Data include all persons age 15 and over. Data include all days 
of the week and are annual averages for 2011.

SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics

For you Picture Pages folks, go to this site for the graph:
 
Leisure Time of Americans

If you consider that the Americans who are lucky enough to have a job right now will usually spend at least 8 hours a day at that job and you combine that with 8 hours of sleep (4 out of 5 doctors surveyed recommended....) That leaves you with 8 hours of the day that you aren't making a living or resting from making a living.  In addition to the 5 hours of leisure time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics  says that most Americans spend 3 hours by "Caring for others, eating and drinking, and household activities". Given these stats it is easy to see why many Christians note that lack of time is the reason they don't have a consistent quiet time.....or is it?  Regardless of that.....It's A Beautiful Morining!

The Rascals "It's A Beautiful Morning"

Whether they were Young or just Rascals, they made a large enough impact in the music scene of the late '60s to be inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010.  They had 3 #1 hits, "Good Lovin'", "Groovin'", and "People Got To Be Free" and in 1968 they hit #3 with "It's A Beautiful Morining" keeping The Rascals at the top of the charts as the decade came to a close. This song describes the joy of embracing the new day and what it may hold for us.  It encourages us to wake up and see the beauty that surrounds us in creation. It inspires us to get outside and "just take in some clean air, boy!" But for some strange reason it leaves out the best day of the week.....Tuesday!

Originally known as "The Young Rascals", to keep the band from being confused with another group, The Rascals would become known for their laid back rhythms and easy going blue eyed soul music.  They remained a band from 1965-1972 and reunited in 2010 for the Hit Parade induction.  2013 saw The Rascals continuing to perform as they played shows on Broadway with close to their original lineup. 
How long does it take to get a Bible, open it and read a chapter?  Just over 6:00 minutes.  Yep, I timed it on a stop watch.  In that 6 minutes I read about how God provided for Joseph during the interpretation of Pharoah's dreams.  You can read the chapter here probably quicker than I did:

Genesis 41 HCSB
 
How do you spend your mornings?  Admittedly, some folks get up just in time to get dressed and head out the door, but what would your life look like if you planned to get up just a bit earlier....say 6 minutes.  If you reference our above chart, you would only have to give up 51 seconds from each of the 7 categories above. Regardless of whether or not you are a morning person, you can certainly see yourself spending at least 51 seconds doing most of the 7 leisure time activites first thing in each day.  So how about it?  This could be the beginning of sacrifices that you can make to mature in your faith.  This could be the way you transform your family.  This could be the way you positively adjust the behavior of your circle of influence.  This could be the way you assist your church with their mission of Kingdom growth.  Notice, this 6 minutes  wasn't an inductive Bible study with 85 references from Matthew Henry or a treatise on theology.  It was 6 minutes that I spent reading what God wants to say to me today.  What does He want to say to you today....It's a beautiful mornin'..... 
In the book of Lamentations, a book of the Bible know for its melancholia, there is a moment of pure joy as Jeremiah faces the thought of a new day and the encouragement he receives from building his relationship with God....

Lamentations 3:21-24

New International Version (NIV)

²¹ Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

'Til Tuesday,

Loving HIM by loving you,
Randy