Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we are all about sound doctrine for everyday people. My name is Kosti Hinn and we have an incredible episode lined up for you today. But first, want to just say a huge thank you to everyone who's been listening and sharing and rating and reviewing the podcast. If you haven't already subscribed, you can do so on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite platform and connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and all that as well. Today I'm joined by our executive director, Brett Skinner. Welcome, Brett. Hey, Casi, how's it going today, brother? Going good. Excited to be here, ma'am. Awesome. And our guest today is someone who is going to bless you with great insights on worship. I want to read her bio and then introduce her. She's an award-winning song writer. Her voice is synonymous with hymns, having founded, along with her husband, the Getty Music Organization, which helps people learn the Bible through hymns to carry for life. Kristen performs annual shows at the Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Grand Ole Opry, where she leads Sing conference based on her book by the same name. She's particularly passionate about helping children and families learn their faith through song. And Kristen and Keith are originally from Northern Ireland and now live in Nashville, Tennessee with their four daughters. Kristen Getty, welcome to the For the Gospel podcast.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much for having me today.
SPEAKER_00Wonderful. And we have to say a special thank you and shout out to Keith, who is watching the girls right now, so you can do this. Is that right?
SPEAKER_03That's exactly right. So he is with them. They've finished their school for the day because we're here in Ireland, so we're a good few hours ahead of you. So school is done for the day, and now he gets to look after them at the most vulnerable part where everybody's tired and it's starting to fall apart.
SPEAKER_00Oh yes. Wonderful. It's it's dad life. I've got four, and Brett has two, and they're all under the ages of six. And so it's just the same chaos that you must endure, all of us do.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we're all in the same place right now. Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_00I love it. So um, sort of a personal question off the bat. Uh, with such a passion for worship and your home and your desire, you and Keith, to uh help children understand worship and learn theology through worship. What are some of the traditions that you guys have come to love around Christmas, which is a very worshipful time or supposed to be for believers? So around this time of year, are there any traditions or things that you guys do that you've enjoyed every year?
SPEAKER_03Yes, absolutely. We'll, you know, Keith and I have been involved in and writing hymns and singing for over 20 years now. And one of the things we love most is Christmas carols. They capture so much of um the story of Christmas with beautiful artistry. We love the timelessness of them and how we come back to them each year. And so we have always been singing them. We grew up singing them, and now it's just a delight to us to get to teach them to our kids. And so we do a little sort of hymn a month with the girls throughout the year. And right now, even though it's we've decided to take this one song for two months, we're teaching them once in Royal David City right now, which is a beautiful hymn by Cecil Francis Havrigal, and um we're we're teaching that to them. And so our it's a great joy for us to get to to sing with our children, and we just keep adding songs so we can sing lots with them. So that's one thing that we do sing on Christmas Eve, sing throughout the throughout the month, and then we also use it as a time just to give them a sense of the of the big story. This year we've been going through the one-year Bible for children with them, but we're going to do a sort of a like an overview using the Jesse tree, which um I'm going through that day by day, and that'll be starting next week with the promised chocolate from the Advent calendar that will follow said devotional time. Even though I'm talking about these little bribes that get them all sitting at one time.
SPEAKER_00You know, that that we pulled off our Christmas photo this year. If you smile, you get treats.
SPEAKER_03That's exactly right. So, and of course, treats there are in abundance in December, but it's just a great time built into the year where we can really focus on the story and what it means, and you know, and just seeing our little two-year-old try to figure out what we're talking about, and all the way up to our nine-year-old now, he is really starting to understand in a deep way and having them together and together as a family. It's it's such a great, it's a great thing.
SPEAKER_02That's amazing. I love the Christmas time, and I love hearing that you you guys take advantage of it with your kids and doing the advent calendar and all the hymns. We do we do that as well at our home, and it's such a a great time to get to uh engage with our kids at a deeper level. It's an exciting season, they're constantly asking about the lights, but uh and so it just is a great opportunity to be able to talk about the real reason for the season, and so that's amazing. Well, Kristen, we have a lot of carols. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_03Sorry, the great the great the great thing about sort of like the traditional carols is you know, we keep coming back to them year after year, and so it's such a good long-term investment in the life of our kids, you know, to start them off learning them, knowing that they'll probably sing these every year of their life. And so even if they get just a little bit this year, they'll get a little bit more next year, but we keep coming back around to it, and so we can keep building on what they know. That's what's so great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's the best, it's the best. Well, um, you know, we're gonna be talking today about worship, but I do have one more personal uh and practical question. It's our understanding that you're currently recording the ESV audio bible, and so we're gonna get an ESV audio bible with Kristen Getty as the voice. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_03That is correct. That's exciting.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so I have a question for you. We have, you know, we always encourage people to read through the Bible each year, but it's a year-long project that we we give to people, but you're recording this. How many hours do you think it's gonna take you to get through that?
SPEAKER_03Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02Maybe not even hours, days. We're talking days, weeks. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I started back in August and I had a little break when we came over to Ireland just to get the kids all set up, you know. So I've been working on it. So I hope to be, I'm gonna finish the end, um, the end of the New Testament by Christmas. That's my goal. And then the next the first quarter of next year will be the Old Testament and hopefully get all the edits done by spring. Most of the edits are when I um said something that was too Irish and they didn't get the word properly, and I have to go back and make it sort of Irish, and then also some of the place names and names of people um that I can say only for so long, but that's how we say it in Ireland, but um, it doesn't matter. We get the right the right the right pronunciation.
SPEAKER_00Kristen, I have a question. Do they let you say faith the way the real Irish say faith?
unknownFaith.
SPEAKER_00Yes, like like Pastor Phil DeCourcy. Phil DeCourcy is over in Orange County and they used to go visit their church because they were 20 minutes away, and he would say fit, and I would go, yeah, I love the way you said that.
SPEAKER_03Fifth. Yeah, I know. I've tried to, there's a couple of words that I've said. It sounds like an Irish accent, but said in an American way. But because obviously, in all of these things, you want people to understand what you're saying. You know, nothing is really served if people are tripping over a line that you said, and what did she say? So and you know, you're trying to find a way of of of grooming how you talk to make it understood. So there's a little challenge with that.
unknownSo good.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, I'm gonna sorry, I'm gonna transition us into more serious matters. Not that the Bible is not serious, but um we're we're gonna talk a little more about worship in the sense of music and singing and theology. And Kristen, I want to ask you a lot of views today, not all, but a lot in the church world today, um, with worship and singing involve a great deal of emotion. And of course, we're not anti-emotion, we're not anti-passion, but the idea that we've really worshipped and we've really sung and we've really, you know, went there, whatever there is, into the presence of God, and we're really feeling him, uh, is centered around the idea that I'm I'm exactly that, I'm feeling it. Uh whether it's, you know, I I felt goosebumps from that song or uh people saying, Man, I really just felt the presence of God. It was really thick during that worship set. You know, those are lines that I think a lot of our listeners have heard before. And um I I would love to get your insight on the importance of emotion, but more so engaging our mind. That worship, and maybe it's not, but I think it is more than a feeling. It's about engaging the mind and help people understand um how to discern, you know, what is emotionalism and then what is true worship. And uh, regardless of how it feels, what's the importance of the mind in worship? Does that make sense what I'm asking you?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, absolutely. I remember a number of years ago, my uncle John Lennox, do you know John Lennox, Dr. John Lennox, the apologist? He would like him calling. Yeah. You would like him. So my uncle John Lennox, he um said, I remember a very important line to me a number of years ago when I was thinking through a lot of these very same questions, and he said, our worship comes as a response to revelation. And so it's really important that uh our worship is coming from that place of God has revealed something about himself and who he is, and then we respond to it, mind, body, and soul, all of life, and also whenever we sing. And so I think that at the heart of your question is you know, we're trying to create trying to create an experience that somehow seems that God is more present. First of all, understanding that God is always present, but and our emotions don't determine how present he is. Our emotions are a gift from the Lord, which we use and direct towards him, just like the Psalmist teaches us. He gathers all of his emotion, big and small, all of the things he's going through, and he points it Godward. And that's very, very important. But we need to know who God is and what he has revealed about himself. And so I I think when we're trying to seek for authentic worship, authentic worship begins with an authentic understanding of the God of the Bible. And that's that's where we start, and that is what will engage the mind and engage the emotions. And so when we're reflecting on the songs that we sing, we need to look at the words that we're singing. What are we actually saying about God? Is this true? Is it deep? Is it rich? If we gather all of our songs together in a particular morning of service of worship, are we painting a big view of the God of the Bible? Are we singing the gospel? If people from the outside were to come in and listen in, what would they hear about God? And I think that that brings tremendous relief, at least it does to me, that my worship of the Lord is not dependent on whether I'm feeling it or not, or whether it has stirred me a particular way. But if my my worship is reflecting a true authentic position understanding of who God is, and then I then respond to that, that that then is true worship. And some days I will be really feeling it, and other days I have just, you know, been arguing with Keith and threw the kids into Sunday school, and we had a dreadful morning, and I arrive at church on Sunday. Is any of this any less true? Am I any less a child of God? Am I in any less need of the gospel? None of those things. But um, I can still sing because of who I am and what God has done for us. And I think that, and very often the more I sing, the more the emotions follow because I'm singing of the true picture of the God of the Bible. And I've often wondered if we are always in pursuit of trying to create something which feels worshipful, we bind ourselves up so quickly. And there's something so freeing about lifting your eyes with relief to the God of the Bible and just opening your mouth and singing. And yeah.
SPEAKER_00Amen. I sorry, I know Brett will have another question as a follow-up, but I want to just flesh one more thing out that you brought up. Um in saying that, well, what your it your uncle said, right? Your you said your uncle, John Lennon. Our worship comes from revelation. The idea of that that revelation being accurate, meaning a right understanding of who God is. You just described that. I would love for you to help people understand the importance of accuracy and lyrics, because one of the arguments that people will say today is, hey, hey, hey, you know, you all need to relax about all this doctrine and theology in your songs. What we said isn't bad or wrong, it's just creativity. This is poetry. And we sometimes sing things that maybe aren't accurate, or um, I hear a lot of in some of the the movements today lyrics that are more of an eros love. They're they're the way someone would talk to a boyfriend in the world or in a pagan relationship, and they attribute things to God in those ways. Can you speak to the importance of accuracy in lyrics and maybe even push back on the idea that oh, it's just poetry and creativity. Don't be so such a doctrinal stickler.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, it is creativity and it is poetry. You're not just singing bland statements. It should be beautiful, it should engage the mind and engage the emotions and be memorable and be singable. But I think you almost need to step back and think, well, what is it that our singing does? And singing is incredibly powerful. We remember things so deeply when we sing them, which is why children learn their alphabet through a song, because it sticks, it stays in your mind. And so it becomes very powerful. The things that we sing, we remember, we carry with us. And so then it provides some sort of a grammar to our understanding of the faith. There often the words we reach for when we pray, the words we reach for when we're sharing our faith, words we reach for when we're trying to explain it to our children. And so we want to make sure those words are deep and rich and true. And so it's it's a worthwhile thing examining what we sing. And of course, these there are, you know, you want to be accurate within a song, there's that type of accuracy in terms of if a line is wrong or a concept is wrong, you want to keep it right so that in fact we are learning and holding on to the right things. But there's also an accuracy in terms of the overall picture that is presented through all the songs that we sing. If we only ever sing about, you know, 5% of the God of the Bible and of his character, then we're going to get a very unbalanced view. You know, so if you look at the Psalms, um there's the God who's the judge, who is who is the shepherd, the God who is is kind, the God who is gentle, but the God who is uh is a God that is going to is going to bring judgment, who has strong words, you have all, as I said, all the different human emotions. It it puts on display so many facets of God's character. I think then if we were to take some make some sort of a list and then set that list over some of the songs that we're singing over the course of maybe a year in a church, would we find that we're only singing about one little part? And in singing about one little part, we have an inaccurate view of the God of the Bible. And so I think this is there's the specific accuracy, but then there's the big picture that is painted. And I know that I want my kids to have a really strong sense of the God of the Bible, the big story of the Bible, the gospel story, and what that means in everyday life. I want to feed them through the songs that they sing, knowing just how powerfully those songs will impact their minds and hearts.
SPEAKER_02Man, I absolutely love that. That was incredible. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. Now, now I think one of the what tends to happen is, you know, we tend to illustrate things on a on a pendulum here. And so, you know, sometimes uh we can swing too far one way where all we're doing is is living in the emotion of our worship. Uh and on the other, on the other side, we can just live in the mind of our worship. Um, what are some of the dangers that you may have seen when believers disengage their minds from worship, where they're not connecting everything that you just said um into the into what they're singing, the words that are they're singing and reflecting on, um, relying primarily on their emotions or just their feelings?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think the thing that comes to mind first is the danger that if they then encounter a season in life or just a service where their emotions aren't engaged in the way they would like, they would start to think that this is not true, that God is not real, and they become distant. And very often when people hit, you know, difficult seasons of life, they they need the songs that deal with that, they need the realness of it. And if your experience of worship is always either a happiness or a particular environment or experience that is created for you, that's not going to sustain you through all of life struggle. It can't. And I think we do see that that fallout when people begin, there's a disconnect, a growing disconnect between what has tried to be created in a in a particular space and time can't be sustained or even related to with the rest of life. Um and you know, a third of the the Psalms are lament. And if anything, this year, everybody has lost something in some degree or another. What does it mean to stand and sing about loss and yet to know God's hope? What does it mean what does the gospel mean when it doesn't bring you everything you wanted in this life? Um, how do we sustain that? And I think um deep songs that we can sing together are of enormous help. The other thing is often I find in the more emotional songs, they they drive our attention to ourselves and to how we feel and think. And actually in a room of a lot of people can create like a little sort of bubble around you, which you are in charge of on sustaining. And I just, oh my goodness, I love whenever I sing to open my eyes. I love to see everybody around me. I love to hear everybody around me. I don't want to be on my own because I can't do this on my own. We need each other, we need that sense of you too, me too, all of us in this together, singing about real life, about a real God, a real gospel that actually impacts um all of our lives and not and not simply an emotional haze that often feels like an escape from it.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00Wow, that is tremendous insight. We keep saying that after every single question you answer, and we mean it. It is so helpful. Um, I I'm not sure uh if at if at all the conferences you and Keith are at, I'm sure people are are so complimentary and and I've been to them and been to those conferences and around the people that you guys are there with, and and everyone is, I believe, uh enjoying it. But some of the people that we interact with on a weekly basis in the church are they've never been to Shepherd's Conference or G3 or Sing. They're just coming out, and the things that you're saying are like drinking fresh, pure, cold, been in the fridge all day, you know, water. And when when you've been drinking from a gutter theologically, um, that is the response I think that you'll hear from people. And you I'm I know you uh you already have, um, but just know how helpful what you're saying is. On that note, what are some of the dangers if we disengage our emotions from worship? We talk with people sometimes who used to raise their hands, and that meant that you were a crazy charismatic, and no, now you're not gonna raise your hands. You know, put your hands down. What are you doing, you know, moving your feet in the front row there? I I mean I've seen this before, and people are nervous and they don't want to get labeled, and they're thinking a lot about um emotions and all that. Uh where do emotions fit? And also do we need to be careful not to disengage our passions or our emotions or be afraid of passion and emotion in singing and worship? Because can that lead to a sort of cold orthodoxy or uh too much rigidity where we're we're long on knowledge but short on passion? And is the Christian life an exciting adventure? Are we not praising God and thrilled about who he is? Should that not come out in our emotion? Speak to that in the place of emotion.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think it's absolutely should. You know, we've been talking to when emotion sort of takes over or when we demand it to be there, we're shocked when it's not, or it determines how holy a moment is. But of course, God has made us with our minds, with our emotions, it's who we are. We bring our whole selves. And the Bible has so many examples of exuberant, joyful, jumping up and down, worship to the Lord. You know, it can't be apart from that. And if anybody in all the world, if you know, it should be believers, it should be those who follow Christ, should be the most joyful, the most, you know, out there in terms of just a big voice. I think it starts with the voice, it drives me nuts when I go to churches and people don't sing, you know. So you talk about raising you know arms and all these things, I sort of they're sort of secondary, you know. I I think fine, you do those things, that's great. Everybody has a different sort of response to how what feels um comfortable or indeed what feels authentic to their given personality, you know. I I don't I mean, I tend to punch the air an awful lot more than I advise my kids. Which is I mean, I don't know whether that's I don't why we do uh while we do that. But one of the things in in in the UK, um we still sing at sports matches. Now not just chant, you know, and not just um like you know call and response echo stuff, but actual full-on singing. Like you take the old hymn Abide with me at the you know the at the cup final for rugby or or soccer you know an arena full of thousands mostly men are singing their hearts out to this old hymn. It's the most incredible thing and it's it's exuberant. It is joyful. It's full of conviction and grit grit. And I would love you know I think we should have that in the churches. We should be lifting the the roofs off with the sound of with the sound of our voices and being and being engaged in that absolutely come on punch the hair get fired up I'm gonna start doing that I'm gonna start doing that.
SPEAKER_01Hopefully somebody's not sitting standing too close to me though accidentally Priston what can you give us like the punch?
SPEAKER_00What what does the punch look like?
SPEAKER_03Do you just go probably cheesy I don't know I we just get so engaged and yeah and I think my goodness there's just so much I think if uh you're starting off with the sound of the the sound of the congregation the sound of our worship is the sound of the congregation then lifting up their voices and singing that's where we start and we want in order to enable people to do that we want to provide the best possible songs for doing that not just in the melodies not just in the in the lyrics but then also in in people being able to sing them because that then sets them up to the best advantage to be able to sing these songs and when they feel confident in singing I think that adds to the joy of it it adds to the confidence in doing that and then it adds to the expression of whether you clap your hands or lift your lift your hands or punch the air I think you start off with trying to find good songs that everybody can can sing together and that will lead to an authentic response of mind and emotion.
SPEAKER_02Amen well Kristen I I have right here a copy of your book Sing How Worship Transforms Your Life Family and Church now I didn't get this because we were talking today we actually bought our church bought 80 copies of these a few months back we have annually we get our worship team together and we just talk about where we're going for the next year. And this was actually the the gift that we gave out to everybody. We've been looking for a book to give to our worship team and surprisingly there's not a lot of of good books out there on worship. It's not a topic that a lot of theologians are spending time talking about but this book just hit the spot and particularly in chapter four of your book which is titled Sing with Heart in Mind and that's kind of what we're talking about today you mentioned the idea of providing songs to our congregations that will carry them through the ups and downs of life. And if you don't mind I want to read a portion of your book but then I want to ask you a question related to it. And and so if you don't mind I'm gonna quote this so quote Christ filled songs can help motivate us into a day when we would rather stay in bed than get up and face that chore or meeting or project. They support us when we lack courage and need to bolster our faith they help us remember scripture they keep uprooting the weeds of worry and fear that tangle our feet and trip us up they help us when we don't know how to explain the gospel to a friend but recalling a lyric gives us the words they comfort us when we are hit with something unexpected or tragic end quote now you mentioned this um I think two questions ago you mentioned that we've all been hit we've all we've all faced some sort of of loss um this year with everything that's been happening would you just mind would you elaborate a little bit more on on this idea and maybe maybe talk to how how how is this so important for a Christian's life and maybe how could church leaders um you know do that practically provide songs for the congregation to to carry them through the ups and downs yeah by doing that yeah I think we very much feed our congregations not through the words that we speak to them but the words that we sing with them and and so I think uh a good um unity of purpose from the pastors to the worship leaders is really important that a good working friendship and relationship that can help bring those elements together so that we provide a a soundtrack for our congregation not just for a Sunday service but throughout the week knowing just how songs do stay with us and then those songs need to capture a wide variety of themes.
SPEAKER_03You know if you were to take the contents page of an old hymnal or even J.I. Packer's book Knowing God is going through all the different characteristics of who God is over the course of a year, finding songs, a canon of material, curating it for our congregation of songs that touch to those big characters of God, what it means to live the Christian life and various other themes, I think that we do our congregation then a very good service songs in a in around a lot of the new songs that come through and obviously we try to write new hymns but there are songs that linger for just a little while but there are songs that we carry with us through life. And I think to find 40, 50, 60 songs for our congregation that can feed them over their lives that they carry with them the greatest thy faithfulnesses, the amazing grace, the be thou my vision, these songs that give such a full and deep rich understanding of the Lord that we'll then be able to sustain a congregation is so important. And not being afraid to have songs that touch in the more raw parts of life our songs do not need to be insanely happy all the time. If they are it's not authentic it's not who we are we deal with all sorts of things. So there should be room for lament there should be room for songs that come in a minor key and songs that deal with some of these things. But it's going to be songs that are full of God's truth that is ultimately going to give the most freedom and the most comfort and if we don't have songs that are filled with that then we are not giving people the best and indeed if it's songs that are all about my my own personal response to God or how I feel about it that's only going to be as big as me. We need something that's much bigger than who we are we need the God of the Bible we need the gospel story and to sing of those things that's gonna bring freedom and comfort and indeed there are moments in life where things are so hard that it is it is difficult to sing. There have been moments for me that I have found it just hard to physically sing, which is why I think the congregational voice is so important making lots of room and I know there's been it's been problematic this this year because we haven't been together and I think we miss that. But just hearing one another sing helps me whenever I can't sing. And so all those all those things are important.
SPEAKER_00That's so helpful.
SPEAKER_03Kristen um in in that same vein of thought worship as a lifestyle worship permeating our pain and what we go through in trials and and how we sing our way through life and theology Romans 12 1 and 2 paints a picture of worship that is so much more than just singing of course we're talking about singing and that's a prominent part of our worship but um how would you encourage or even challenge our listeners to uh pursue worship as a lifestyle what does worship as a lifestyle look like even beyond singing yeah yeah no absolutely well worship is to be uh the sort of the mindset and the heart the heart set of um of all of our lives and and music does help that because it does it does remind us we um are a people that constantly forget the things that shouldn't be forgotten and we need to find ways in our daily life to to remember them you know we we do our quiet time yes it it glorifies the Lord but so much of the reason why we spend time in the Bible spend time in prayer spend time singing is because we need it you know he does not he does not need it he he knows the Bible he knows what we need it so desperately and I find that when I start to um drift away from more focused times in the word and in prayer and in song I can link that to greater worry greater fears and also a um less fruitfulness I know that in a day that I've spent in the time with the Bible I am more focused when it comes to taking opportunity to tell my children about the Lord. I know that I will take a bit more time to have that conversation with somebody because I want to speak to spiritual things. I will know that I don't want to spend my money there. I want to spend it here because that's better for those resources. And so a lot of a lot of how we use worship songs and using devotional life is to keep folding ourselves into the greater picture, the greater reality that we live in day to day because so often it takes just so little for us to go slightly off course. And a line that goes slightly off course just continues that way. We need to continually bring it back and as Romans talks about renewing our minds that they just need continual renewal and I think we just need to be active in that which is why I'm so grateful for for hymns to help to help do that. So grateful for the freedom we have to just open our Bibles and to read it and so grateful for the community of believers to help keep us on track you know because life I was even just thinking about this today just how short life is and when we start to even think about that and how vast and great eternity is and how urgent the the telling of the gospel and the living it out and the passing it on to the next generation we want that to be the the beginning of the page every day and the rest of our day to fall out from that. We don't want to miss a moment we don't want to miss a day because we have few enough of them as they are but the there but there's so much to do and just to have that sort of passion I think devotional life singing the congregational support are those things which which fuel that's great wisdom in a world where worry and fear and anxiety and some of those things you mentioned is so prevalent and the gospel can take such a back seat right now.
SPEAKER_00I know there's a there's a lot going on around the world but in America where I know you guys spend a great deal of time uh the the political war that's been going on and the issues with justice and the arguments I mean we already have conflict in the church and everywhere else under the sun and life in general and this year has been a tumultuous time and so what you're describing is so helpful to veer our perspective back to the gospel and on to eternity is a tremendous tremendous blessing of wisdom to our listeners. The last question is sort of an impromptu one and I wanted to ask you it's not something we talked about even before the show but as you've been uh answering the questions it it got me thinking uh our tagline is Sound Doctrine for everyday people we have talked about our kids we've talked about the normalcy of life and one of the things that I would love to hear from you and I think people would benefit from is to hear about how you're a a superstar and you rise at 3 a.m like a monk and you read for hours all day and you know you're you're you know talk to me about the normalcy of daily quiet time, daily worship. What's your prayer life like or your time in the Word with the kids bursting in and mom I need breakfast and I mean talk to us about the normalcy of everyday worship and how it looks I have find that so difficult because before I had kids and I had my first baby just before I turned 31.
SPEAKER_03So I had a good number of years of adulthood and of writing songs where I could linger over things for hours. And I'm starting to get a little tiny bit of that back. And actually I was I was um I spoke to a friend a few months ago about the frustration of not being able to do all that I wanted every single day. And she said when I had young children I find this so hard. So I actually aimed to do a little bit every day but find one point every week where I did more you know so I where I carved out two or three hours. And that's been helpful to me to try and get that perspective to see my life as a more as a week chunk than a day chunk as as a young as a mum because it's it was quite difficult. It's like in like a diet you know you need to have a broader picture of these things but um I um have um relied on so much on my husband and all of this my husband's been a fantastic spiritual leader in our in our family. One of the things it's a very simple thing that he does is that every morning he sends me a text which is his main prayer point for the day that has a few verses and that he's reading usually from Assam and then he writes out his prayer. Part of it is his own personal discipline at the beginning of the day but then I get to lean on that. And so it's often that one of the first things that I start with in the day just reading that let it feel like I'm on the same page with him. I have found that um because I can't always get away that my own little church is is the girls, you know, is our little family and this is what this season is. And so our devotion time with them is our devotional time for us personally as well. And so leaning into that and sharing and what they're learning and speaking into it, they're learning a hymn a month and we're gonna we're gonna sing it with them. And so we're a little a little church under this roof and and I I absolutely love that. And then I just find little simple things during the day that just help drawing my attention whether it's a song whether it's a little verse that I have written on the window by the sink and little things like one of the things I love to do every single morning is open the curtains. As soon as I get out of bed just open them and just remember God let there be light and bringing light into this day little just just little things that just help hook me back in has um has been you know really really important. Right and one of the reasons that I agreed to read the Bible that to record the Bible was because it meant that I definitely would read through the whole thing this year because I had to you know and so sometimes it's just finding those little points of discipline which are encouraged by a community or an invitation or something around you. We can't do this all on our own. And so some the fact that some Chris and I need you to record the New Testament by the end of the end of the year okay well that that's a good goal I'm gonna do it and they're gonna hold me accountable to it. And so that that's been you know a a really helpful thing but it's not just last week I was thinking to myself are you still there oh yeah yeah sorry I just thought um just as a silly little thing to end here this last week I was thinking you know I hadn't had enough quiet times in in a row you know I just wasn't getting the way I wanted and so I said to Keith right I'm gonna tell myself I'm not allowed to eat chocolate until I read the Bible and so last last week I because I I don't drink coffee and so chocolate is my coffee. And um I thought right you know what I'm just gonna say I'm just I'm still like read a little bit pray a little bit somehow in my morning redirect my attention to the Lord I am not eating any chocolate. Yes hey that is a good that is a good incentive you do whatever you have to do to make it yeah because we need it so much and it were it concerns me if I don't what I'm missing, you know what conversations I'm missing, what pace I'm missing out on, what just perspective you know it just can I just it concerns me greatly if I don't.
SPEAKER_00Oh man if you're a mom listening to this and um I my own wife will she's been listening to these and so many of you ladies be encouraged uh when you know Kristen talks about the rhythms of the week, you know taking it as a full week and and husbands I think are challenged and convicted by that as well to think yeah I'm I'm not just going to work and sort of setting my mind on my thing and going well good luck you know if your wife's at home or some of the women have different schedules. I we're spiritual leaders and there's a responsibility to love and to sacrifice and to guide and be a spiritual shepherd and I think what you just said Kristen might be the high point for a lot of people listening as they think wow so I don't have to read you know all of uh you know an RC sprawl book write out two pages in my journal and then sing three hymns in the morning and then that's that's what I'm supposed to do, right? I mean you just you just brought it down into normalcy. I'm so thankful.
SPEAKER_03Okay. I always want to try and do it better. You know and I think there are seasons, you know, whenever the kids were very little I find it so hard and it is a very vulnerable time. It is and I always appreciated my church and my husband and good Christian friends because so much of regular schedule is broken up as with a mum's young children and but all the worries remain and sometimes you feel quite isolated and of course the more isolated you are the more of a danger zone you feel you could be in for worry for fear for and and so yeah it was important to me to have him.
SPEAKER_00Well God God bless the people that can train their 18 month old to stay in the crib and not come out and interrupt at 6 a.m but for the rest of all of us it is a woven through the rhythms of the week experience as life is worship. Brett do you have any more or any final questions for Kristen or any final thoughts?
SPEAKER_02You know the only thing that I have is um you know one day it's my desire to plant a church in Ireland and I would love if we ever do that Kristen will you and Keith and the family come out and visit with us.
SPEAKER_03Just say hi we'll take you out the coffee it'll be fun we would absolutely love that it'll be Irish tea in scones that's what you'd be going out for yeah no that that sounds great I mean it's it's so wonderful. I love it when I meet any like missionaries that come here or people that come you know we we so we so need that every country every country needs that and I'll I also love when they when the Irish come to America which is what we love it too all those years ago and it's it's really great to get that that sense of um God's family all over the world and coming and and and helping each other and I would love to see you over here.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.
SPEAKER_00There's your first church planting lesson too is you don't invite the Irish for coffee. It's Irish tea and scones.
SPEAKER_03Yes yes they drink coffee too but I was I just had I actually just had a cup of tea and a and a slice of shortbread before I went on this call. So no chocolate unless you've done your quiet time that though well that's it but I have read I read Acts 9 and 10 this morning in preparation for recording them so um I can go and have some chocolate.
SPEAKER_00Indulge away you just I think I think Keith deserves all the chocolate after watching the girls during this hour.
SPEAKER_03He does he really does I love it.
SPEAKER_00Well I want to encourage everyone this Christmas to go and get the audio ESV version of the Psalms that is already recorded and that is available for download on crossway.org go to crossway.org and literally just type in Getty to the search bar and there'll be several resources there that Kristen um has been a part of and those will tremendously bless your home uh and we are not giving these away as part of this episode of this week and here's why crossway has unloaded resources on our ministry we've been giving things away for two months straight almost and you're gonna get giveaway fatigue we want to bless Crossway we want to be a blessing to the Getys and um so this episode and this week go out and order and buy resources from Crossway bless yourself and the people around you this Christmas and Kristen thank you so so much for being with us today.
SPEAKER_03Thank you just love the conversation thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Awesome and if this has been a blessing to you go ahead and share it uh subscribe rate and review the podcast and a Merry Christmas to all of you who are listening keep your eyes on Jesus keep living for the gospel and we will be back next week