~Stay In The Fathers House~

Sometimes as young people you think that the world looks fun. It may be "fun", but it has it's consequences. In Luke 15:11-24 the prodigal son, I'm sure, did not think that going out into the world and seeing what it was like, was going to take every bit of his happiness, money, and comfort away and so much more! As the old saying goes, "sin will take you farther than you want to go and cost you more than you wanna pay." He took one step away from his fathers house and the next thing you know, he's in a pen eating with pigs. People sometimes make it sound like once you get away from The Lord you can always just run back to him. Will The Lord take you back? Yes of corse! Will you be the same person as when you left? No, you'll have scars and lose some things you will never get back. Will you ever go back? Not everyone does. If you have stayed with the stuff do not give up now! What is the best way to stay in the fathers house? Stay IN The Fathers house (church). Have a personal relationship with God, read your bible and pray. Don't even look out of the windows, don't go in the yard stay away from even seeing the world. You will never regret it! And if you are out in the world run back to Him. His arms are open wide. A part of verse 20 says, "When he was a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." And then there was that elder son; he would be a good topic for another  blog. 

*~Mirror, Mirror~*

When you look into the mirror, all you see is your physical self. It doesn't show anything about your character or your likes and dislikes. It doesn't show who you really are. I have heard and said many times, "you just need to be yourself." And in a way, that is true! God created us all different and we don't need to try and be like other people. But I've been thinking, is "myself" who I really want to be? The Bible says in Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." I know me. I have failed the Lord so many times I can't even count! My flesh thinks wicked thoughts, my flesh lies, my flesh wants to rebel against what I know is right! I don't want to be myself because I am a sinner. The only good that I have in me was put there by Christ when I got saved! So who do I want to be like? Well, the only one that hasn't ever thought anything wicked, that has never lied, that is always perfect is Jesus! He has NEVER failed! I could never be anything like that in my own strength but by His grace and His power I want to do my best to pattern my life after the life of Christ! So from now on instead of being me, I want to be like Jesus!          

                                          

 

Beauty Unexpected

About a year ago we were out in Colorado, kind of out in the middle of nowhere, at a church. It didn't really seem like there was anything around there to do. Well, my dad likes to hike so they told him of a place about 5 miles away. He went and came back and said that all of us needed to go because it was really pretty. We thought it would just be another tourist place that might have some cool rocks or something. So the next day we went and it was one of the most beautiful things we had ever seen!  

That night we went to church and told some of the people who lived there how beautiful it was, but some of them had never even been there before. Sometimes God has the most amazing things in the most unexpected places.

*Clear The Stage*

We have people ask us sometimes, "how do you not get burnt out on the road?" Honestly, we do sometimes! It's hard not to get into the routine of just getting up on stage and going through the motions, trying to do a good job. You ask yourself, "what are people thinking? Are they enjoying the music?" Not once do we stop and think about what the Lord thinks. We say we are singing to worship the Lord, but is that really worship? I heard a song a while back and the lyrics go, "you can sing all you want to and still get it wrong. Worship is MORE than a song!" Worship is OUR spirit communing with HIS spirit. We can't be worshiping and worrying about what others are thinking at the same time. It just doesn't happen. It is also hard to worship when we haven't had fellowship with Him in a while! But when we have prayed and have been reading our Bibles regularly, worship comes easy. The more you find out about the Lord, the more you WANT to give Him what He desires! I wonder if we realize that everything we put before God is an idol. Anything we can't stop thinking about, other than the Lord, is an idol. And when we are on stage thinking about US and how WE look and sound, who are we really worshiping? Sounds like we are making idols out of ourselves! I've had to do a lot of "stage clearing" of my own. Not just in singing but in every day living! When this life is over it's not really going to matter who had the most meetings, sang the best songs, or played the best music. All that's going to matter is how much we did for God! I want to make room on the stage of my life for the only ONE who deserves my worship and my praise, the Lord Jesus Christ!            

~On The Road At Last~

One of the most exciting things for me is hearing the bus crank up. Not only does it mean we are going somewhere, it also means that we are FINALLY done packing up! Haha! It's kind of like moving almost every week. Some trips, like this one, are more difficult to pack for because we are packing for two different climates! I'm not going to lie though, going to Florida in the middle of January is pretty much wonderful;) 

Packing Tips~

Packing for our Florida trip today! 

A lot of people ask how we pack for long periods of time and this is some stuff that I do.

1.I find it easier to pack clothes by putting the outfits together, even the jewelry, that way I'm only bringing what I need. 

It's hard for me to not bring my whole closet on long trips because I want to wear new things everyday but the drawers on our bus are only about two feet long. 

I have a little addiction of buying clothes at rue21...I feel like I'm related to the workers there, no lie.

I always buy new things so if my drawers were packed then I wouldn't have any room for new things. We can't have that happen! 

2. I try to only pack a week or a week an a half worth of clothes and we just find a laundromat because we obviously can't fit six or seven weeks of clothes on a bus. There are seven of us and we have clothes for the day time which is more casual, and then clothes for the church services. If we did bring something to wear new everyday that would be 294 shirts! So that's just a little random insights on packing.

Comment what your favorite stores are and share your packing tips!

Thanks for reading.:)

The Welcoming Committee Part 1

Every church should have a welcoming committee. Whether it's just someone to smile and shake hands at the door or maybe someone who just goes to each visitor and makes them feel welcome. We were ministering at a church one time and we came in and sat on about the third pew. There were no reserved signs, Bibles in the pew, or anything that would indicate someone normally sat there. After about a minute of sitting in the pew we heard two ladies come up behind us and say, "I can not believe these people just came in and took our seat! Do they think they own the place?!" As you can imagine, we were kind of shocked!! After we got through singing these same ladies came up and said, "It is so nice to have y'all here with us today! Y'all did such a wonderful job!" Needless to say, it didn't quite mean as much after their earlier comments. I'm glad we weren't lost people visiting for the first time! I would've got up and left!

Our First Blog Post!

Hey, Yall! This is MaryBeth and Ragan Rochester. We are sisters and our family travels and sings bluegrass gospel music! If you would like to know more about our family you can visit our website, bradyrochesterfamily.com! We have so many exciting, humorous, strange, and just plain fun stuff happen to us on our adventures and we have made this blog so yall can have some insight on our life on the road! We hope our post are uplifting and encouraging to everyone who reads it! Our main goal is to please the Lord and to serve HIM! He is the only reason we live!