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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.
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