Stephanie Says.. Take a walk inside my head

This one is for someone who probably will never see this post, but who is a big encouragement to me and deserves mentioning.

See, when I do solos, I tend to sing songs that my grandmother and her generation taught me.  I’ve done “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” twice (despite the fact that my Sunday School teacher doesn’t like it), “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” three times and even got brave and did “Day by Day” a cappella once.

As a result, when I go to the bathroom between Sunday School and church, I’ll invariably run into someone or other from the senior set who compliments me for a couple weeks afterward on my singing. I’m smart enough to realize that it’s my preferred genre, not my vocal ability that they are really exclaiming over, but the praise is nice all the same.

This is where Paul Steely comes in.  Paul is a deacon in our church who, like my bathroom buddies, is also a member of the senior set.  Paul is the one person who comes up to me -before- the service and tells me that he enjoys it when I do the “specials”.  Paul apparently is like me and reads the bulletin before church.

He did this again Sunday night.  He stuck out his hand to take mine and said he was looking forward to hearing me.  At that point, that made one of us.  See, about four months ago, I did “The Old Rugged Cross”.  Er…that is, I tried to do “The Old Rugged Cross”, but I messed up.  I know, I know, it’s hard to mess up something as foundational as a hymn I’ve known since utero, but I did.

As a result, I lost my confidence.  Even with the best Minister of Music since my dad supporting me, my confidence was shot.  As a result of -that-, my voice disappeared.  I couldn’t sing in the shower anymore, couldn’t sing to my preschoolers, nothing.  Nada, zip, zilch.  And don’t even get me started on choir practice.

Then, Sunday night, along came Paul.  As I was shoring up my courage to try and climb those stairs again, Paul took out his hand and smiled at me.  Not only that, he stood iby the door  in my line of sight so I could focus on him while I sang.  Okay, so that part was a fluke as he was standing in position to take the offering later, but it was nice and I took it as a gift.

So, there it is.  A mini tribute to a man I hardly know yet owe a debt of gratitude for a kindness he wasn’t even aware he was paying. 

Thank God for the Pauls.  Isn’t it nice to know someone is watching, waiting to hold out their hand?