Wednesday, November 18, 2009

"I Need Thee Ev'ry Hour"

"One day as a young wife and mo­ther of 37 years of age, I was bu­sy with my reg­u­lar house­hold tasks. Sud­den­ly, I be­came so filled with the sense of near­ness to the Mast­er that, won­der­ing how one could live with­out Him, ei­ther in joy or pain, these words, “I Need Thee Ev­e­ry Hour,” were ush­ered in­to my mind, the thought at once tak­ing full pos­sess­ion of me." -Annie S. Hawks
I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

Refrain
I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

Refrain
I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

Refrain
I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

Refrain
I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessèd Son.

Refrain
Source: hymntime.com

Ever since I heard that this hymn had been written by a wife and mother like myself, I realized how pertinent it is to my everyday life--to my unique situation. I would often sing it to myself in devotions and wish I had a way to remember it through the day as a reminder.

The problem is I spend time with the Lord and enjoy His Presence, learn from Him and worship Him. Yet, after I put my devotional basket away and go on with the day's business, it is easy to forget that closeness. Noise and distraction of little ones and laundry and schooling crowd out the thoughts of drawing near and the consciousness of needing His constant help through my day.

Then, I read this post and this one and this one. It seems that everyone in the blogosphere is trying this experiment. So, I decided to try it with my own little twist.

Today, I set my cell phone alarm (since I don't wear a watch) to go off every hour. When it did, I bowed my head and thanked the Lord for His help thus far and asked Him for new strength for the next hour. Then, I gave each of my children a hug and texted my hard-working husband since he wasn't there to hug.You may not need a reminder to hug your children or tell your husband how much you love him, but I tend to have tunnel vision when I'm trying to get something done.

I can't remember what was happening every time the alarm went off. Once I was folding laundry, another time I was breaking up a fight, another time we were eating lunch, and another time we were doing school work. When my children were all having quiet time and I was having computer time, I heard the increasingly familiar alarm go off. I bowed my head and prayed, but I hope you don't think bad of me for not waking or otherwise disturbing my children!

What about you? Have you tried this? If not, do try it, and let me know how it works for you. I know my day was much more peaceful. Depending on God every. single. hour. is the best stress-buster I know!

3 comments:

  1. Oh I LOVE this idea!!! Thank you for sharing it!

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  3. Nice to see "I Need Thee Every Hour" posted--and I agree, we do! That song was first sung 137 years ago today, and it is still true that we need the Lord's grace and guidance every hour and every moment.

    Concerning the link you provide to the Cyber Hymnal, you need to know that that the one who set up that site helped himself to 13 years of research without permission. (I know, because I've been a regular contributor to the original site over the years.) I encourage you to link to the original Cyber Hymnal at...
    http://www.hymntime.com/tch/

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