Singing for Jesus

So today, my stepdad made kind of a unkind comment that really got to me.
I was outside singing praises when I see that he and my mum is outside, which was fine.
But then he says "you don't sing very nice", that hurt my feelings. Not necessarily because I think my voice is great, but because I have quite a low self esteem from before, and it didn't really boost it.
Now, of course I don't want people to lie, but when it's something you love to do, then it hurts.
Being hurt by the comment, I pretended not to care and said "I don't sing for you", and it didn't really hit me until "One Way, Jesus" by Hillsong started playing.

I realized that of course I didn't sing for my stepdad, or anyone else for that matter. I sang for Jesus, and I don't think He cares whether or not my voice is pitch perfect. I think what matters to Him is that I spent time with Him and that I was praising Him. I was prioritizing Him instead of something else.

My mum came to talk to me 20 minutes later and said that I didn't have a bad singing voice, and that my stepdad had only said that because he heard me singing a song that I wasn't singing completly (meaning I probably stopped singing, then started, then mumbled or something). But I simply decided that, I wouldn't care.

Because now I know that I don't sing for anyone else. They can think I have the worst voice in the whole world, but it won't matter, because I'm singing for Jesus and not for them. And Jesus loves me no matter how bad I sing.

Why I Say Grace Before I Eat

Ever since I've become a Christian, I try to remember to say grace or sing before every meal. This has cause some of my family members to look at me a bit weirdly, so I thought I would share why I decided to start saying grace before I eat.

Ever since I was born, I've been taught to say "thank you for the food" to whoever made it and served it, and to this day, that is something I still do. So why is it so different, and why do people look at me weirdly when I start to pray or sing before I start eating? Technically, I've been doing what I've been taught all along: thank the someone that put food on the table for you to eat.

Now, of course, it's usually my parents that put the food on the table, so of course I thank them. But there wouldn't be very much to thank them for if God had not provided us with that food on beforehand.
He created this world, so He also created what I eat. And if I'm supposed to thank whoever put food on my table, it only makes sense to thank Him, because without Him- I wouldn't exist, nor would my parents, or the food I'm given.

So if you ever wonder why someone wants to pray or sing grace before they eat, it might be because they were taught to thank whoever put food on their table- which in all cases happens to be God.