Kim's Story | How Great Thou Art | Official Performance Video | The Collingsworth Family — Transcript

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1. 0:00I grew up in a very large family my
2. 0:02daddy was a pastor and my mother and
3. 0:03daddy had nine children and so I have a
4. 0:05lot of siblings and I grew up
5. 0:09sitting in church most of my life that's
6. 0:11kind of what we did but I remember one
7. 0:14night I think I was around 3 years of
8. 0:16age I was sitting on the front row I can
9. 0:18tell you where I was sitting at the end
10. 0:19of the bench and I was watching my daddy
11. 0:21as he was preaching that night and he
12. 0:23announced his text I couldn't tell you
13. 0:25anything he said except this he said
14. 0:28that Solomon asked for a gift and God
15. 0:33graciously granted it that's the part I
16. 0:37got of the sermon and he began to speak
17. 0:39about wisdom and I don't know what all
18. 0:41he spoke about but it was about King
19. 0:42Solomon all I could think about from the
20. 0:45moment I heard him say that Solomon
21. 0:47asked for a gift and God graciously
22. 0:48granted that I wanted to do that too and
23. 0:51so that night we live just directly
24. 0:54across the parking lot from the church
25. 0:56and after the service that night my
26. 0:58mother took us home and I went upstairs
27. 1:01on a mission I went up to my bedroom and
28. 1:04I remember getting my PJs on and going
29. 1:06over and kneeling at the end of the bed
30. 1:08and I remember being so passionate and
31. 1:12so serious about it and I began to beg
32. 1:14God for a gift I begged him would you
33. 1:18please give me a gift like you gave that
34. 1:20King my daddy was talking about tonight
35. 1:22please and I believed with everything in
36. 1:25me that I was gonna be something when I
37. 1:27woke up well the next morning obviously
38. 1:29I woke up and I was nothing different
39. 1:31there had nothing had changed but I
40. 1:33don't know the exact timeframe but some
41. 1:36weeks later my mother said that she came
42. 1:40into from the kitchen and she found me
43. 1:44on the piano bench playing my sister's
44. 1:46recital piece and that was the first
45. 1:49time ever I remember music coming alive
46. 1:51to me and mother said that when she came
47. 1:54in that I was playing in the key of G
48. 1:56flat which is a little bit of a
49. 1:59complicated key for you know for most
50. 2:01musicians or most of us and she said
51. 2:05that I was repeating the recital piece
52. 2:06that had been being played before I got
53. 2:08there and she said to me how did you
54. 2:11know how to do that how did you know how
55. 2:12to do that and she said I looked up and
56. 2:14said well she was playing and I wanted
57. 2:16to play too I was always fascinated by
58. 2:19this ability that was
59. 2:23unconventional that she had and so of
60. 2:26course once we were married I began to
61. 2:28question her I want her to tell me this
62. 2:30story and it was very interesting
63. 2:32because she actually to tell me the
64. 2:34story took me back to the little church
65. 2:38on Budd Road in New Albany Indiana and
66. 2:40showed me the places and it was some it
67. 2:44was very emotional for me to see these
68. 2:49spots where she was sitting on the front
69. 2:51seat and she told me the story of her
70. 2:54dad preaching this sermon about a gift
71. 2:56that God gave King Solomon and took me
72. 3:00over to the empty parsonage in those
73. 3:02days it was empty and we walked over
74. 3:04there and went upstairs to the bedroom
75. 3:06where she had knelt down and pulled out
76. 3:08the drawer and got her PJ's and got down
77. 3:10and I probably the thing that struck me
78. 3:13that she told me was when she began to
79. 3:16ask God for that gift she ironically
80. 3:20lifted her ten fingers as she counted
81. 3:23the pleases off Please Please Please
82. 3:26Please and lifted all 10 fingers into
83. 3:29the air as she was asking please God
84. 3:31give me a gift but I remember some years
85. 3:35later I think I was 11 or 12 maybe 12
86. 3:37years of age and I was riding with my
87. 3:40dad down the road and I was talking to
88. 3:42him about that prayer and I said daddy
89. 3:43do you think that that may be playing
90. 3:46the piano is the gift that I got and he
91. 3:49said honey I think it is and I remember
92. 3:52as it was all I could think about from
93. 3:55from the time I was tiny everything that
94. 3:59I heard musically affected me and I
95. 4:03remember my mother said that before I
96. 4:05went to first grade I would play six and
97. 4:07eight hours a day and I would hear
98. 4:10chords maybe that a pianist would play
99. 4:12and I would be so fascinated by it that
100. 4:14I had to find that chord and so I would
101. 4:16work until I could find what I heard we
102. 4:19would ask her mom about her taking
103. 4:20lessons because she never had a formal
104. 4:24teacher
105. 4:25take all the mechanics of egbdf and FAAC
106. 4:29when she would go to these teachers she
107. 4:31would basically ask them to play the
108. 4:33song and she can duplicate it back to
109. 4:34them which was very frustrating to
110. 4:36teachers you know and so that I mean
111. 4:40finally the teacher one of them called
112. 4:41her mom said don't bring this little
113. 4:43girl back I don't know what to do with
114. 4:44her I would have loved have had the
115. 4:46privilege to go back and study music in
116. 4:48a more professional manner to be honest
117. 4:52I wrestled with that when I became an
118. 4:53adult I really was raised we didn't have
119. 4:55a lot of means not a lot of money it was
120. 4:57a different day back then and I didn't
121. 4:59have a real good option to go to college
122. 5:01but one day the Lord and I were having a
123. 5:03conversation and I remember saying to
124. 5:05the Lord
125. 5:06we don't why why did I never get the
126. 5:08opportunity because once you rate start
127. 5:10raising your family and children you
128. 5:12know school becomes less and less
129. 5:13important to you as a mother because
130. 5:15you've got this big responsibility of
131. 5:16your children and I remember saying I
132. 5:18you know I don't understand why I didn't
133. 5:19get the opportunity to go back and maybe
134. 5:21study and get a bachelor's maybe a
135. 5:23master's maybe a PhD in piano
136. 5:25performance wouldn't that have been
137. 5:26amazing and no I didn't hear an audible
138. 5:29voice but in my heart I felt like the
139. 5:32Lord spoke to me and said Kim had you
140. 5:35gone back and studied and gained all of
141. 5:37these accolades through learning your
142. 5:41teachers would have gotten all of the
143. 5:44credit and this is a gift I gave you and
144. 5:47I wanted you to give this gift back to
145. 5:50me and I wanted you to praise me with
146. 5:53this gift and I didn't want anybody else
147. 5:56to get the glory for what I gave you and
148. 5:59so I plan to spend and spend out my days
149. 6:02the rest of my days giving it everything
150. 6:04I've got and giving every bit of praise
151. 6:07back to Jesus Christ because I know that
152. 6:09he's the owner
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166. 11:40you
167. 11:49you