Yesterday my youngest son, 2 years old, was rustling around in my closet singing "Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King." This must be an overflow from the Christmas season of carols. But it caused me to consider making a more concerted effort in teaching the boys "meaningful" songs.
There are many wonderful songs, which can engage our children’s minds. However, my criterion of "meaningful" includes songs that ...
1. are musically interesting
2. are lyrically stimulating (ie. not the same line repeated 4 times)
3. give my children the ability to worship God
I believe this final characteristic of songs to be most important, since that is my goal in raising my sons. My prayer is that their artistic expressions will ultimately be expressions of praise and worship to their Creator.
Bob Kauflin, worship pastor from Covenant Life Church, has recently compiled a children’s CD, Awesome God, which has some excellent new songs that teach children about the character of God. I’ll be doing a review of the CD in the coming weeks. But for now, let me just say that it is excellent material for children (and adults).
Some other songs I plan to sing with my children include hymns of old, like:
O Worship the King; A Mighty Fortress Is Our God; Immortal, Invisible; Be Thou My Vision; My Faith Has Found a Resting Place; O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go; O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing; Take My Life and Let It Be; Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven; Man of Sorrows; Trust and Obey; How Great Thou Art; Fairest Lord Jesus; Beneath the Cross of Jesus; Holy, Holy, Holy.
This is around 1 per month, with a couple extra for Easter.
Maybe, just maybe, my two year-old will also add, "pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise" to his closet ramblings. I can only hope.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I love this idea. I'll have to remember it for when we have kids. :)
We sure enjoyed have brunch with you guys over the Christmas season.
Blessings
Hello!
I see that we have a few things in common....I too just reviewed "Awesome God", I am a homeschooling mom, and I just started blogging too. :o)
From looking at a few of your other posts, we have the same vision...to be godly wives and mothers.
I also have Noel Piper's book on traditions. Isn't it great! It is very different from what I was expecting...pleasantly so. :o)
Anyway, I wanted to say that it is encouraging to see another blog with similar thoughts.
God Bless, Karen
One of the most precious memories I have of my daughter is when she was about eighteen months old (she was an early talker) and I heard her sitting in the living room singing over and over again: "Precious name, O how sweet" from the song "Take the Name of Jesus With You." The young people had been singing it in preparation for a special event, and she had been allowed to sit in on the practices.
One thing that has got my kids interested in hymns is a CD called "4HIM Hymns." It has a great rendition of "Be Thou My Vision."
Post a Comment