A Heart Full of Singing Helps the Scripture Go Down

There is quite a bit of singing that goes on in this house. This is not because I am a wonderful singer but because my kids love to sing. Hey, God doesn’t say it has to sound good but He does say we are suppose to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord”. We sing in the car, we sing in the bathtub, we have dance parties( I will explain later) almost daily, we sing at bedtime and in between those times.

Sometimes I think of scenes from old musicals like the Sound of Music or Mary Poppins as my kids prance around the house singing. People often comment that my kids seem so happy and I wonder if this plays a part. It is hard to not be happy when you are singing all the time! We do not just sing any old songs, we sing a lot of Bible songs filled with the truth found in scripture. In fact, they are the same songs I used to sing when I was little because the Bible never changes and kids always love fun songs. Singing is a great way to plant those seeds of God’s love in their little hearts and minds.

The Bible says in Psalms 119:9 and 11; (italics added)

“How can a young man (or woman) keep his (or her) way pure? By living according to Your word…I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.”

We have a little collection of kids CD’s and some of their favorites come from Veggie Tales Sunday School Songs and Bible Action Songs or the Cedarmont Kids collection is great too. You can find those at the local Christian bookstore or online at Amazon. We also have a couple of kid’s hymnal CD's that my daughter listens to every night as she goes to sleep. You can even find Sunday School CD’s at Wal-mart and Target as well. If the little kid voices bother you, you can always just use your own favorite Christian CD’s or worship CD’s.

This week we bought the new Bldg. 429 CD and I crank it up with my windows down to hear my daughter scream at the top of her lungs, “Take this world and give me Jesus, this is not where I belong!” and my son pumps his fist and tries to sing along. They are copying me, of course, who is also screaming and air pumping my fist, we are quite a sight to see on the road! Be warned drivers in Tampa.

So, about the dance party that goes on here in our living room. We stumbled upon this great tradition out of pure boredom during an actually cold winter in Florida a couple of years ago. We put on a kids worship DVD and busted a move. We have videotaped endless hours of this because it is great bust-a-gut material for years to come. My son is hilarious as he tries to march, my daughter twirls in her tutu’s, I clap and holler like an idiot and my husband never turns down an offer to join in the fun thanks to the movie Courageous! But you know what? We are all having a good time praising the Lord! For 0-2 year olds I would highly recommend the Praise Baby Collection and the Baby Faith videos. We have since moved on up to Shout Praises Kids by Integrity Kids and Hillsong’s Live Worship for Kids. But you can use fun adult CD’s too like Toby Mac’s Funky Jesus Music.

There is nothing that makes my heart smile more than when I hear Melissa singing things like ‘God’s word is a lamp onto my feet and a light onto my path’ or ‘The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me’ or ‘This is the day, I will rejoice and be glad in it’ or ‘Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me’. She probably has around 100 songs memorized, all filled with God’s truth etched on her soul for the rest of her life. I can’t imagine what joy this must bring to God as He tells us to “have faith like a child”.

And who says we can’t modify a lesson we learned from Mary Poppins many moons ago?

 Because a heart full of singing helps the Scripture go down.