Oct. 18, 2007 - Singing Hymns

As I walk through the house doing my thing, there is nothing like walking by and hearing my kids singing the words to a hymn that we have sung during our Bible Study time.  LOVE it!  This evening my daughter was singing "Blest Be the Tie that Binds." 

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred
Minds is like to that above.

Before our Father’s throne,
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
Our comforts and our cares.

We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

 From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

If you're interested in taking a peek of the collection of hymns we have worked our way through, go HERE and feel free to print out what hymns interest you.  All the pictures and background info on the hymns that I have are taken fromCyberHymnal. 

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Jul. 2, 2007 - Come, Emmanuel!!!!!!

The kids and I sing hymns every day as part of our Bible study.  I have started our own little hymn collection.  I go through a hymn book we have, find the songs I know, type them up, print them out, and voila!  We are up to 90 hymns so far.  I never knew that I had picked up on so many hymns growing up.  I was a pastor's daughter and all, but I was not interested in church when I was growing up.  My dad pastored churches that were small enough to not have much of a youth group, but even without that, I was my own bad influence.  ;-)  I usually slept through church.  Isn't that awful?????  To this day, I can honestly say that I don't remember one thing my Dad preached on, God bless him.  But somehow, here I am, by the GRACE of God, teaching my kids hymns and reading the Bible every day with a glad heart.  Here is a link if you want to print out the 90 hymns we have so far. 

ANYWAY.....I'm pretty methodical in how we sing the hymns.  I know it's easy to get hung up on our favorites, so we will sometimes start at the front of the folder, singing three a day until we get to the end, then turn around and go back the other way.  Sometimes to make it extra, EXTRA exciting, we will sing just the odd numbered hymns, then the EVEN numbered hymns.  As you can tell, I work hard to make it a thrill.  ;-) 

But on Fridays I shake it up even more and we have "All Request Fridays" when the kids get to pick a special song they want to sing.  It's funny.  They all usually pick a Christmas song.  I guess there's just something extra special about that time of year.  The other day, Second Son picked "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".  We have sung that song quite a bit, but it seemed to open up to me for the first time that day.  I think that this song should not just be sung at Christmas, but all through the year.  It is a wonderful prayer that I found myself begging God to answer ASAP as we were singing the song.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

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Apr. 19, 2007 - I Need Thee Every Hour

This hymn, written by Annie Hawks, touches me deeply.  I feel exactly what she was writing about.  This is what she wrote about the hymn:

"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."

I feel that way every day - that I need God every hour.  I can never do this mothering/homeschooling/wifey thing without God.  The kids and I sing a few hymns during our Bible study time and I love it when we sing this song.  Here are the words:

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.
I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.
I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is vain.
I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.
I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Saviour, I come to Thee!

Teaching the kids hymns has been such a blessing.  I never realized as a kid how chock full of doctrine and truths they are.  Sometimes when we are singing our hearts out, I look at the kids and pray that God would burn the words to the songs on their hearts and minds so that they can call them to mind whenever they need them.

If you're interested in, or are already singing hymns with your kids, feel free to check out my pdf document that I have put together for our own little songbooks.  I have a hymn book and just flip through the pages until I come to a hymn that I already  know and add that to our own songbook.  I like to add pictures of the people who wrote the words and music of each song, as well as a little background info if I can find any.  I usually go to CyberHymnal for that.  I add 10 new songs at a time.  Right now, we are up to 80 songs.  I will be adding more, soon, so will be updating this file.  I'll let you know when I do!

Beware: I grew up a Southern Baptist preacher's daughter, so the hymns will reflect that.  ;-)

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