Family Fun: Hymns with Kids

I love hearing my kids sign Amazing Grace! They also LOVE to sign Nothing But The Blood of Jesus.

A while back (a year ago?), I was learning a hymn a week. Learning all the verses. And I would sign them to the kids and they LOVED it.

But I recently read a wonderful post on hymn studies with kids. There are some great links there, which I won't repeat here.

I learned the hymns by visiting Cyber Hymnal. The music is not the best, it is MIDI (am I the only geek who knows what that is??), but it is enough to help you get the tune. And all the words are there. And there is almost ALWAYS a Bible verse scrolling along the top that goes perfectly with the tune. Sometimes a picture and also a little bit of history about the song.

Voddie Bauchman (you know what a fan of his I am, listen to the audiolink here for how Voddie uses hymns in his worship...it's in there) uses hymns in his family worship.

I found this video quite interesting. BE SURE TO LISTEN TO THE WHOLE THING. In reading the comments on the video, it is clear that most people who get angry do because they didn't listen all the way through.


I love how Voddie put it, and how the video puts it. The point of singing praises to God is to PRAISE HIM. We should be singing music that encourages our walk with the Lord, teaches us about Him, and His will. Songs filled with His word and His truth. But a lot of the music out there today is feel good music. Music, that while Christian, is meant to make a person feel something, be it good or bad. And most hymns are not just songs that make us feel, but that draw us into a deeper relationship with the Lord.

I don't know. I think about it this way. (Again this is MY personal conviction on this!) Children learn through music SO EASILY! Think about it. I start singing "Two all beef patties special sauce..." And I am pretty sure 9 out of 10 people can finish that! My second daughter is really good about music. She can hear a song once and sing it (or at least hum it) after that. She can recognize most tunes after just a few notes. If music is an easy way to reach my children, and things they sign now they will remember into their adulthood, do I want it to be little songs and diddies that have no meaning, or do I want it to be songs that impart God's love for them? I take it back to two Bible verses:

Deuteronomy 6:6-8
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes."

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.