“[B]e filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:18b-19
One Sunday morning after service seven or eight years ago, I was singing about about what we were going to do that day to the tune of the hymn we had just sang.
A fellow Sunday School member overheard me and said to my wife and me, “I bet you have a lot of fun in your house!”
It was difficult to tell at the time whether or not the person was being sarcastic. My wife and I have had occasion to quote that line approximately 742 times in the intervening years.
Now, we’ve got a singing five-year-old daughter, and we often wonder aloud what our former Sunday School classmate would say about our house now.
On any given day, our daughter is singing, plinking, or pounding on something.
We’ve caught her singing the words to a Beatles song (“Here Comes the Sun”), a Parliament song (“Flashlight”), and even a song by The Police (“Walking on the Moon”). She has a ukulele she’ll strum, various pencils she’s use as sticks, and an electronic keyboard she’s found out how to noodle on.
Today, she wanted to go collective. She enlisted me and her mother for a project called “Kitty Express!” The songs had no lyrics, and a minute of simultaneous banging and strumming led to the band’s citing artistic differences and breaking up.
Still, it’s delightful (on the whole) to have a daughter who has a song in her heart. It means getting to experience moments like:
- Her singing a song to the tune of “Come Thou, Almighty King!” in the shower on Saturday night
- Her still singing “Angels, We Have Heard On High” around the house even though we’re nearly two months past Christmas
- Her knowing the words to the “Gloria Patri”
- Her singing “The Blessing” as a capper to our on-the-way-to-school morning jams playlist
When I joined an adult choir in graduate school, the best side effect was having the tune and lyrics for that coming Sunday’s songs stuck in my head all week.
Now, I’ve got singing, humming reminder to have always have the song and music in my heart be God glorifying.
And yeah. Maybe I have thought about starting a band with my daughter.