What would you do if there were no more instruments at church?  If all churches went back to singing hymns and psalms?  Would you still show up on Sunday morning?  Would you be able to glorify God singing ‘boring’ music?

I enjoy contemporary Christian music.  I really do.  It’s what I prefer to listen to at home and in the car, and I really like that I don’t have to worry about the junk my kids might hear.  It’s clean, it has a lot of uplifting qualities, it’s good.

I like it.

I’m making that statement up front because I don’t want anybody to think that this post is about hating CCM music.  It’s not.  So, don’t cry legalism and get your panties in a wad.

Few people will argue against the statement that music stirs the soul, creates and sways emotions, and can actually effect the way the mind works (this has been scientifically studied).
We tend to have strong opinions about song and the kind of music we want to listen to.  We either like or don’t like the way it makes us feel or the instruments used or not used, or the beat, or the words, or whatever…
And these musical opinions are becoming especially prevalent in today’s churches.

Liking different music is all fine and well.  God certainly didn’t create us to be carbon copies.  The argument I’m making isn’t about what we should like or dislike. My beef with the music debate starts when the kind of music we like becomes more about glorifying “me” and less about glorifying God.

I have seen the music issue bring the congregation to heated argument in more than one church.  I’ve also seen first hand, a mass exodus from a church that began simply because of a change in the type of music being played and/or sung.

And, it was a child that opened my eyes to the truth of the issue. 

Child: “I love the music they play on [that Christian station].  The songs make me feel so good and help me want to worship God.”
My husband replied with the comment, “Be careful! Worshiping God should come from our desire to glorify Him, and should never depend on the kind of music we’re hearing.”

In that moment it all became clear to me.  The reason so many people have issues with the type of music played in church is because of their “me” centered Christianity. I want to feel uplifted.  I want to feel moved.  I want to feel spiritual growth.

I, I, I. (Hey, I’ve been this person, I’ve done this. I’m not judging, just sayin’.)

What we’re failing to recognize is that Worship Is About Him. 
And if I decide that I can’t worship Him properly with psalms and hymns, that it’s become all about the beat and the band, I have lost something very necessary.  It’s time to get back to basics and find it again.

When I’m schooling one of my littles, and they’re doing the work but not really getting it,  I don’t keep pushing it on them.  I take a step or two back, sometimes going back to the very beginning, and start teaching it all over again.

Again - When we’re not understanding, or have forgotten the purpose of singing to God, and we’re having trouble ”getting it”, sometimes, most times, the best thing we can do is to get back to basics.

Start over again.

It’s not about contemporary music being evil or wrong.  And it’s not legalism.  It’s learning how to worship God for God, because He told us to, instead of continuing to worship God for ourselves, because it makes us feel good.

Feeling uplifted at church isn’t a bad thing.  However, if that’s the only reason we attend, maybe it’s time to take a step back, re-think our priorities, and start over again. 

Photo credit goes to Kait (aka Jane)

Kait, my ever-amazing-me 15 year old, took this picture of Gabe the other day and then did this cool 3D thing with it today. It’s her first 3D effect attempt and I think she did a pretty good job!

It also doesn’t hurt that the subject of the photo is one of my adorable sons.

Yesterday our 3 year old, Sam, went to greet his daddy as he got home from work.  Ryan, as he always does when one of the kids comes up to the motorcycle right after he arrives home, reminded Sam that the pipes were hot and not to touch the motorcycle.

Ryan then turned his back for a moment and wouldn’t you know it.  Sam stuck the tips of his fingers right onto those hot pipes.  He’d done it on purpose, even after the warning – even after being warned at least 30 times in the past that the motorcycle is often hot and will burn him.

We went through the burn drill and his fingers, though blistered, are no longer in pain.  He is going to heal and there will be no lasting sign that he was ever burned.  A lesson was learned, albeit the hard way, and Sam’ll not touch those hot pipes again.

I wish we would have been able to keep him from feeling that pain.   I wish we would have seen his little fingers getting closer to the pipe so we could have stopped him. I wish he would have heeded our parental council and not reached for the pipes to begin with. 

Sometimes we put our guard down, turn our backs, or just assume that our always-good-kid isn’t going to disobey us.  Or, we’re fed up, don’t know what to do, and comfort ourselves saying, “We have to let them live life for them to learn.”

Kelly said yesterday:

There is some truth in that, but it’s missing a lot.

Often the “life” being referred to in that statement is “sin”.  A truer interpretation might be, “just let them sin and learn the hard way“.

Yes, Sam did learn the hard way.  His sin, which was disobedience, caused him to blister his little fingers.  But, that isn’t how we want our children to learn their life lessons, is it?  Aren’t there better ways to train our children than letting sin have it’s way with them?  We need to steer our children away from sin.  However, many parents, often out of frustration, have truly come to believe that their kids must be sinful to learn not to sin.

Kelly goes on with:

I don’t think that’s the parenting method the Bible teaches.

Jesus was serious about avoiding sin at all costs.  He talked of “cutting off limbs” to emphasize his seriousness.  And that was spoken to adults. Somehow I just don’t hear Jesus saying to parents, “Yeah, go ahead and let them dabble…it’ll be good for them in the end”.

I agree.
In fact, the Bible specifically instructs us to “Train up a child in the way he should go…”
That means teach them the right way and not let out guard down.

What it does not mean is to turn our backs, cross our fingers, and hope for the best.

My daughter and I are working on a photo project and we need fresh pictures of everybody in the family to complete it.  Do you know what happens when she does that with a very uncooperative awesome dad?

It’s like working with an 8 year old.

Let me show you.

First, we started by asking him to change his shirt.  You see what he changed into?  Not quite what we had in mind.  Cute though, and very much his personality – we let it stay.

Yes, he’s a pain.  Yes, pictures took a whole lot longer than they should have.  Yes, he knows when I need a good laugh. And, yes, we laughed our behinds off. 

Finally we got him to cooperate and ended up with a nice picture of the two of us.

We’re working on a very simple, and very cheap project for our blank walls.  After we get the pictures developed I’m thinking of making a video post showing us completing it.  It would make a perfect Christmas gift (which is only 3 months away!) and is so easy the kids can do most of it.

I’ll keep ya posted. 

NOTE: And for those of you who haven’t seen me in a while, I quit coloring my hair a year and a half ago.  The dark color you see in the pictures is what naturally springs out of my head.  If you don’t believe me (and nobody does) I don’t know what else to tell you except believe it.
It’s the Italian in me.  I get it from my dad and I like it – can’t believe I’ve been hiding it with fake color all these years!  I thought my natural hair color was light brown!

Kait and I ran to CVS today to pick up some free candy corn ($.99 with a $.99 ECB return).  They gal behind the counter had taken the time to put on a little makeup and do something with her hair.  But, she still looked bored, sleepy, and generally unapproachable.

Then, after we had walked out to the car I decided to run back in to pick something else up and the same cashier was saying hello to somebody she obviously knew.  She looked 10 years younger, and very pretty.

And the only change she had made was that she was smiling. A large tooth-showing smile.  It was very becoming.

I wanted to tell her that she had a beautiful smile, you know – to encourage her a bit; but thought that would be weird so I didn’t.  I just made a mental note that smiling does change the way we look for the better.

I think I’ll try and remember to smile more.

And that CVS deal is only good through today so if you want to score some free candy corn you better get a move on. (limit 1 per card)

I was just putting Sam(3) to bed.  He’d fallen asleep on the couch so I had to change his limp sleepy self before I tucked him in.  It was then that I noticed he was wearing Jesse’s(20 months) clothes. 

And I wonder…. 

How did I get through the whole day without noticing the high water, khaki pants.  The very tight and short 18 month shirt. How did I not see the ridiculousness of his outfit?

Where have I been?

I know I’ve overused the pregnant brain excuse, but I don’t care. No matter the reason, my brain is mush right now.

Sheesh! I let him go outside like that!

My daughter and her friend have started a book review blog.  They are having a giveaway right now and I thought some of you might be interested.

The book is called The Centurions Wife by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn.

The blog is called Book Ponderings.

Be sure to stop by!

The neighborhood kids play in our front yard.  In fact, our yard is the only yard they play in.  Even when our kids aren’t outside.  Even when we’re not home.

These are good kids.  They don’t cause a ruckus, they don’t use foul language (as far as I’ve heard), they just play football, ride bikes, and toss the frisbee around.

But football in our yard is killing our grass and our once manicured front lawn is now trampled and brown in the places the boys play.  Our lease requires us to keep the front yard alive and looking good, at our own expense.  So, we asked our kids if they knew why all the neighborhood kids were always in our yard when we weren’t home.  Joe’s response was, “Well, their dad doesn’t want them playing in their yard because it kills the grass, that’s why they play in ours”. 

Oh.

We’re trying to just let this ride for now.  We are still quite new to the neighborhood and are already the weird, homeschooling, churchy people with all the kids and the giant, white, 12 passenger van.  No need to turn our famous-ness into infamous-ness…

Not just yet, anyway.

While I was waiting for my baby appointment yesterday I saw a little self-help show on the waiting room TV.  One spot showed a mom who was fed up with her 9 & 11 year old boys and their bad eating habits.  Apparently they didn’t like the school menu so they would come home famished and gobble chips and soda all afternoon.
The poor mother was at a loss, and having no clue how to get her sons to eat healthier snacks she turned to a diet expert.

The expert came to mom’s home and helped her prepare a healthy array of snacking options for her boys, who were due home from school at any time. 

People!  There had to be at least $30 worth of food on that counter!

The expert went on to explain, in so many words, that the key to getting the boys to change eating habits was to trick them with chip-shaped carrots, prunes packaged like candy (which the expert creatively called ‘gummy plums’), and cherry tomatoes instead of big tomatoes. 

Chip-shaped carrots? Um, does she think kids are stupid?

The boys came home and tried everything, quite obviously against their wishes.  You could see their distaste even though their fake smiles stayed plastered on while they said, “mmm.”  I’m betting that after the expert left those boys went right back to eating their regular old junk food.

Nobody bothered to let mom in on the one little secret that could have changed everything.
But I’m here to help.

If you want your children to stop drinking sodas and eating chips all day long, here’s what you do:

Stop buying sodas and chips! (I know, it’s mind-boggling!)

Either that or, if you like to keep treats in the house for occasional enjoyment, teach your kids the definition of the word ‘no’.

Ryan and I have been on a mission for about 2 years now.  We want to be content with less, to free ourselves of want and debt so we can give more freely.  We’ve changed our spending habits, cut up all our credit cards, and changed our attitude towards stuff in a dramatic measure to help us eventually achieve this goal.

But is this what we really want?

I’m sure it is.  We get on the right track, get our minds on the same wave, and feel this invisible momentum that keeps us keepin’ on in the direction we’re headed.  The good one, the one that’s goal is to give God the glory.

But, then, without even feeling the jolt, we’re derailed.  How long have we been running the wrong way? Lost focus?  Forgotten what we were supposed to be doing?  Or maybe remembered, but chose to ignore it so we could have, have, have.

Then Ann Voskamp reminded me today - 

No one tells you that wealth numbs you to life and consumerism callouses your soul to the sacred.

 
Or maybe Someone did: “”It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:25 NIV)