Serving God And Others With The Gifts He Gave You
In Ephesians 5:18-19 it says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;”
In our home, we really do believe music is a gift from the Lord. I always tell my kids, “The devil can’t dwell where God does.” And I believe music is one way to soothe a weary soul and to quiet an anxious heart. It is a way to comfort those in need and can be an encouragement to uplift your spirit.
God gave each one of us talents and gifts to use in this lifetime. He gives us the desires of our hearts so that we may gift others with these talents. His greater purpose in gifting us these things are to further His kingdom. At the end of the day, He wants to be glorified through all of it. It is certainly nothing we have ever done ourselves, and He should be honored for everything the world gives us credit for.
We live in the Ozark Mountains, and the kids have picked up Jason’s love for Blue Grass and Southern Gospel music. We certainly are far from professional, but we do love playing together. Some of my favorite times are sitting on the couch listening to all of my children play songs and sing together. This is what I imagine Heaven sounding like all of the time. I love watching them rosin up their bows, the busyness of perfecting a song, and simply having a good time together.
A few of our favorite hymns are Come Thou Fount, Be Thou My Vision, It’s Through the Blood, and I’m Standing On The Solid Rock. There are so many we can not possibly name them all. Each one holds a special story behind it and there are some really great books out there that sheds light on the stories behind the hymns. We like to educate ourselves on the story behind the song so that we get to share it with others when we have the opportunity to play in public. I encourage you to look some of your favorites up.
What I love about the hymns is they are timeless and its truth is eternal. This is what makes Godly music completely different from all others. It expresses the unchangeable reality of our God, and His nature.
Both Natalie and I grew up in homes with secular music. The music we were exposed to were all about feelings, rebellion, and sensuality. It was important to both of us that we purpose to fill our home with the mindset that whatever we listen to, it needed to be glorifying and honoring. It took us a few years to come to know what that truly was and to implement it every day. We have found our favorites to be the stringed instruments and have never regretted this path.
King David said in Psalm 40:3, “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God…”.
When we sought out to give piano lessons to our first born, we had the intentions of being a blessing to whomever we could. As our family has grown, we are now able to coordinate our voices and instruments a little better together. We are now able to play at our local nursing home. We found that this was a great place to start. They love the smiles and the interaction. They are so lonely and simply showing up means your presence becomes the greatest part of their day. Everybody needs something to look forward to, right? It is a huge blessing to be able to share what we can with them.
As we have grown, our family enjoys singing and playing in our church, anytime we serve in other churches, or when we get together with friends.
Natalie has put together sweet little hymn books of our family’s favorites so we are able to do this more efficiently. You can see God’s kindness pour out when we use our gifting to serve others.
We get asked a lot about the cost of music lessons and upkeep of instruments. Our answer has always been the same. You are going to invest time, money, resources, etc. into all of your children somewhere; right? It doesn’t have to be music. Our talents and gifts, no matter what they are, are to be used to share the gospel. If God is in it, He will provide the means to do it.
I encourage you in whatever gifts you have been given, do it as a family. It not only teaches your children servant-leadership, but it gives them opportunities to be able to share their faith with others.
Don’t underestimate the confidence it brings to your children when they can use their gifts to give a blessing to another.
Natalie