What would you do if you didn’t know how to sing?  There would be no singing in the shower, no happy noise around the house, no entertainment in the car.  There would be no sayings like,

“He couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.  Bless his heart.”  

 One time we were having a Ladies Day at church & I was asked to lead singing.  I was so excited!  My family was full of people who could sing well.  My uncle is a song leader at his church.

I asked him, “What do I need to do?  Which songs should I pick out?  I can’t even read music.  Is that going to be a big deal?”

He said, “I am going to tell you something a lot of people don’t know.  Our family sings by letter.  We just open up our mouths & let ‘er fly.”

Whew!  I’m so glad I got to carry on my family tradition.  Because that’s exactly what I did.  And I think it worked out ok.  I had a lot of fun, I know that.

We had a missionary come to church Sunday. He gave a report on work he & his wife were doing in Italy & Ukraine.  He showed one picture on Powerpoint & said,

“This is a time we were teaching the people how to sing.  They didn’t know how to sing church hymns.”

Well, don’t that beat all?  Since I have been singing in church since I was a wee thing, I can’t imagine not knowing how to sing church songs.  I remember thinking my job was to sing louder than anyone.  When I was 5 or 6 years old, I can remember my mama telling me she loved hearing me sing, but it was not necessary that I was the loudest in church.  Do tell.

When making trips to town, as a young girl, my grandfather & I would sing Old MacDonald, in his old Corvair pick up truck.  My grandmother used to sing to us kids.  It was mostly songs she had made up.  She would rock us & sing.  It was better than anything you can imagine.  She had such a way to comfort us young’uns.  After church on Sundays, at my Papaw & Mamaw’s house, one of us kids would grab a song book.  We would stand in the den, with my grandparents, mama, daddy, aunts, uncles, cousins, & one of would be the song leader.  All of us would sing our hearts out.  My brother would sing, “Leaning on Jesus Everlasting Arm” just like my Uncle Frank did at church.  Everybody would “request songs” & we would sing them.  Good times.

At church, there were Sunday singings after our dinner on the ground.  That’s where the men of the congregation would take turns singing songs.  We would go around the room & whoever wanted to lead a song could.  Young, old, it didn’t matter.  We just loved to sing.

Did you know one of the things we will be doing in heaven is singing?  That makes it mine & your responsibility to be a practicin’!

Revelation 15:3

They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! (NKJV)

It’s a known fact that everybody can sing.  Some may read music.  Some may sing like a bird.  Some may make the dogs howl when they commence to singin’.  Like us, some may sing by letter, but it’s all beautiful to God, when we worship the Lord.  Even though my mama thought it not proper to sing to the top of my lungs, when I was a young lass, that didn’t damper my spirit at all.  I still love to sing along with our congregation.  It’s hard to sing & not just feel better. And don’t think I have not taken the opportunity of teaching my kids & grandkids to love singing.  I sing to these babies & Mr. Sweetie Pants sings back to me.  He can belt out, “Jesus Loves Me” or “Rock Me Mama Like a Wagonwheel” in just a split second.

 

I hope you are having a good week.  We are going to be having some cooler weather closer to the weekend.  Oh yeah!  I got to see all my grandkids this weekend.  We had a big ol’ time.  What fun things have you done lately?  I want to hear all about it.  But for now, I have to be going because I should be washing clothes.

 

 

photo credits: pinterest, keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk, fumctroy.org