I left Laguna Beach this morning heading home after a wonderful  break from routine.  I had only travelled about 15 miles, when the traffic really starting piling up…bumper to bumper…in the pouring, blowing rain!  When it cleared enough for me to see, it looked, for all the world, like a house, with a smoke stack was at the head of the line.  When the wind died down a little I could see that the little house seemed to be sitting in a big pickup truck!  And, honestly…I thought there looked like someone standing outside the house with his hand up…WAVING!  Traffic crept along all the way to Bonifay!  In reality, only about 30 miles or so, but it felt like 100!  Part of the area I was driving in is under construction and the  the lanes kept shifting from one side to the other.  Two lanes…under construction, weaving back and forth to change roads, rain, wind and tired me.  Not the best combination!

Then someone, whose name I won’t share, called me on my car phone and to tell me to “quit poking along!  You gotta pass those cars and go!” 🙂  But that was before she saw the house driving 7 cars in front of us!  Surely she couldn’t expect me to pass a house!

Now why in the world does a person driving something like that not realize there is a line of traffic behind him and pull off the road every 8 or 10 miles to allow other to pass by?  Would that be so hard?  Why, of course not!

Finally the driver pulled off the road at a flea market type place, and as I passed by I saw that it was a PIG, wearing a hat, waving to me from the back.  Written on the side of the house was a big sign that said, SMOKIN’ BUTTS BARBECUE’.  It was one of those vendors that set up at fairs and carnivals.  I had to laugh at the sight of it all!

As I drove on home, still in bad weather, but at least very little traffic, I realized a few things.  I was leaving my little cottage at the beach, where I had enjoyed a marvelous week.  Suzanne and Adam and Levi were there part of the time…and then someone near and dear to me came and spent a day or two. (If I told you her name, you’d know who was nagging me!)  I ate at some great restaurants and shopped and played and talked and laughed and slept late…it was a wonderful vacation.  Why should I let this PIG HOUSE steal my joy?  Well I shouldn’t.

I have been singing a little song to Levi lately that says, “Be patient…Be patient….Don’t be in such a hurry!….When you get…Impatient….You only start to worry…..Remember….Remember…That God is patient, too….And, think of all the times when others have. to. wait. on. you!”  Well!  I should practice what I preach, huh?

And, then I remembered something I learned a long time ago.   God is in control of my life…and I truly believe He is!  Thank Goodness!  So, if I am delayed or detoured or slowed down…it is because I NEED to be delayed or detoured or slowed down!  I know that!  I just forgot for a little bit.  He has a plan for me and it is to bring good things to me.  So, if He needs to ‘slow me down’…that’s fine with me.

The Bible reads in Romans 12:12…..”Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”  That Pig House was my ‘tribulation’ today….but, I failed the patience test.   I thanked Him for slowing me down.  And opening my eyes…and my mind.  And for protecting me and guiding me, even when I get annoyed at my circumstances and forget that He is in control.  Oh! How clear and in focus our hindsight!

 PS…Joy made it safely home, too! 🙂

Oh what fun it is to hostess a baby shower!  Recently I had the priviledge to honor Amy Elliott in my home.  Her sweet baby boy, Rowdy, is on the way!  Amy is the daughter of one of my dearest friends, Tina.  She and my son, Adam, were friends all through their school years.  So it was with great excitement that I planned this party.  I was even more fortunate to have the help of my daughter in love, Suzanne, to be my co-hostess!  She was in charge of the yummy table of goodies we set out for everyone to enjoy.  She always does a superb job at this…among many other things!

I tried to get a touch of fun and whimsy into the decor, using bears I had saved through the years.  Amy and her husband Chandler, are big outdoors folks…hunting, fishing,racing, etc.  So, I also tried to incorporate a little of their lifestyle into the mix.  All the camouflage bear wear went home with Amy.  They are perfectly baby sized! Here are some glimpses of the afternoon, starting with the front door wreath…which is a little off center, I know.  But, it’s OK...I’m a little off center, myself!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a blessing it is to be chosen by God to love and nurture another of the children He chooses to send to our world.  Amy will be a terrific mother and Rowdy will also have the best Gannie in town!  We wish them happiness and health and lots of fun in the years to come.  As she and Chandler raise him to know and love God, my prayer is that he grows into a godly man willing to stand and lead in whatever path God leads him to.  Blessings, sweet family!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PART 3 IN A SERIES…

We continue to work with Little Levi on his speech.  We have learned so much about ‘Childhood Apraxia of Speech”, and one of these is that music is especially hard for a child with Apraxia.  The rhythm that carries the song along does not allow for stops and starts between the words in which to get ready for the next word.  It has thrilled us that Levi loves listening to music.  And we have begun to notice that he is able to throw in certain words in the right places and he can definitely get the last word in at the proper time!  We have played music for him since he was a newborn. All kinds of music…kids songs, praise and worship, classical, rock and roll, folk, oldies…whatever is handy.  ( And, believe it or not, he asks me to play “the blue song” for him some mornings.  He is refering to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.  Because there are no words, it is easy for him to ‘feel’ the sweet violin or the pounding drums or the tinkling piano.  He and I are quite good at conducting this piece.  🙂  He will go and play with his cars and then come back to me when he hears a part that particularly interests him.)  He hears music in his Sunday School class and his favorite there is This Little Light of Mine!   He and his Mom are learning the ABC song…and he can get all the way through it with just a couple of prompts!  He also can sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  He and I have our own special song.  I have sung to him, since he was an infant, the song ‘I Love You A Bushel and A Peck’.  Now, we sing it together, complete with motions.  We also have some silly, nonsense songs that I have made up that we sing over and over and over.  His favorite:   The Breakfast Song:  “Cows make milk.  Chickens make eggs.  Pigs make bacon.  And Levi makes it GONE!”  This is such a sweet, sweet time for us.  I love sharing music with him.

So, therefore, I have been thinking a lot about the benefits of music for the very young.   We who were fortunate to be exposed to music in early life have surely reaped the benefits.  We learn so much when we listen to music. Music inspires creative movement. It calms and helps us rest. It teaches listening skills. Through music children can learn about patterns and movement, about ryhmes and new vocabulary.  Music is a language.  It helps develop memory, and we know that music is involved in the expression of feelings.  And, these early musical experiences are filtered through all the other learning that is going on at that time a child’s development.

Have you ever wondered why you get a portion of a song stuck in your head for days on end, but never sentences from a magazine or a  conversation from a movie you just watched?  That’s because music stimulates memory like nothing else.   Remember how when we were a kids, we were taught all kinds of songs and tunes to help us remember stuff?  The alphabet song, the planets’ order in the solar system,  the correct colors of the rainbow?   Music is a powerful memory trigger, making it one of the best learning tools there is.

When we think about the things we know about music and how young children and even older children learn, it makes sense that these words and music learned at this early age set up in a part of our brains that hold on to them and keep them there until they need to be recalled.   (This works even with teenagers, as you’ll see in a later paragraph).

I don’t remember a lot of details about early music experiences that I had, but those I do remember come from church.  That is where I remember singing “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam”  too many years ago to say…but definitely in my preschool years. This was in a little country church, Memphis Baptist, a few miles outside of Dothan. (Lest I sound condescending, it is now a much larger congregation, and certainly would not be called a’ little country church’ these days!)   My grade school years were here, too.  At that time there was a basement under the sanctuary and that is where the choirs met.  I recall many songs from that time in my life…”He Owns the Cattle On A Thousand Hills“…”Do Lord“, “Gone, Gone, Gone, Gone” “Every Day With Jesus”, (the fun version)…I could go on and on if I let my mind wander a while.  (Which is dangerous because it doesn’t always like to come back!)  I can even see the front of the book we sang from and see those shaped notes on the page!  It is here, I’m sure, that I first heard the wonderful old hymns for the first time.  And, it was here that their words and messages began to set up residence in my brain.

It’s amazing to me how I can not have heard a song in years, but when I hear the melody, or hear someone say the title or a phrase from the hymn…I can almost recall the words verbatim!  I listen to a lot of oldies music from the 50’s and 60’s and a lot of singer/songwriter type music.  So often I can tell you where I was and what I was doing at the time.  Bet you can do this too!  And, these songs, too, have me singing along easily because I remember all the words!

[This is not a piece about popular music of today….but, I’d like to go on the record as saying I despise rap and hip hop music.  I detest any song I can not easily hear and understand the words.  And, I abhor the music where it sounds as if one is having and extremely personal experience which should not be broadcast to the world!   That is all.  I could easily give you a nice list to stay away from if you would like, but no…you can figure it out.  All that being said, there are some nice singer/songwriter type artists out now that do a fine job.  Now. Really.  That is all]

My parents were avid church goers and believed that you support what goes on at your church…everything that goes on at your church!  So we were there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and any other time they thought there may be a function that could remotely involve us in some way!  I’m not complaining…my friends were at church, people there loved and cared for me, I was happy while I was there… I loved going to church!  As a member of a Baptist church, there was always music…you could not have a service of any kind without starting with a song or two and maybe a special solo, duet or trio by the singers in the group. So, I heard these hymns over and over and over and over and they became ingrained in the furrows of my brain.  And, that is a good thing.  I can still recall ‘specials’ that my Mom would sing and many of the words because she would practice so much at home.  Joy and I could have joined in and made it a trio!

I find myself in Hobby Lobby (a Christian company, by the way), quite often, as it is one of my favorite places to shop.  They always have Christian music playing softly in the background…just instrumental.  Several time I have caught myself actually singing the words out loud!  And, it totally catches me by surprise.  Because I am usually so caught up in my shopping, that I don’t really notice that there is even music of any kind playing. It’s as if my ‘spirit’ recognizes the music and sings out with what it hears.  As it is always praise and worship music…I like to think my ‘spirit just connects itself to the music because it is so familiar, even if I am not consciously thinking about it.  Does anything I said in this paragraph even make sense?  I just don’t quite have the words to express what I think about this.  But, it is something that makes me very happy.

Whenever Joy and I are together on a trip, we always end up singing as we drive.  Well, we don’t do it so much anymore…because one or more of our children would probably have their eyes roll completely out of their heads if we sang like we wanted to!  Anyway, we had a lady who taught our Youth choir at Southside during a time when we were without a music minister.  Her name was Eunice Williams.  Now, she and her husband, Robert, and our parents and the Peacocks were very close friends.  So close, that there were no Mrs. or Mr. with these adults…they were our aunts and uncles!  Anyway, Aunt Eunice was also our church organist as well as my piano teacher.  Well, she stepped into the void when we were without a music minister at church and had no leader for the youth choir.  I can still remember the musical we did…and many of the songs.  It was called  ‘Come Alive‘.  But, the song that Joy and I sing (and beautifully, I may add) is Christ is With Me All the Way.  This was an anthem she taught us.

 

                                 CHRIST IS WITH ME ALL THE WAY

Christ is with me all the way                               Christ is all the love I need,
If I walk with Him each day.                                And His voice my heart will heed.
Willing is He to share my load                            None just like Him ever be,
As I dwell in this abode.                                       He no stranger is to me.
When I’m troubled, tempted, tried,                   But a trusted friend and true,
Then my cares to Him, I confide.                        My help in all I try and do.
And I hear His sweet voice say,                          Leading me in ways He trod,
“Lo, I am with you alway.”                                  Christ the Man and Christ the God.

 

Aren’t these just the most wonderful words for a teenage to learn and commit to memory?  And, I guess the point I’m trying to make here, is that I didn’t TRY to commit it to memory.  It happened naturally.  As with all the hymns I sang in worship from the time I was a child…it was the repetition and the melody and the joy of the music that seared itself to my heart and soul.  And, those songs are there and there they will stay.  Ready to float to the top when I need encouragement, or comfort or maybe just looking for the words of praise that fit the situation.

Do you get the same feeling from all the music that comes from the big praise and worship sessions that most churches have gone to today?  For me, the answer is no.  I don’t get the same awe and reverence and joy from singing this music as I do the old hymns.  Perhaps that has to do with the fact that I reside in my 60’s now.  But, not really.  I think young worshippers and new worshippers enjoy the newer music more.   So, that is what is most familiar to them.  I’m in no way saying that there is anything wrong with this music…in fact I really like some of it…but I do think for those of us who are used to worshipping in an old, traditional Baptist church….a mix is very nice.  I find the newer songs to be very repetitive with tens of verses and hardly any melody to enjoy.  But, again…that is just me!  A church should have room for all those who wish to worship and all who do worship there should find it comfortable and uplifting.  Give and take…a little of this and a little of that.

Well, I suppose, I have taken this subject of ‘hymns’ to as far a conclusion as I can.  Perhaps you have gleaned a little information you may not have known.  And, hopefully, I have added a little more of my own history to this blog to remind those who follow after me of how I felt about this beautiful music of God.  Amen.

“I will bless the Lord at all times.  His praise shall continually be

in my mouth.” Psalm 34:1 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SECOND IN A SERIES…

My mom was wonderful.  I loved her dearly.  And, though she came from very humble beginnings….she grew into quite a proper lady.  Oh she loved fine things and fancy things and right things.  She was never uppity or anything like that, and she never would say something to embarrass you (on purpose). And, she never thought she was better than anyone else.  She was most willing to serve whomever, whenever a need arose.  She was instrumental in much of the missions history of our church.  She truly lived her Christianity. And she loved to sing!  She sang all the time.  No matter what she was doing, you would hear her break out in song.  She sang church music…hymns…and special songs.

But, it just bothered her when things were not done ‘correctly‘…meaning ‘in the way in which they should obviously (to anyone who knew anything) be done.  She may not tell them they were doing it wrong, but you can be sure she told her 2 daughters…so we could be sure we got it right!  And, once told, we were to do it correctly, too.  Because she said so.  And, she just so happened to be right!  And, we were always most obedient daughters!  🙂

And one of those ‘things that bothered her’ was when some music minister/song leader/ music director/ department director in assembly time would say,  “Turn to page 123  in your hymnal and let’s sing all 3 verses.”  What bothered her about this simple statement was that it was incorrect.   It would be correct to say, “Turn to hymn number 123 and let’s sing all 3 verses.”  Because the page numbers were not what we were going by…we were going by the hymn number….who knows what the page number was…but I am sure as can be that it was NOT the same as the hymn number!    See, even though most pages had only one number, on some pages there were two numbers and on some there may be 5!   To reassure myself before I posted this and brought disgrace to the family name by being wrong, I checked in my old copy of The Baptist Hymnal.   This hymnal was presented to me in 1964 (I was 11 years old).

As you can see, it says ‘Revival”, but we were not in the habit of presenting hymnals at revivals, as I recall.  Perhaps I invited people to sing in the choir, or some such thing.  I do remember that I took my own personal copy of The Baptist Hymnal, to church with me for a while…along with my Bible and offering envelope.  Then Mama found out I was doing that and she said I was acting boastful and that was not why I was given it.  So, I began to use it when I took piano lessons from Aunt Eunice.  Truth be told, the only reason I even wanted to take piano lessons was to play hymns and play for church.  I can still see Aunt Eunice Williams’ (my teacher and dear friend) handwriting all in this hymnal.  Quite a treasure to me.  (For those friends in SBC, the hymnal was also signed by Bill Buchanan and Rev. Sidney Sample.)  I did end up playing some here and there at church as I got older …for Sunday nights and Wednesday nights…and for choirs and VBS, but the piano talent in our family was given to my sister, Joy.  She is our church pianist at SBC and does such a beautiful job at it.  I love hearing her play.

And, this is the honest truth, I promise you!  I can remember my Pop leaning over to me when some song leader or music minister  would get the hymn number thing right and saying ,”He knows how to do it right!”  And I would “Shhh” him because he never learned to whisper….especially in church!  And still can’t! 🙂

Another thing that bothered Mom was pronunciation.  She was a stickler on that!  As I look back on it now… this was such a big deal to her.  In speaking and in singing.  But, I remember it more in the singing because…well, I don’t really know why.  It just made an impression on me as a child and I found myself stressing it to the children I’ve worked with in music through the years, and to my children.  I can hear her voice in my memory, even now, and I know every word will be perfect!

A perfect example is Silent Night.  It would ruffle her very last feather to hear someone sing “Si-lunt Night”…instead of “Si-lent Night”…pronouncing the short ‘e’, as it was meant to be.  And really, if you see the word ‘lent’…you don’t pronounce it ‘lunt’.  (Oh, you would never know she was displeased with your pronunciation…unless you were her daughter, or her husband..and perhaps her grandchildren…she held them to very high standards, as well.  But,if I were sitting by her in church, I could almost feel her cringe…ever so slightly.)  Same thing with ‘heaven’.  It is hea-ven…as in been…..not hea-vun!  Try ‘angel’…an-gel (gel)…not an-jul!    “When we’ve been there ten thou-sand  years”…not thou-sund.”  And, I could go on, but I won’t because I think you get what I’m saying.

Way back when we used to sings only hymns in the Baptist church, there were certain rules to follow.  This was way before we had the big screens at the front of the church with all the words on it.  Back in the old days, we would use our hymnals for the words.   If there were 4 verses in a song…we sang 1,2,and 4.  (Or just 1 and 4 if the song service had run long or there was a testimony or something.  You just didn’t cut in on the preacher’s time…he had to start by 11:30!)  I don’t know why it was done that way…but it must have been a Southern Baptist Convention rule.  Didn’t matter where you went to church, in town or out of town…that’s the way it was.  I  always wondered if the third verse just wasn’t as as good as the rest.  But, why would it be in the song if it wasn’t?  Now if there were three verses…we sang all 3.  Or occasionally 1 and 3…for the same reason as above!

Then there were those few that were half page songs.  We rarely sang those, though.  They had the same amount of words, but by stacking them like they did, they could get two songs on one page.  (There’s that rule…2 hymn numbers on 1 page!)  I always felt like the printers of The Baptist Hymnal just threw those half page songs in as filler.  That’s just some Tonja logic…not necessarily true!

None of the rules about verses held true when we had revival services, however. Because that music evangelist would make you sing every. single. verse. of every. single. song.  And, some of them had 6 verses!  Of course, we didn’t sing a lot of hymns in the revival services, because there was all the special music.  He had to sing.  And, he and his wife had to sing.  And, if he had any children at all…regardless if they could sing or knew the words or could stand and hold the microphone…would sing, too.  Then the choir would sing twice.  That’s because he always met with them 30 minutes prior to the service to teach them their part.  He had the solo, however.   Either that or he had another solo after the choir finished and immediately prior to the sermon.

[I can remember some of the guest preachers or music evangelists showing up in big busses and they would live in the parking lot for the week.  I have no room to judge anyone, as I’ve had a few ‘moments’ myself,…but some of these guys were st-raaaan-ge.   They would show up in these flashy suits and poufed up hair…and that was back before men used styling products and hairspray!  It was unheard of in our little town.  There was even one who wore makeup…so I heard.  I was just a child, so I can’t say for sure.  However, I heard my Mom and some of the other ladies talking.  Dothan was just not a ‘poufed up hair and man make up’ kinda town.  I even remember whispers of talk about one of the men who wore a girdle!  Times do have a way of changing, though, don’t they?]

Really, friends, it was hard to get all the music into a service because…even though we were used to having perfectly lovely instrumental music played while the offering was being taken up…there had to be some time allotted for the selling of tapes…and later CDs, of all their albums…and the very special Christmas album…and the children’s album!   And, some of the evangelists had even felt called to branch out into books and t- shirts.  Their spiel generally took the whole offering time.  They would have one of everything up front with them and tell just a little bit about what made it special and what they were going through when they recorded it or wrote it, whichever the case may be.  And, how, in his humble opinion, you needed to have this in your possession so that you could continue to worship at home or in the car.  And, his wife would be in the vestibule after church.  Cash or checks made payable to the church. I can remember being ready to make a bee line to my Pop to ask for $10.00 to get a cassette…or a T-shirt.  And, he usually said “yes”.  Well…he said “yes” if he liked the music, too.  I got nothing from the guy who wore the make-up.  But, strangely, I did manage to end up with a cassette from the guy who traveled in a bus with his wife and 3 or 4 children.  They all lived and traveled together in that bus, too.  That was the first time I had ever heard of homeschooling.  The chlldren, as I remember, acted like little soldiers.  Which may have been why I was allowed one of their cassettes!

Back then the music minister would stay up on the podium while the preacher preached.  If it was especially hard hitting on a certain subject,  you could see the music minister furiously flipping through the hymnal to find the appropriate song to use during the invitation.  Of course, Amazing Grace was always the fall back song for the invitation time.

 

Is there any song, any where, that has touched as many people as this song?  People everywhere, even non Christians, know at least a portion of it.  Revival services tended to have fairly long invitation times, and it was during these invitations that I learned the words to all 4 verses printed in our hymnal at the time.  I only found out later that there were 2 more verses.  And, as I did some reading up on this song, I learned some interesting things about this hymn.

The tune to this song is a traditional melody…listed in our hymnal as ‘Early American Melody’.  Actually it was the melody of a song that was sung by slaves as they sailed to America in the hold of a sailing ship.  Turns out John Newton was a big time slave trader.  During one of his voyages, he was in a terrible storm and cried out to God to save him.  He promised God that he would serve Him, if He would save him.  He lived, but, he did not stop his slave trading at once.  He waited until he was forced to quit due to illness.   It was much later in his life, after he had become a Methodist minister, that he penned these words.  They were used as a chant in his services.  Later his words and ‘Early American Melody’ came together to be sung today as one of the most beloved of all hymns.  It is interesting to think of his life as you reread the words.  Most accounts state that he wrote this as his own life history.

 AMAZING GRACE

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we first begun.

According to Wikipedia, it was added in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe in her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  A character in the book sang two of the original verses and she added this verse as the last.  Isn’t that interesting?  There is no mention of that in the hymnals.  Don’t know if there is in any new printings of it in recent years.

Church was a very important part of my life growing up, as it is now.  And, I’m sure some of the things I think happened one way could have just been the child in me…but these things I’ve written are all true in my heart and memory.  Isn’t it strange, sometimes, the things that stay in our minds and make an impression on our hearts?  I in no way am making fun of my church.  I love that Southside Baptist Church has been a part of my life since I was 10 years old.  The people in this church today, and those that have gone on to Glory, are the salt of the earth.  Who I am today is due in part to the countless adults who felt called to pour their lives into children…rowdy, ungrateful, disrespectful children.  But, the lessons took hold in so many of us who, like myself, have carried on the legacy that is a great church of God.  We who were taught, then taught ourselves.  We who were led, became leaders.  And, we who were served, serve even still.

THIS VERSE OF SCRIPTURE IS ON THE PAGE PRIOR TO HYMN NUMBER ONE IN THE BAPTIST HYMNAL, 1956 EDITION…(whatever that page number may be…)