Music for Children

Children love music. A happy child is a singing child who sings and hums as he works or plays. When my wife and I sang in a choral group, one of the things that impressed us was that the singing captivated the attention of four and five year olds for an hour and a half. Music ministers to all age levels in a way that preaching and teaching can never do.

The music that you and your children sing and listen to is more important than you may realize. The songs that we sing and listen to permanently shape our understanding of who God is and what the Christian life is all about. The songs that children learn are often remembered the rest of their lives. For that reason it is important that children have not only children’s songs but that they also learn songs that they will sing when they are adults. Children need children’s songs. However, if we give our children only children’s things that are apropriate for their age, we are training them to be children when they grow up. That is a mistake that is being made today and we are seeing the results in many college age young people. Many do not know how to be mature adults.

It is important for children to learn hymns and other Godly songs that they will sing when they become adults . Hymns have a wealth of spiritual truths in them. A hymn with four or five verses will often have 30 to 40 spiritual truths expressed in it in comparison with praise and worship choruses which usually have only a few spiritual truths. Singing only choruses is like eating only french fries. Make sure you have a meal to go with your “fries”. Don’t neglect the goldmine of teaching and worship for you and your children in hymns. Children love to listen to well-sung hymns.

The following is significant for anyone who is involved in training children in the ways of the Lord. In Psalms 44:11,12 it says, “Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth-, that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.” The result of ridding ourselves of ungodly influences is that our sons will be mature, and grown up in their youth, and that our daughters will be stable, mature, and refined. They will be pillars – able to stand on their own and providing support. A problem today is that young men are not grown up in their youth. One juvenile court judge said that girls used to be the stablizing influence even though the guys were doing things they shouldn’t. However, today girls are no longer a stabilizing influence. They are involved in as bad or worse things than the guys. The sad thing is that many young people in the church are not much different than ungodly young people.

Music plays a more important part in the problem and in the solution than I realized. As I looked at the context of Psalms 144, I noticed that verse 11 “Rid me…” was also given before that in verses seven and eight. In between these verses on ridding ourselves of ungodly influences is verse nine which says, “I will sing a new song unto Thee, 0 God; upon a psaltry and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises unto Thee.” Of all the places in the Bible about singing a new song, this is the only one that contrasts it with what it is not, and gives the blessing of singing a new song.

A new song is not one from strange children – the ungodly. Nor is it vain words or falsehood. Songs borrowed from the ungodly do not result in mature young people. The blessing of singing only a new ( a decidedly Godly) song and ridding ourselves of ungodly influences is young people who are mature and who are prepared to make an impact for God’s Kingdom. They also stand out in sharp contrast to society around them because of their uprightness. One of the characteristics of those who have rid themselves of music with a backbeat is bright eyes. This is especially noticeable in children and young people. Music with a backbeat dulls the eyes.

We encourage you to raise the standard and provide decidedly Godly music for your family – music that is without question Godly music. Earthly entertainment is for a moment, eternity is forever.

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