Love

Last night while on our drive to pick up LaDon, Ally started singing this song:

"I love Jesus.

President Monson loves Daddy.

Heavenly Father loves me.

Happy New Year, happy new year!"

The end is pretty random. But, I thought it was telling to hear what she's learned about our Father in Heaven, our Savior, and our current prophet. Whether she knows it or is just repeating what we tell her, she is happy to know that there is a lot of love coming from those 3.

Child of God, Music

This was also posted on our fam blog, but I thought it qualified for this one as well. Even though it another Jamie post about music.

So, the kids listen to the Children's Songbook CDs when going to sleep at night. Since Wednesday they have been HOOKED on the song I Am a Child of God. Which, of course, I love. But.....it can be a problem if they don't fall asleep quickly and start yelling at us to have it played over and over again. Aren't the other songs on the CD good too kiddos?? Anyways, like I said, HOOKED. A couple of nights ago, Daniel woke up in the middle of the night....again.....and was crying so loudly that he woke Ally up as well. So, I hit the play button on the CD, crawl into Daniel's bed(which would be hilarious if he were in a crib, but he's in a twin bed), and waited for the kids to go back to sleep. Pretty soon, I heard a groggy and half asleep Ally start to sing with the CD. She sang the first 3 songs until she finally crashed.

Every night, if we start the CD before we are just about to shut their door, Ally and Daniel ask for I Am a Child of God to be started over so they can hear all the words. And, then they both sing along.

Tonight, Daniel woke up at about 11:30 and I was expecting to have to climb in his bed again. Instead, he rolled over and said, "Child of God." So, I pressed play and he was back out.

There's no real point other than the fact that I am glad that my kids love songs about Jesus and I just want to remember things like this. I guess in time, maybe now, they will realize what the words of that song are teaching and understand that they are children of God.

Music, Comfort

Duo-post by me today. I haven't posted these stories as they've happened this week.

As mentioned before, the kids listen to CDs from the Children's Songbook when they go to sleep at night. On Monday, I had a terrible headache and just wanted to take a nap. Once Daniel went down, I told Ally that I wanted to go lay on my bed. She followed me to our room and started singing "I Am a Child Of God" for me. So, this story really has no real gospel learning other than the songs they listen to are Church songs. But, because we've taught Ally that good music invites the spirit and can be a comfort, she knew that when I laid down I should listen to good music too.

Music

Part of our nightly routine is turning on a Children's Songbook CD for the kids to listen to as they fall asleep. This all started because Ally kept saying she was scared. So, we told her that as long as she listened to music about Jesus she didn't need to be scared because music invites the Holy Ghost. Last night after LaDon and I had shut their door, we heard the sweet voice of Ally singing "I Am a Child Of God." Tonight, I asked them if they were ready for their music and Ally said, "I get to sing 'Child of God!'" When I hit play and left the room, I could hear her singing, softly, with all her heart. Music has brought such a comforting feeling to Ally and she loves it.

Music and Sacrament

During the sacrament today Viana was quitely singing to herself songs from the hymn book. I looked at her and she said, "I am singing these songs so I can feel the spirit." With 4 kids it can be hard to remember the purpose of the sacrament and focusing can be hard. It is nice to have one of those kids setting an example and helping me out.

Music and Understanding

I am not making any of this up, it is beautiful and it blew my mind!
Viana likes to sing to CharlyAnn and CharlyAnn loves it. When Viana went to bed I took CharlyAnn out to feed her and told Viana she could sing to her when I brought her back in. I kept CharlyAnn with me for about an hour thinking that Viana would probably have fallen asleep. But when I took CharlyAnn in she was still awake and said, "I have been waiting for you to bring her back so I could sing to her!" As soon as I shut the door Viana burst into the most beautiful song and I had to stand outside the door to listen in. She made it all up and sang it to a beautiful little made up tune. These were the words I was able to record, though there were other themes and doctrines.

"CharlyAnn I love you, God is watching over you always. If you get scared Daddy can give you a blessing because he has the priesthood, when Jesus comes he can give you a blessing cause he has the priesthood too, but Daddy can give you one until Jesus comes, God is watching over you, he wants us to be kind. If someone is being mean to me I will be kind to them because it will make them be kind to me and if I am kind it will make other people happy. God is watching over you, God is your father, Jesus Christ is your Savior I love Jesus as my Savior, Jehovah is another name for Jesus Christ. I do not want Satan to be our Savior. I want to live with God again, god is watching over you CharlyAnn. Jesus sent us to earth to get a body, I love my body, I love my eyes and my mouth and nose, I love my eyes that can see, God is watching over you, God and Jesus are watching over you."

Sabbath Day

Since we've had church at 1 this year I usually give the kids bath in the morning before church. Last week Viana told me that we should take our baths on Saturday because "that is the day we get ready for Sunday." I told her if she helped me remember that we would take baths on Saturday this week. Tonight she was playing at the neighbors but I had remembered our conversation and went to get her so we could do baths tonight. It's the little things like this that can help us to become more like our Savior and keep our Sabbath a little more holy. (Now hopefully tomorrow we can fill that time with something joyous :)

Righteous music

Since Viana has become a reader she loves to sing the hymns in church. Today for the opening song we sang hymn 96 "Dearest children, God is near you." The opening lines in the 1st and 2nd verses are, "Dearest children God is near you/watching o'er you day and night/Dearest children, holy angels/watch your actions night and day." As we were nearing the end of the second verse Viana stops singing and says to me, "Even if I think that no one can see me or knows about me someone does because God and his angels always see me." I simply whispered, "That's right," but the power of what she said blew my mind. She was able to pick up on the principles being taught in that song and then apply them to her own life. How often do we breeze through the hymns without taking the time to recognize the teachings within them?