Last week one evening Ken was taking the 3 older kids to a Hockey Game and Megan was staying home with me. She was pretty disappointed about that and started crying. My first reaction was to take her up to the piano and start singing and playing with her. That wasn't exactly what she wanted however but when I suggested that we play the cello she thought that would be lots of fun. So we both played it and then we did some "duets" with her on the piano and me on the cello. We ended up going on to other things that evening, but the sadness was gone, we had a wonderful time.I was thinking about that later and I realized there are a lot of times that I use music making in my life. Here are some of the things I thought of:
- Soothing fussy children. I don't know how many times I have taken a crying child to the piano, set them on my lap and started singing and playing for them. They usually cheer up and start to play as well (making playing a little more complicated, but I just move to different octaves.)
- Praising my God. I love to praise Him in many ways and I believe my whole life should be in praise and worship of Him but I find music to be very helpful to me in my praising.
- Working through things. If I am sad or hurting I like to play music. It helps me get my emotions out in a positive way. When I was a going through puberty I usually spent a couple of hours a day on the piano. That really helped so that I generally wasn't moody otherwise (at least I don't think so, I guess you should probably ask my Mom).
- Drawing people together. I love to get together with my family and everybody grab an instrument or add a voice and make some music together. My kids also really enjoy doing this (Though at this point in time it is still more a "joyful noise" rather than music). I have also enjoyed getting closer to other friends through the use of making music together.
Do you like to make music? What do you enjoy it for?Making music works for me. To see other Works for Me Wednesday posts visit Rocks in My Dryer.
"Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre;
With the lyre and the sound of melody.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
Shout joyfully before the King, the Lord."
Psalm 98:4-6
