Kelly’s Blog

Here’s a list of what’s going in the book. Keep in mind, those interested: if you’re teaching your kids hymns, you don’t have to teach them all at once! You don’t have to know them all or teach them all. Teaching your kids stuff is a long-term goal! 

1. Lord Jesus Christ, Be Present Now
2. Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
3. Silent Night, Holy Night
4. Away in a Manger
5. What Child Is This
6. The Star Proclaims the King Is Here
7. On My Heart Imprint Your Image
8. Glory Be To Jesus
9. Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
10. What Wondrous Love Is This
11. Jesus Christ Is Risen Today
12. O Love, How Deep
13. O Jesus So Sweet, O Jesus So Mild
14. Jesus Loves Me
15. Baptized into Your Name Most Holy
16. All Who Believe and Are Baptized
17. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
18. Chief of Sinners Though I Be
19. Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word
20. A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
21. I Am Jesus’ Little Lamb
22. Be Present at Our Table, Lord
23. Now Thank We All Our God
24. We All Believe in One True God

This project was born out of my own desire, as a mother, to have a resource I could use to teach hymns to my own children. Learning and memorizing hymns is an important (much-neglected) part of the Christian tradition, presenting a fantastic opportunity to share God’s Word through song within families.

Because I wanted this book to facilitate the memorization of hymns, both for me and my kids, all of the hymns I chose can be found in the LSB. This is what we hear each week; still, many or most of these hymns are pretty universally known. I selected the 24 hymns I wanted to use by the following criteria:

•    All public domain (to prevent copyright issues)
•    Highly singable tunes, but not dated-sounding
•    Relatively short; most hymns are 4 stanzas or less (with a few exceptions)
•    Covering a range of subject matter across the church calendar; many that deal specifically with Christ as our Redeemer

The illustration style was originally inspired by studies of the “golden age” of children’s book illustration from the first part of the 20th century. They are colored pencil drawings, but less cartoon-y and with realistic attention given to proportion and other details. I was shooting for beauty instead of a “cool” factor. My own personal experience as a child is that when it came to church stuff, beauty was cool, and highly attractive.

These illustrations depict personal applications of the hymn from a child’s perspective, where they actually interact with Jesus. This is shown to happen:

•    As children participate in the Divine Service;
•    As they learn about their faith and church through other learning/teaching experiences;
•    In prayer;
•    As they learn love for their neighbor in their vocation as a son, daughter, friend, etc;
•    As they picture themselves as part of the Scripture stories and so are depicted witnessing the events as they take place

To help the parent or teacher using this book, there’s a section with the melody line for each hymn, an assortment of discussion questions and thought starters about the content of the hymn, and a memory verse. These extras can be adapted according to the learning level of the child, and are meant to help bring out the layers of meaning in each song.

I intend to go ahead with self-publishing, making the book available for any who are interested. It’ll probably be ready in a few months’ time. The notes are completely finished, and the illustrations are about 1/4 of the way there. Alex is doing the formatting for all of this, which includes a LOT of graphics, so he deserves the biggest props that can be given. The book will probably be around 90 pages max, 8 1/2″ x 11″and in full color. If we use Lulu again, the price should end up in the $25-30 range.

Thoughts, comments, questions? Is this something you would want to see?

I’ve got a post coming up soon, I promise. It’s about a new book project that we’re working on and planning to self-publish.

This is what happens when Alex and I watch Fellowship of the Ring (extended edition) in the evening, after a hectic day with kids… we get silly and very giggly. Any viewing of FOTR involves goofy running commentary by the both of us.

There’s the scene with Gimli describing how he asked Galadriel for a single hair from her golden head. “She gave me three.” I pointed out to Alex that this has interesting significance in Tolkien lore, insofar as Feanor (read the Silmarillion to find out who he is) had a particular interest in Galadriel’s hair. Tolkien wrote, “He begged three times for a tress, but Galadriel would not give him even one hair. These two kinsfolk, the greatest of the Eldar of Valinor, were unfriends for ever.”

I mentioned that description to Alex, and we came up with a new anagram: BUFF (Best Un-Friends Forever). So this led to a conversation on who was or wasn’t BUFF. Much hilarity ensued. Maybe you just had to be there?

“Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.” -G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

See here.

This is pretty much true, too.

I don’t know if being married to a preacher has made me extra-sensitive to these sorts of issues, but I am obliged to direct you to a must-read article by Pr. Wilken entitled “A Listener’s Guide to the Pulpit.” If you read one article this year, let it be this one! It will make you a more discerning listener at church. It outlines the many different formats and styles that popular sermons take on, and how to listen for Jesus in each one.

No, this suggested read isn’t directed to my husband in the slightest. He’s already a very good preacher. 

As long as I’m copying and posting other people’s thoughts because I’m too scrambled with kids to have any of my own, here’s my favorite quote of the week, by a Pr. Wright:

“Unfortunately, when people say they want ‘to keep Christ in Christmas,’ what they really mean is they want the government and corporate America to do it for them. My thought is this: if you want to keep the Christ in Christmas, then instead of fretting and worrying about traveling, family, and presents, get your butt into church and listen to the Word of God.”

…@ Necessary Roughness: Repentance is the Better Miracle. Oh heck, I’ll just give you the whole thing here, it’s so good.

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My neighbor asked me if I thought John the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah. I said that the Bible doesn’t say that and doesn’t deal with reincarnation, but as I was looking through Matthew 11 and 17, I noticed something cool starting with 11:7:

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,

“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’”

Jesus says John is a prophet, even more than a prophet. Recall that the OT prophets of God did some rocking things back in the day: Elijah raised the dead, parted a river, extended food, called down a famine, called down fire upon a water-soaked altar in a duel of gods, and left the earth on a chariot of fire, for starters. Moses had his share of deeds with Pharoah, bringing water from rocks, et cetera. These guys demonstrated fantastic acts with the power of God, but verse 11 says that among those born of women, John was greater than these.

What did John do? He preached repentance. He baptized. He announced “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He decreased so that Christ would increase.

When we people talk about the power of God, often we don’t talk of the things John did.  We like the Pharisees desire to see signs. We look for proof outside the Word that God is in our lives. Given the choice we would rather see Jesus heal the paralytic than forgive his sin. Those who would like to be seen as greatest of God seek the packed auditoriums, the landmark worship centers, and the best-selling books — although I hear “At the House of My Fathers” is pretty good.

The greatest man born of woman does the same things that Christ demands of our pastors. It is a better miracle that the message of a pastor convicts a person of his sin, and the Holy Spirit grants that man repentance. It is a better miracle that someone is baptized. It is a better miracle to announce the forgiveness of sins. And these better miracles continue with us today.

Please, Christian pastors.  Warn us to flee from the wrath that is to come. Prune our dead trust in our own deeds. Ditch the how-to application sermons and the programs, trying to administer our lives better than we can, and deliver the hard-hitting Law that drives us to cry for mercy at the cross. Then we can be watered with a Gospel that causes us to bear fruit in keeping with repentance and gives us a thankfulness that lets us tell everyone what God has done for us.

Alex has me hooked on shortbread. We’ve been trying out a bunch of different varieties, though we haven’t attempted anything too pricey. My favorite is the Royal Edinburgh shortbread fingers. I got Alex a tin once and we really liked them, so we tried the smaller, less expensive cardboard boxes. Unfortunately, for some reason, the cardboard version contains corn flour! So we were disappointed. (Anyway, corn flour in shortbread?)

Lately we’ve (read: I’ve) been mowing down on a brand of shortbread cookie of the “Dare” brand. Very good, fairly cheap.

We refuse to get any of the really cheap ones that (A) don’t have butter listed as an ingredient (!!!) or (B) do not seem to technically be shortbread according to the ingredients that are listed.