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“All of us have had the experience of hearing a tune from childhood and having that melody evoke a memory or a feeling. The music we hear early on tends to stay with us all our lives.” Fred Rogers wrote this in his book, The World According to Mr. Rogers . Grandparents can make excellent use of this when they are spending time with their grandchildren. As Paul tells us, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Col. 3:16. I love to sing and play fun music, Bible songs, and educational songs to my grandkids to help them learn about God, math, grammar, and life in general.
One tradition I started with with my grandkids was to sing children’s Bible songs whenever I gave them a shower. Today I had a wee visitor and was busy singing away, with him joining in every so often in between spitting out water. As I did, I reflected on the fact that I tend to pick from the same twelve or so songs, so they have each heard these songs over and over. I realized today that they comprised a complete education “curriculum” for their spiritual walk. They include:
Jesus Loves Me –
Joy to the World, The Lord Has Come
Christ the Lord is Risen Today, Alleluia
I’ve Been Redeemed (And That’s Not All, I’ve Been Baptized)
The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
Trust and Obey
I Surrender All
Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace Whose Mind Is Stayed on Thee
Rejoice in the Lord Always
Have I Not Commanded You Be Strong & Courageous…For the Lord Your God Will Be With You Wherever You May Go
And my own little song, “God Is Faithful, God is True, God is Love, God loves you” – sung to Frere Jacques.
By singing these songs over and over, I’ve been teaching them that God loves them, that they need to receive Christ as Savior, be baptized, follow Him always, trust Him, obey Him, surrender themselves to Him, rejoice in Him, keep their minds set on Him, and be strong in Him, no matter what. These are all lessons their parents and I are regularly teaching them, but it was nice to realize that these shower-time songs help punctuate those lessons, and impress them in their minds in a different way.
Someday, when they are older, I hope and pray that as they make choices and decisions, the music and these songs will keep coming to mind, along with all the Bible verses they’ve memorized, and the lessons they’ve learned from their parents, grandparents, and teachers. I am trusting God that they will make positive choices that reflect their own love for God and reflect the positive lessons they’ve learned along the way.
For Bible song ideas to share with your grandkids, be sure to read Song Memories for Grandkids – The Sequel and Song Memories for Grandkids – The Sequel, Part Deux
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Hello,
Just visited your wonderful website. Thank you for providing such a great resource for caregivers. We were a little surprised that you did not have any articles about a medical alert company such as ours. We get tons of testimonials every day from elderly as well as their caregivers praising the service we provide.
I work for a company called LifeStation (a medical alert provider). There are many companies in this field and there is a lot of fraud going on from some “basement” companies that people should be cautious about. We even wrote an article on how to choose the right medical alert company … http://www.lifestation.com/how_choose.php
Even though we are interested in having you guys mention us on your website, we are glad to give our input without any recognition simply because this is a great product/service that has given millions of caregivers peace of mind.
Please feel free to e-mail me back if you have any questions or suggestions. (ibm@lifestation.com)
Hi Igor, Thanks for the visit and the info. I actually have an article planned in the next few weeks on the various options out there. I’ve worked with Life Alert and highly recommend them. I’ll have to take a look at LifeStation as well when I do the article :). I agree that these are wonderful helps to senior citizens, whether they live alone or with family. You never know when a fall might happen, and if other family members are at work or out of town, the medical alert equipment (necklace, bracelet, etc.) can literally save their life! I have a dear friend who I wish had worn one. He lived alone, had a stroke in his bathroom, and wasn’t found for three days! Some type of medical alert equipment could have made a major difference in the quality of the last several months of his life!
By the way, I noticed your company is a Better Business Bureau. That’s great! I always look for that first thing, especially when checking out online companies that handle personal information/situations. I’ll be adding you to my Delicious bookmarks 🙂
Kaye