Monday, February 15, 2010

Hymnals

When Bob and I were in college, we attended church together with a group of friends. We all grew up going to church but some of us didn't grow up attending a church that used hymnals.

For a time, when we first started attending, we had the impression that we could simply take hymnals home with us. Some of us were interested in learning more about the different doctrinal statements in the back of the hymnals. Some of us wanted to learn the hymns. We took them home gladly and encouraged our friends to do so also.

Eventually it came out that we were under the wrong impression. We shouldn't continue to offer "free" hymnals to the people we bring with us to visit the church.

Well. We didn't bring back the hymnals that we ... borrowed. Maybe we were gifted the initials ones...? I'm still not sure.

But. We still have them. And this is how the are often used at our house:



First, The Set up: Straighten James' blanket so he'll be comfy.


Got to get all of these books in order...

There we go... all in a row beside the baby.

Now. Sing!

7 comments:

Stacy said...

That is so cute you all thought you could just take those hymnals right on home with you. :)

Carla B said...

Love it. :) I wish I had a hymnal to read through some of the old hymns sometimes. Maybe you could hook me up? ;) jk.
James little slippers and jammies are so cute.

Unknown said...

The hymnal is the reason that Michael can sing to me, all the verses of my favorite song, "Christ the Lord is Risen today", and plink it out on the piano!!

amy said...

Look at cute Josiah and James! Love it.

When we first started going to our church our pastor told us to take some hymnals home to aid in family worship. We still are thankful for this. We have found that if we practice the songs at home, the kids are way more engaged in singing worship at church.
Our latest thing is to photocopy one hymn every so often to have at the the dinner table (everyone wants a copy and the books can get bulky/dirty). We sing the same hymn each night (when we remember) until we all know it. I can't believe how much this has encouraged our kids to join in at church! Another bonus is that we are able to further explore the meaning of some of the words.

Anyway, come over soon Josiah and we can all play with our hymnals together!

Unknown said...

I collect hymnals at Goodwill, unfortuanatley we then have to look up many different numbers and they dont always have the same verses. Ohhh to have the same hymnals! James is getting so big! what a cutie.

Anonymous said...

I loved this...
1. that you thought you could take them home
2. that Josiah is singing to his little brother and so careful to line everything up
3. James' jammies...we had the same pair one of my favorites
~Jamie

Rebecca M said...

Just to clarify... I really think they did tell us we could take some home initially... but it probably wasn't okay for us to continue to offer them to anyone we brought with us!