Pursuing Paideia through Song

One of the main ways I personally love to pursue the paideia of the Lord here in our home with my children is through the reading, singing, and memorization of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. To help encourage myself to be diligent in this way, I started a little Instagram page called @sacredpsalmody this year to document the Psalms my kids and I are memorizing each month. I hope to connect Sacred Psalmody here at Joyful Domesticity through a category or tag to make it easy to reference each month’s Psalm. For a couple of years, we have used @happyhymnody to memorize one hymn per month along with many friends. It was my dear friend Elizabeth, who now lives seven hours away, who first introduced me to the wonderful work April does at Happy Hymnody, and I am so grateful. I love knowing that we are memorizing texts and tunes along with those closest to our hearts, even though we are physically distanced from one another. When we do see each other, we can sing together from memory, encouraging and exhorting one another through song for God’s glory.

In our home, we try to start our day with Morning Time (similar to things you might learn from Cindy Rollins or Pam Barnhill), and a main component of this is our singing. My children love singing, harmonizing, memorizing – I literally can’t keep the number of songs below six each day, even when I am trying to do a “short version” of our Morning Time routine. We do the Doxology and the Lord’s Prayer regularly, sometimes a sung version of a creed, at least one or two psalms, at least two hymns, and possibly some other non-spiritual song of some sort (last year we sang lots of Geography Songs and this year we are doing some Ancient/Bible History songs). What a gift to raise our voices together!

Honestly, sometimes I need to preach to myself that IT IS A GIFT. Because these kids would sing at the top of their lungs all day long if their mama would let them. What about yours? I would love to know what songs, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and non-spiritual educational or folk songs you love to sing in your home.

What kind of soundtracks do you like to play in the house or while on the road? We love to have JJ Heller, Andrew Peterson, Slugs & Bugs, or Jamie Soles playing on the cd player in the kitchen if there are ever moments where the piano isn’t being played, ukuleles strummed, or voices lifted. Music is central to culture. Cindy Rollins said just recently, in a webinar called Educating the Freeborn, that music is dangerous. And an old pastor friend of ours has long drilled into me that worship is warfare. We must train ourselves in this art, this skill. We must raise the children in our homes to wield this weapon with clarity, creativity, and confidence. We must use music for the pursuit of paideia.

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