Ever wondered how to teach your children about the true meaning of Christmas through music? We discuss the power of hymns in fostering faith in the younger generation. We'll challenge the status quo by examining the richness of older hymns and assessing how they often outshine the flashiness of modern Christmas songs. We'll also delve into the importance of understanding the history and theological accuracy behind these lyrics. And as we wrap up this episode and the year, we extend to you our heartfelt holiday greetings and request your continued support. So, ready to make this episode a part of your Christmas festivities? Go ahead, hit play!
Ever wondered how to teach your children about the true meaning of Christmas through music? We discuss the power of hymns in fostering faith in the younger generation. We'll challenge the status quo by examining the richness of older hymns and assessing how they often outshine the flashiness of modern Christmas songs. We'll also delve into the importance of understanding the history and theological accuracy behind these lyrics. And as we wrap up this episode and the year, we extend to you our heartfelt holiday greetings and request your continued support. So, ready to make this episode a part of your Christmas festivities? Go ahead, hit play!
Hello and welcome to Simply Edifies podcast. Our goal is to encourage women as we navigate the messiness of life through biblical studies, personal stories and practical tips that bolster our walk with Jesus daily. Thank you for joining us in our episode today.
Speaker 2:Merry Christmas everyone. We are going to just talk about some of our favorite hymns Christmas hymns, in this episode leading up to the week of Christmas. As my children informed me yesterday that we are a week out, and I informed them that they better be expecting a very light Christmas this year because I'm not ready. No, I'm not either.
Speaker 3:It's gone by so quickly and it just, it's just like here, it's here.
Speaker 2:I feel the whole year has just flown by. I mean, there's been a lot of things that have happened in our family as far as like moving and big things, but at the same time it's like it just flew by like way fast, way, way too fast. So here we are at the end of December, going into our next year and talking about Christmas. We're going to sing for you today.
Speaker 3:No, I'm not. No, we are not, I'm just teasing.
Speaker 2:Having to listen to our talking voices is bad enough, yeah you have to edit it.
Speaker 3:So you don't want to have to listen to that.
Speaker 2:Alithia asked me the other day. She was like Mom, why don't you like listen to your own podcast? I'm like because I actually speak the podcast and then I edit the podcast, and so by the time I'm done with all of that, I don't want to hear the podcast ever again.
Speaker 3:I never want to hear the sound of my own voice again.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Not that we don't enjoy it, we do. Just we'll spare you the same. That's the point of all, that we won't be long. We spent the entire weekend doing Christmas programs from our church and our school. So it has been three days of Christmas program stuff and actually weeks of it because of practicing at school. So I am very Christmas hymns right now.
Speaker 2:What is one of your top favorite?
Speaker 3:Oh, we're talking about this before we started. It's hard to narrow it down. I really do love Christmas music and one of my favorite albums to listen to you is the one you introduced me to your college, which was the Von Trapp family singers, grandchildren. Yeah so like the real real Von Trapp, from the sound of music, the real one, her grandchildren, great grandchildren. I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if it's grandchildren or great grandchildren, but yeah, just these little voices yeah it's adorable.
Speaker 3:I found it on, like my Amazon music app and listen to it and I love it. But actual song. I love the song in the Bleak Midwinter because it's Moody and I'm a little moody I think, and it's just very.
Speaker 3:the music is really pretty, but I taught my kids and my students we have learned that line and my mom taught me the first. I think it's the third verse that says what can I give him for as I am, if I were a shepherd, I would bring him a lamb. If I were a wise man, I would do my part. What can I give him? I'll give him my heart.
Speaker 3:I just think that's so simple but so beautiful and really just explains the importance of Christmas and what is important about Christmas in one little tiny verse.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I like that one too, because it's just like the melody in and of itself is kind of soothing.
Speaker 3:It is. It's like kind of almost a lullaby. Yeah, very beautiful and yeah, I like. I love the songs that really talk about Christ as more than just a baby and a manger. That's something when I am talking to kids, whether it's a church or school or home, it's. I'm like, guys, this is. We sometimes forget that Jesus isn't still just a baby and a manger. That's what we talk about and sing about, but he's a real person. He is the king of kings. He was. You know, we go through all that stuff, but so I like the songs that have a little bit more depth than like, oh, there are some angels singing and there was a baby in a manger and right, those are usually fun and pretty, but I just I like the ones with a little bit more meat to them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's. I chose O come, o come, emmanuel. Because of that reason it is a very rich in prophetic Phrases about Christ and what he would do when he came, but not just from his first coming, his first advent, but also his second coming. Again the melody is more somber, it's a minor tone or whatever, but it's the words are just very rich and the truth found throughout the scripture about Christ coming and what was the significance of it. So most people know the first verse. I'm just gonna read a few of the other verses because it's not a very popular one but, like I said, it's pretty rich.
Speaker 2:So the second verse is O come, thou, rod of Jesse, free, fine, own from Satan's tyranny, from depths of hell. Thy people save and give them victory or the grave. And Then the next one is O come, thou dayspring, from on high and cheer us by thy drawing nigh, disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadow put to flight. O come, thou, key of David, come and open wide our heavenly home, make safe the way that leads on high and close the path to misery. O come, add on I, lord of might, who to thy tribes on Sinai's height in ancient times Did give thy law in cloud and majesty and off.
Speaker 2:So those are just really rich in truth about who Jesus was and why he came, not just as a babe in a manger, but to die, to set us free from the, the, as it was talking about the tyranny of death and Satan and hell, and it talks about Jesus making a way for us to To go on up to heaven with him.
Speaker 2:That's the whole point of his coming the first time. And then it also talks about his return and coming to restore and renew and you know it says O come, o come, emmanuel, right, and Emmanuel was the Jewish term for the Messiah. And Jesus obviously came as a Jew to the Jewish nation first, but he's not done with them right now. As a gentile, I can come and I can accept Christ as my Savior and I have that open to me and I am thankful and grateful for that. But he's not done with them. And as, as believers, we need to remember that God still has a special place in his heart for Israel and he will restore them to him, back to him in the end. Those are just a few of the reasons why I like that song, my daughter saying that with her group of kids at school.
Speaker 3:That was like many ages saying together, and so her and a kindergartner in my class were singing together and they came back after practice and we're like that's not just about Christmas, that's not just about Jesus coming back, and I was like, yes, that was pretty cool that they were being taught that because I wasn't there, I was Actually got a break while they were in practice, but just that they learned just me.
Speaker 3:And songs are so important I think we just talked about that last week. But songs are so important because the kids kids really do learn from them.
Speaker 2:Yes, we learned from them kids who, too, my husband, I were just talking about this actually last night, about, like, modern Christmas songs, like even Christian ones, and how Sometimes they just lack the depth, you know, of the older Christmas hymns, and we were just discussing that and kind of just comparing some of the the songs and the hymns and stuff, and really we were talking about language itself. We got to the point where, like, if this breaks down to language itself, like our language has become so much cheaper if I could use that word like our Vocabulary is definitely Way lacking compared to those a hundred years ago. Plus we don't we don't.
Speaker 2:The richness in our vocabulary and in our language and in our thought process to express these deep and meaningful Ideas in poetic form that can be sung, you know, and it's kind of sad, it really is if you start using words that are a Little bit outside of the scope of what is normal people just stare at you like what are you even talking about?
Speaker 3:These are words that like if you read a book.
Speaker 2:I don't know you, probably it's not our like slang vocab right.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's what I'm trying to get at. Like if there's some depth, we keep that, keeps that work. He's coming up. But like if there's like some depth to it and more than just space value, like there's the word has some depth of meaning, then it's like a hit or miss where there people in the room are gonna be. Like that makes sense.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I've Obviously, you know, we have our. Everyone has their preferences. But I just really love actually dissecting the hymns that we sing and kind of just Realizing the truth behind them and how the the writers themselves this didn't just come out of nowhere. These people hold held these truth dear. These people believed these words that they were Um putting into music and some of them just into poems. We were talking also about I heard the bells on Christmas Day and that one is just. You know, the story behind that has become a little bit more pop popular recently. But yeah, that if you have a chance and you haven't read the history of Long fellow and why he wrote to him and all of those things, I recommend you do that because it meant something to him, it wasn't just a pretty problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Reconciling what he was seeing in reality a harsh, bad reality and then what he believed in his heart Because of his faith. I get like so emotional every time when it says God is not dead nor death, he's asleep.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:The wrong shall fail the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's. It's very rich, because I feel that Most of us come to that point in our life where we do question God, are you good? And I see all of this horrible wickedness around and I see this horrible things happening in my life and that kind of just Through that song, you see that struggle that he went through of is God good? Can? He be trusted and and yes, the answer is there.
Speaker 2:Right will prevail, and yeah so just things like that, just to bring to memory if we already knew, you know the background of the song, just to bring it to memory and if our kids don't know it, to make sure that we share that knowledge with them and the meaning behind Some of the phrases in the words that we sing. You know? Thou day spring on high. Do you know what that is referring to? Thou were out of Jesse. Do you know what that's referring to? And where do we find that in the scripture? You know this is these are all Old Testament Prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, and our kids need to know that and we need to know that, especially now, in this day and age where everything is questioned in a very relevant and subjective way. We need to have some concrete truth and it needs to be reinforced with our music. So it's a great time to do that.
Speaker 3:It is, and I think that we let a lot of music into our lives. And I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole style. You know the actual types of music, but if you just focused on the lyrics, let's just take away the music aspect and just the lyrics. There's. My daughter and I were just having a conversation about the how some songs are just not theologically sound. Yeah, and they're. You know there's them because they're hearing them, like on the radio or something, and then they're singing because it's coming from like a good source.
Speaker 3:They think that it's truth and so I don't think that necessarily you can't enjoy a positive song just because it's like. You know there might be a song you hear and it's like, oh, that's fun and catchy or whatever, and doesn't mean that it's evil. But my point isn't to teach your kids to be like detectives necessarily more. Teach them the truth so that when they hear something that doesn't line up with what is true, they can recognize it and that they can be like hey, how's that one with what I know is true about God's word or what I haven't talked about. That's where when David listen to the radio and he's like man, that's not true, that's terrible. That's not true.
Speaker 3:He's like four. He had missed for the lyrics of the song. It wasn't right. According you know, in the way he was interpreting it it wasn't right and I was really proud of him for, like, being so upset. Right, he was like my. That is not true. Why are they saying that if it's not true? Yes, christmas is just a great time to fill your home with good music and to share. I mean, you can literally go to people's front doors, knock on their doors and sing at them the gospel. You can sing in the gospel at people's faces or like you don't even have to do it.
Speaker 2:Well, Right, go to a nursing home. Yes, about your voice. I remember I was looking up here like how we can get into nursing home. I don't think we're going to be able to do it this year because I haven't had enough time to like, like you know, plan to go there or whatever. But in West Virginia I go every year with just me and my kids and my husband and it's seen to those older people and we didn't sing very well because they were all very little and we're not the greatest singers, but we did and they loved it and in share some positive Christmas music and see the smiles on their faces and stuff, it's definitely worth it. I was like trying to find a place around here and I didn't have good success with that yet, so maybe next year.
Speaker 3:So it's been probably three years since we've been able to go to a nursing home because of COVID, so that was like the worst thing in the world. It was super upsetting. But this year actually, well, we're gonna be able to go to the nursing home and Carol this year, yeah. I was really excited when I found that out, that they're gonna let us come back in, so it's a good thing.
Speaker 3:My kids went caroling today for a little bit too, with the church. They did a couple places, nice, and there's just so much about Christmas that is self-centered and that is, even if it's not necessarily bad, it misses the point and we can get so busy, so stressed out, and I know, as moms, and I know the majority of the people listening to this are the person in the household who's probably doing the most preparation. Yeah, yep, yeah, you're probably have that on your shoulders and we can get very, very worn down by this season. I know I can. Some people just invigorates and for some people it wears you out, and I'm one of those people that I really have to know my limits when it comes to Christmas and what we can and can do.
Speaker 2:And expectations you know like. Realistically, I think of there's years where you can do it all.
Speaker 2:You know you can participate and you can be there and you can do the things. But then there's other years where you can't, and you have to know that and you have to let everybody in your family know that. I think that's one of the things that happens is that we feel like this pressure to perform, but we know that we can't, so we get frustrated and we don't let anyone know. We don't let anyone know how we're feeling or that we can't do it. There's just different times, there's different seasons where you can't, when you have all the littles and you or whatever, it's harder to do all of the things. So you have to have that expectation and let other people know your expectation of hey, I'd love to do this, but this year we're only doing X, y and Z.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that, especially when those things that you're making time for are the right things. Yeah, and what's important to you? Like there's nothing. Just because a tradition is silly or maybe isn't necessarily like churchy, doesn't mean that it's not important. If your family's tradition is to all get matching pajamas and watch a silly Christmas, maybe that's something that's important to you. Like that's okay to do that over going to some big Christmas festival or something that you see in a Hallmark movie. Like I'm afraid I need to do these things, like I don't even know.
Speaker 2:It's not real I always like if I watch one of those things I'm always like okay, first of all, if there was really that amount of snow on the ground, you'd be freezing.
Speaker 3:Nobody would have thought they always walk around with their coats and buttons Right.
Speaker 2:I mean they always have scarves like multiple scarves. That is true.
Speaker 3:That is true, we could pick apart. If we could pick apart hams, we could definitely sit and pick apart at Hallmark movies for a long time.
Speaker 3:My point is Sorry, my point is Christmas music is one of those things that you can fill your home, fill your holiday season with. You know it's good, it's simple, it doesn't take away, it only adds. And I personally have found that music in my home can be such a game changer, whether it's Christmas or not, when we're having bad attitudes, when I am getting depressed, when everyone's getting frustrated, whatever Turning on good music Can change the atmosphere of your home.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:For sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're gonna wrap this up before we go down any more rabbit holes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll start talking about any more.
Speaker 2:You know things.
Speaker 3:Oh, this is us on our very, very best behavior.
Speaker 2:Anyhow, if you want to bash Hallmark movies, give us a call.
Speaker 3:We like them, we just thought something to turn them apart.
Speaker 2:All right, well, merry Christmas and happy New Year, because we're not gonna be on again till after the New Year. Happy New Year.
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