UNFINISHED SONGS The children of the great composer, Bach, found that the easiest way to awaken their father was to play a few lines of music and leave off the last note. Bach would get up immediately, go to the piano and strike the final chord. Donald Grey Barnhouse told how he awoke one morning …
THE NIGHT CHRISTMAS ARRIVED Marge had been a member of our church study group for several years. Now she was terminally ill with cancer. The rest of our group gathered to go caroling. It was a cold night with snow in the air. We visited people who were house-bound and would sing two or three …
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CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT THE WEATHER To avoid offending anybody, the schools dropped religion altogether from their Christmas programs and started singing about weather. At my son’s school, they now hold the Winter Program in February and sing increasingly nonmemorable songs such as “Winter Wonderland,” “Frosty the Snowman,” and–this is a real song–“Suzy Snowflake,” all of …
TOP TEN SONGS FOR PEOPLE OVER FORTY 1 0. Let’s Get a Physical 9. Ain’t No Burrito Mild Enough 8. Johnny B. Olde 7. How Do You Mend a Broken Everything? 6. The Lack O’ Motion 5. Hair Potion Number Nine 4. Doctor My Eyes (& Ears & Joints & Back &…) 3. To All …
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THE SUCCESS OF THE SONG I spoon-fed my 2 year old parts of “Jesus Loves Me,” hoping he’d learn the most important part: “Jesus loves me; this I know.” We sang that line over and over. Then one day he blurted out: “Doctor, doctor, give me a cwue. I got a bad case of woving …
RAISIN EXPECTATIONS At Christmas time, our 2 year old innocently warbled this very distinctive version of the hymn ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ for us – “Sing choirs of angels…sing and expect raisins”! Lorna Unrau, Nipawin, Saskatchewan, Country Woman Magazine, November/December 1992
IN EX SELFISH DEO One Christmas a four year old boy was singing “Angels We Have Heard On High” with great fervor, but the chorus came out a differently: “Gloria, in ex selfish deo.”
MOCKINGBIRD GOSPEL One morning a woman was helping her five-year-old neighbor identify the different songbirds making frequent stops at her feeder. A mockingbird chirped nearby. Trying to teach the little boy about the characteristics of the different birds, she said: “This bird often mocks other birds. In fact, he can sing any song he hears!” …
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SERMONS OR SONGS Devote all your life to the writing of wise sermons and hardly anyone ever hears much about them. But sit down with a scrap of paper, whip out a few lines of music, and they may survive for generations. Witness the fact it only took Baptist minister Dr. Samuel Francis Smith half …
THERE HAS TO BE A SONG There has to be a song. There are just too many dark nights, and too many troublesome days, and too many wearisome miles. There has to be a song… to make our burdens bearable, and to make our hopes believable; to transform our successes into praise and to release …
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EQUAL OPPORTUNITY CAROLS In the comic “The Family Circus” by Bil Keane, the little girl and her mother sit at the piano with a “Christmas Songs” book opened. The little girl asks her mother why the song is not entitled: “God Rest Ye Merry Ladies and Gentlemen.” The little girl is right. The Christmas message …