I’m really enjoying rereading The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer. This week I read the first chapter that gets into the nitty-gritty of how we can add beauty to our everyday life. The first two chapters explained why we should look for the beautiful in the ordinary. Now Mrs. Schaeffer shows us the practical outworkings.
First of all, if you have musical talent you should be using it in some form in your home. I love to play the piano as a way of relaxing, and I think my children enjoy listening. My sisters and I sang together a lot when we were all at home. Singing in the car was a great way to pass time as we traveled. One of my sisters has a husband who plays the piano – well! – and she enjoys listening.
But what if you don’t have any musical talent? In today’s world it is so easy to add music to your home – CDs, DVDs of concerts, YouTube playlists, radio, iTunes. There is no reason for your home to not be filled with music and a wide variety at that.
Other ways of adding music to your life would be to collect books on music history or music from around the world. You could make a collection of musical instruments – stringed instruments of the world or various kinds of flutes.
Children should be encouraged to make music whether in formal lessons or in just singing together as a family.
In closing the chapter Mrs. Schaeffer says,
For Christians there is a further point. The idea of making a “joyful noise unto the Lord” is expressed in the Bible. Singing or playing an instrument in the deepest wood, on the lonely seashore, or on a windswept hill is not totally unheard. Birds might join in in reply, sheep might turn their heads, but this is not what I mean. There is a God who is there, and who is personal, and who accepts music as praise to Himself, as worship, when given to Him in this sincere way – without being strained through the ‘strainer’ of human acceptance.
Over and over in the Bible we are encouraged to worship God with music. And why not start practicing now what we will be doing for eternity?!
Do you have music in your home?
Intentional Simplicity 
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I play the piano too infrequently — I need to get back in the habit of practicing it several times a week like I did for a while, when my parents first gave us their old piano (which was once my grandma’s!) I’m teaching my two oldest to play the piano, and they do practice several times a week, so there’s that.
But we sing all the time. So much singing. All three of my kids love to sing, and will break into song at random moments, probably because my husband and I both sing a lot while we’re making food or cleaning, whatever. I’ve been teaching my kids hymns during school time over the past couple years, so they know at least the first verse to a bunch of those, and will sometimes all sing them together with no prompting from me, just because they feel like praising the Lord in song.
And I listen to a CD most mornings while I make breakfast because music helps me kind of gear up for the day ahead, get my thoughts organized and energy level up. It’s usually a movie soundtrack or Bobby Darin, but I swap out all sorts of different stuff too, whatever I’m in the mood for that morning. And sometimes I put on a CD of classical music while we’re doing our schoolwork.
Music is definitely a big part of our lives!
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Sounds like the home I grew up in – piano lessons, clarinet in band, lots of musicals, falling asleep listening to Strauss waltzes pounding through our apartment (I don’t know what the neighbours thought 🙂 ), singing random songs from musicals in the middle of a conversation, my dad singing a song in the middle of preaching. I think you get the picture.
Your children will never regret growing up with music.
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