A Month of Thankfulness: Day 9

(Our 2 grandchildren love music!)

(I apologize for how this post looks! Blogger is acting crazy and try and I might I can NOT fix this!! If anybody knows what I am doing wrong, please tell me!!)

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A Month of Thankfulness: Day 9....I am thankful for MUSIC !

I have always loved music! Good music was a staple in our home when I was
growing up. Our radio was often playing. Mama could play the piano a little and
I was awed by the fact that if you put your fingers on certain keys a tune would
result. I did find that when I tried it I didn't hear that same tune so I soon
learned that there was an art to it! Mama had learned to play using the old
fashioned "shape notes" and could only play in the key of C. Before I ever took
any piano lessons she let me use her book (which I still have somewhere) to
teach myself how to play using the shaped notes. Eventually I did take piano
lessons and learned that the notes didn't have to have the unique shapes to tell
me what to play...but that their position on the lines and spaces would tell
me. I have never learned to be a really good pianist but I can play enough to
be able to enjoy it.

When I was around twelve years old I wanted a guitar really bad for
Christmas. We were poor people and I was pretty sure I would not get one.
But...I did! It was a very cheap one but it was a guitar and came with an
instruction booklet. I read that booklet and learned to play. All during my
teenage years my guitar was an outlet as I sang happy songs, sad songs, and even
political songs that I had no idea what the meaning was. I don't play very much
now as it seems to aggravate the arthritis in my left hand and shoulder but I do
manage to play it some for the grandkids.

I really loved singing in the Youth Choir at FBC in Ripley as a teenager.
Robert Gray was our choir director and he knew what he was doing! The finished
product was always something that the people enjoyed hearing. But I never had a
very strong voice. I was only good as an alto background but yet always longing
to have a stronger voice. My voice is still weak but God blessed me with a
husband and three children with strong clear voices! And now I can already tell
that our two grandchildren...ages 2 and 6....have good strong voices and a good
ear that keeps them right on key! There's not much I can think of that thrills
me, or in some cases relaxes me, more than hearing one of my children sing or
play the piano!

About fourteen or fifteen years ago during our church's Wednesday night
service prior to Thanksgiving, the pastor asked each person present to tell one
thing we were thankful for. Just one. When it came my time I said "Music!"
There is an older man in our church that still to this day remembers that and
often reminds me of it. And I'm thankful for it today even more than I was then
I believe!

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16

May God bless you!

Marilyn