"You MUST play music for Miriam"

Judah recently asked me if he could listen to a Bible audiobook. I thought tonight might be a good time to try having them go to sleep while listening to the Bible being read aloud. However, I loaned my Bible on CD to a friend recently, and I can't seem to find the few CD's that weren't in the case. They're in the house--somewhere.

In my search for the stray CDs, I found Alberto and Kimberly Rivera's Peace CD and offered that instead. Judah was NOT interested, but Miriam really, really wanted to listen to it. Fortunately for Miriam, Judah fell asleep before I went downstairs to get the CD player. I put in the CD for Mira, and she said, "I wish I should dance to this song, but I can't."

I kissed her on the forehead and said, "You're right. You need to go to bed. I love you." That little girl LOVES to dance to music.

As I headed down the stairs, I was reminded again of a time when Miriam was just a few months old and the kids and I were visiting friends in Virginia. I read to Judah from his Children's Bible (illustrated by our friend Dennas Davis) about Samuel. I told him that Samuel heard from God when he was just a little boy and that Judah could hear from God, too. We prayed, and right after that, Judah said, "You must play music for Miriam." Wow. At three years old, Judah wasn't using the word "must," so I logged this one in my mind for future reference.

Now Miriam is three, and every time she hears music, she dances. I took the kids to a CD release party on Thursday, and Miriam danced to every song. Judah wasn't too thrilled with the music and wanted to leave. If someone had been reading aloud, he would have been in heaven. He fell asleep sitting up in his chair and holding my hand.

I'm fascinated by how much Miriam loves music and Judah loves the spoken word. Occasionally, Judah will join in and dance with us, but for the most part, he'd rather sit and listen to audio books while Miriam and I head upstairs and dance to music. Recently, I've been listening to some "Seeds" CDs, which are truly EXCELLENT scripture songs that are so well done that it's a pleasure to listen to them (unlike a lot of children's CDs which can grate on my nerves).

Carole Joy Seid, the speaker at the homeschool workshop I attended recently, highly recommended them and had some for sale at her seminar. Mary Keith Skinner was sitting right in front of me, and she couldn't say enough good things about them. Her husband Anthony is one of our favorite musicians and has extremely discerning taste in music, and he listens to them even when the kids aren't around. Now that I've listened to the "Seeds of Praise" and "Seeds of Purpose" CDs, I can understand why.

Check them out here: Seeds Family Worship.net. You can listen to some of the songs HERE. If you like what you hear, buy a couple CDs HERE. Each package comes with two identical CDs, so if you and a friend buy different CDs, you could give each other the extra copies and get two for the price of one. That's what Patti Smith and I did at the conference and I'm so glad we did!