Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

faith & spirituality

Why I think all songs in church should have hand motions

We just finished a week of VBS at our church. Yes, I’m exhausted. Yes, the kids aren’t back on a normal sleep schedule. Yes, I’m still singing the songs. (“It’s gonna be a cool, cool summer ….”) Yes, it’s worth it.

The kids performed one of the songs in church yesterday, complete with hand motions and dancing. I have to admit, this is one of my favorite parts of VBS: the music and the motions.

It’s so much fun to see adults and kids dancing and doing hand motions along with the songs all week at VBS. There’s a freedom I feel in praising God through song during VBS, and with kids in general, that I don’t always feel when everyone gathers on Sundays. Sundays, it seems to me, are serious and I’m to be serious about worship. I refrain from (or at least tone down) the joy I feel from the music. Dancing in my kitchen to uplifting songs — I don’t think twice about it. Dancing in church to uplifting songs — I’m afraid I would horrify someone.

I recently re-read the story of David dancing before the Lord. After being confronted about his behavior by his wife, he says this:

“It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.”

When I read this passage, I always think of this song.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp7B5V-qpTQ]

David had great joy before the Lord. He had reason to celebrate. And he didn’t care what it looked like to anyone else. Beth Moore says of this passage in her book A Heart Like His: “Completely abandoned worship is often misunderstood.” Oh, how I fear being misunderstood. Sometimes I just want to dance because God has been so good!

It’s so easy … well, easier, anyway … when kids’ songs or camp songs are involved. Everyone thinks it’s cute or sweet and people often join in.

Maybe we need hand motions for EVERY worship song.

I even found one to get us started with the previous song I mentioned.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPiNwbn3kmY&feature=fvwrel]

I know this is mostly a personal and insecurity issue. I’m not sure how to overcome it except to let God continue to change me and draw me out of the “what will people think?” shell.

Anyone else have this problem? How “undignified” are you willing to be in church? How do you praise God with complete abandonment? And how do you react to those who misunderstand your actions?

Just for fun, I’ve gotta end with this. When in doubt, laugh it out.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuRN2LL3fBs]

Becoming the neighborhood mom

It happened like this, and if my supersensitive mom-hearing (you know, one of those superpowers they give you before you leave the hospital with your baby) hadn’t kicked in, I never would have heard it:

Isabelle, who is 4, was playing with a neighbor girl, who is 6. They were whispering about something when I heard these words: “Don’t tell your mom because she’ll tell my mom and I don’t want my mom to know.”

Well, this mama immediately went on high alert, and I not-so-secretly turned my attention to their conversation in the yard next door. My thoughts went something like this:

1. Hmmm, what exactly does our neighbor not want her mom to know?

2. Wait, isn’t this what teenagers do?

3. I’m SO not ready to deal with teenage issues!

After a moment of panic, I looked for an opportunity to get Isabelle alone so I could pry. (Because that’s what  moms do, right?) Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long and Isabelle came inside to use the bathroom. Also fortunately, she can’t keep a secret to save her life.

“(Neighbor girl) doesn’t want me to tell you something.”

“Oh, and what doesn’t she want you to tell me.”

“I can’t tell you.”

Thus began a circle argument about some secrets being okay to tell. I promised we’d talk about it later. Again, fortunately, I didn’t have to wait for later. Isabelle ran outside and rejoined her friend, confessing to her, “My mom wants me to tell her what you told me.” To which the neighbor girl began to panic, raising her voice and saying, “Why does she want to know that I have a boyfriend?”

A boyfriend? She’s in kindergarten. Whew. I breathed a sigh of relief that, for the moment, I really didn’t have to tell her mom what was going on. So-called boyfriend appeared on the scene later, and as far as I can tell, their relationship consists mostly of the girl chasing the boy.

Isabelle and I did have the chance to talk about good secrets and bad secrets and how she needs to trust her parents to know the difference and whether we really do need to share the information with another parent or not.

Is my memory so bad that I don’t remember things being like this when I was younger? Or is the world so much worse a place that I automatically assume the worst when secrets are involved?

Lately, I’ve started to become the neighborhood mom. I’m generally outside, reading a book on the porch, when the kids are playing, so if other kids come by to play, I end up being the “babysitter.” I’m kind of okay with this because I want to know what my kids are doing and I want our house to be the place where kids hang out and find love and acceptance and ice cream bars or popsicles on a hot summer’s day.

But I want to know where the line is. When do my rules for my kids apply to other people’s kids? And when am I overstepping my bounds to step in to a gap left by another parent? I’m not generally in the business of telling other people how to raise their kids because I’m still figuring out how to raise mine day by day, and I’m tellin’ ya, there are NO easy answers for this. But I’m not the sort of person who can keep her nose out of other people’s business, especially if that “business” (in this case, kids) is hanging around my yard and playing with my kids.

So, what’s your experience? I know there may not be right or wrong answers but I’m curious how other parents have handled (and are handling) these types of issues.

I know this really is kindergarten stuff when it comes to parenting, and the teenage issues are yet to come. I just want to start preparing myself now and make decisions now, before it’s too late, that will help when the secrets are more serious.

Thoughts?