December 18, 2023 • 20 mins
Ever wondered how to teach your children about the true meaning of Christmas through music? We discuss the power of hymns in fostering faith in the younger generation. We'll challenge the status quo by examining the richness of older hymns and assessing how they often outshine the flashiness of modern Christmas songs. We'll also delve into the importance of understanding the history and theological accuracy behind these lyrics. And as we wrap up this episode and the year, we extend to you our heartfelt holiday greetings and request your continued support. So, ready to make this episode a part of your Christmas festivities? Go ahead, hit play!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Simply Edifies podcast.
Our goal is to encourage womenas we navigate the messiness of
life through biblical studies,personal stories and practical
tips that bolster our walk withJesus daily.
Thank you for joining us in ourepisode today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Merry Christmas everyone.
We are going to just talk aboutsome of our favorite hymns
Christmas hymns, in this episodeleading up to the week of
Christmas.
As my children informed meyesterday that we are a week out
, and I informed them that theybetter be expecting a very light
(00:40):
Christmas this year because I'mnot ready.
No, I'm not either.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's gone by so quickly and it just, it's just
like here, it's here.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I feel the whole year has just flown by.
I mean, there's been a lot ofthings that have happened in our
family as far as like movingand big things, but at the same
time it's like it just flew bylike way fast, way, way too fast
.
So here we are at the end ofDecember, going into our next
(01:12):
year and talking about Christmas.
We're going to sing for youtoday.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
No, I'm not.
No, we are not, I'm justteasing.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Having to listen to our talking voices is bad enough
, yeah you have to edit it.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So you don't want to have to listen to that.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Alithia asked me the other day.
She was like Mom, why don't youlike listen to your own podcast
?
I'm like because I actuallyspeak the podcast and then I
edit the podcast, and so by thetime I'm done with all of that,
I don't want to hear the podcastever again.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I never want to hear the sound of my own voice again.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Not that we don't enjoy it, we do.
Just we'll spare you the same.
That's the point of all, thatwe won't be long.
We spent the entire weekenddoing Christmas programs from
our church and our school.
So it has been three days ofChristmas program stuff and
actually weeks of it because ofpracticing at school.
(02:10):
So I am very Christmas hymnsright now.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
What is one of your top favorite?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Oh, we're talking about this before we started.
It's hard to narrow it down.
I really do love Christmasmusic and one of my favorite
albums to listen to you is theone you introduced me to your
college, which was the Von Trappfamily singers, grandchildren.
Yeah so like the real real VonTrapp, from the sound of music,
(02:41):
the real one, her grandchildren,great grandchildren.
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, I don't know if it's grandchildren or great
grandchildren, but yeah, justthese little voices yeah it's
adorable.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I found it on, like my Amazon music app and listen
to it and I love it.
But actual song.
I love the song in the BleakMidwinter because it's Moody and
I'm a little moody I think, andit's just very.
the music is really pretty, butI taught my kids and my students
(03:17):
we have learned that line andmy mom taught me the first.
I think it's the third versethat says what can I give him
for as I am, if I were ashepherd, I would bring him a
lamb.
If I were a wise man, I woulddo my part.
What can I give him?
I'll give him my heart.
I just think that's so simplebut so beautiful and really just
(03:41):
explains the importance ofChristmas and what is important
about Christmas in one littletiny verse.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Right, yeah, I like that one too, because it's just
like the melody in and of itselfis kind of soothing.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
It is.
It's like kind of almost alullaby.
Yeah, very beautiful and yeah,I like.
I love the songs that reallytalk about Christ as more than
just a baby and a manger.
That's something when I amtalking to kids, whether it's a
church or school or home, it's.
(04:19):
I'm like, guys, this is.
We sometimes forget that Jesusisn't still just a baby and a
manger.
That's what we talk about andsing about, but he's a real
person.
He is the king of kings.
He was.
You know, we go through allthat stuff, but so I like the
songs that have a little bitmore depth than like, oh, there
are some angels singing andthere was a baby in a manger and
(04:42):
right, those are usually funand pretty, but I just I like
the ones with a little bit moremeat to them.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, that's.
I chose O come, o come,emmanuel.
Because of that reason it is avery rich in prophetic Phrases
about Christ and what he woulddo when he came, but not just
from his first coming, his firstadvent, but also his second
(05:10):
coming.
Again the melody is more somber, it's a minor tone or whatever,
but it's the words are justvery rich and the truth found
throughout the scripture aboutChrist coming and what was the
significance of it.
So most people know the firstverse.
(05:30):
I'm just gonna read a few ofthe other verses because it's
not a very popular one but, likeI said, it's pretty rich.
So the second verse is O come,thou, rod of Jesse, free, fine,
own from Satan's tyranny, fromdepths of hell.
Thy people save and give themvictory or the grave.
(05:51):
And Then the next one is O come, thou dayspring, from on high
and cheer us by thy drawing nigh, disperse the gloomy clouds of
night and death's dark shadowput to flight.
O come, thou, key of David,come and open wide our heavenly
home, make safe the way thatleads on high and close the path
(06:13):
to misery.
O come, add on I, lord of might, who to thy tribes on Sinai's
height in ancient times Did givethy law in cloud and majesty
and off.
So those are just really rich intruth about who Jesus was and
why he came, not just as a babein a manger, but to die, to set
(06:39):
us free from the, the, as it wastalking about the tyranny of
death and Satan and hell, and ittalks about Jesus making a way
for us to To go on up to heavenwith him.
That's the whole point of hiscoming the first time.
And then it also talks abouthis return and coming to restore
(07:05):
and renew and you know it saysO come, o come, emmanuel, right,
and Emmanuel was the Jewishterm for the Messiah.
And Jesus obviously came as aJew to the Jewish nation first,
but he's not done with themright now.
As a gentile, I can come and Ican accept Christ as my Savior
(07:29):
and I have that open to me and Iam thankful and grateful for
that.
But he's not done with them.
And as, as believers, we needto remember that God still has a
special place in his heart forIsrael and he will restore them
to him, back to him in the end.
Those are just a few of thereasons why I like that song, my
(07:52):
daughter saying that with hergroup of kids at school.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
That was like many ages saying together, and so her
and a kindergartner in my classwere singing together and they
came back after practice andwe're like that's not just about
Christmas, that's not justabout Jesus coming back, and I
was like, yes, that was prettycool that they were being taught
(08:17):
that because I wasn't there, Iwas Actually got a break while
they were in practice, but justthat they learned just me.
And songs are so important Ithink we just talked about that
last week.
But songs are so importantbecause the kids kids really do
learn from them.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yes, we learned from them kids who, too, my husband,
I were just talking about thisactually last night, about, like
, modern Christmas songs, likeeven Christian ones, and how
Sometimes they just lack thedepth, you know, of the older
Christmas hymns, and we werejust discussing that and kind of
(08:57):
just comparing some of the thesongs and the hymns and stuff,
and really we were talking aboutlanguage itself.
We got to the point where, like, if this breaks down to
language itself, like ourlanguage has become so much
cheaper if I could use that wordlike our Vocabulary is
definitely Way lacking comparedto those a hundred years ago.
(09:20):
Plus we don't we don't.
The richness in our vocabularyand in our language and in our
thought process to express thesedeep and meaningful Ideas in
poetic form that can be sung,you know, and it's kind of sad,
it really is if you start usingwords that are a Little bit
(09:44):
outside of the scope of what isnormal people just stare at you
like what are you even talkingabout?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
These are words that like if you read a book.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I don't know you, probably it's not our like slang
vocab right.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yes, that's what I'm trying to get at.
Like if there's some depth, wekeep that, keeps that work.
He's coming up.
But like if there's like somedepth to it and more than just
space value, like there's theword has some depth of meaning,
then it's like a hit or misswhere there people in the room
are gonna be.
Like that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I don't know.
I've Obviously, you know, wehave our.
Everyone has their preferences.
But I just really love actuallydissecting the hymns that we
sing and kind of just Realizingthe truth behind them and how
(10:34):
the the writers themselves thisdidn't just come out of nowhere.
These people hold held thesetruth dear.
These people believed thesewords that they were Um putting
into music and some of them justinto poems.
We were talking also about Iheard the bells on Christmas Day
and that one is just.
(10:55):
You know, the story behind thathas become a little bit more
pop popular recently.
But yeah, that if you have achance and you haven't read the
history of Long fellow and whyhe wrote to him and all of those
things, I recommend you do thatbecause it meant something to
him, it wasn't just a prettyproblem.
(11:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Reconciling what he was seeing in reality a harsh,
bad reality and then what hebelieved in his heart Because of
his faith.
I get like so emotional everytime when it says God is not
dead nor death, he's asleep.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
The wrong shall fail the right prevail, with peace on
earth, good will to men.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, no, it's.
It's very rich, because I feelthat Most of us come to that
point in our life where we doquestion God, are you good?
And I see all of this horriblewickedness around and I see this
horrible things happening in mylife and that kind of just
Through that song, you see thatstruggle that he went through of
(12:07):
is God good?
Can?
He be trusted and and yes, theanswer is there.
Right will prevail, and yeah sojust things like that, just to
bring to memory if we alreadyknew, you know the background of
the song, just to bring it tomemory and if our kids don't
(12:27):
know it, to make sure that weshare that knowledge with them
and the meaning behind Some ofthe phrases in the words that we
sing.
You know?
Thou day spring on high.
Do you know what that isreferring to?
Thou were out of Jesse.
Do you know what that'sreferring to?
And where do we find that inthe scripture?
You know this is these are allOld Testament Prophecies of the
(12:52):
coming of the Messiah, and ourkids need to know that and we
need to know that, especiallynow, in this day and age where
everything is questioned in avery relevant and subjective way
.
We need to have some concretetruth and it needs to be
reinforced with our music.
So it's a great time to do that.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
It is, and I think that we let a lot of music into
our lives.
And I'm not going to go downthe rabbit hole style.
You know the actual types ofmusic, but if you just focused
on the lyrics, let's just takeaway the music aspect and just
the lyrics.
There's.
My daughter and I were justhaving a conversation about the
(13:37):
how some songs are just nottheologically sound.
Yeah, and they're.
You know there's them becausethey're hearing them, like on
the radio or something, and thenthey're singing because it's
coming from like a good source.
They think that it's truth andso I don't think that
(13:59):
necessarily you can't enjoy apositive song just because it's
like.
You know there might be a songyou hear and it's like, oh,
that's fun and catchy orwhatever, and doesn't mean that
it's evil.
But my point isn't to teachyour kids to be like detectives
necessarily more.
Teach them the truth so thatwhen they hear something that
doesn't line up with what istrue, they can recognize it and
(14:21):
that they can be like hey, how'sthat one with what I know is
true about God's word or what Ihaven't talked about.
That's where when David listento the radio and he's like man,
that's not true, that's terrible.
That's not true.
He's like four.
He had missed for the lyrics ofthe song.
It wasn't right.
(14:42):
According you know, in the wayhe was interpreting it it wasn't
right and I was really proud ofhim for, like, being so upset.
Right, he was like my.
That is not true.
Why are they saying that ifit's not true?
Yes, christmas is just a greattime to fill your home with good
music and to share.
(15:03):
I mean, you can literally go topeople's front doors, knock on
their doors and sing at them thegospel.
You can sing in the gospel atpeople's faces or like you don't
even have to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Well, Right, go to a nursing home.
Yes, about your voice.
I remember I was looking uphere like how we can get into
nursing home.
I don't think we're going to beable to do it this year because
I haven't had enough time tolike, like you know, plan to go
there or whatever.
But in West Virginia I go everyyear with just me and my kids
(15:41):
and my husband and it's seen tothose older people and we didn't
sing very well because theywere all very little and we're
not the greatest singers, but wedid and they loved it and in
share some positive Christmasmusic and see the smiles on
their faces and stuff, it'sdefinitely worth it.
I was like trying to find aplace around here and I didn't
(16:05):
have good success with that yet,so maybe next year.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
So it's been probably three years since we've been
able to go to a nursing homebecause of COVID, so that was
like the worst thing in theworld.
It was super upsetting.
But this year actually, well,we're gonna be able to go to the
nursing home and Carol thisyear, yeah.
I was really excited when Ifound that out, that they're
gonna let us come back in, soit's a good thing.
(16:31):
My kids went caroling today fora little bit too, with the
church.
They did a couple places, nice,and there's just so much about
Christmas that is self-centeredand that is, even if it's not
necessarily bad, it misses thepoint and we can get so busy, so
(16:52):
stressed out, and I know, asmoms, and I know the majority of
the people listening to thisare the person in the household
who's probably doing the mostpreparation.
Yeah, yep, yeah, you'reprobably have that on your
shoulders and we can get very,very worn down by this season.
I know I can.
Some people just invigoratesand for some people it wears you
(17:12):
out, and I'm one of thosepeople that I really have to
know my limits when it comes toChristmas and what we can and
can do.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
And expectations you know like.
Realistically, I think ofthere's years where you can do
it all.
You know you can participate andyou can be there and you can do
the things.
But then there's other yearswhere you can't, and you have to
know that and you have to leteverybody in your family know
that.
I think that's one of thethings that happens is that we
(17:40):
feel like this pressure toperform, but we know that we
can't, so we get frustrated andwe don't let anyone know.
We don't let anyone know howwe're feeling or that we can't
do it.
There's just different times,there's different seasons where
you can't, when you have all thelittles and you or whatever,
it's harder to do all of thethings.
So you have to have thatexpectation and let other people
(18:03):
know your expectation of hey,I'd love to do this, but this
year we're only doing X, y and Z.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
So yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that,
especially when those thingsthat you're making time for are
the right things.
Yeah, and what's important toyou?
Like there's nothing.
Just because a tradition issilly or maybe isn't necessarily
like churchy, doesn't mean thatit's not important.
If your family's tradition isto all get matching pajamas and
(18:34):
watch a silly Christmas, maybethat's something that's
important to you.
Like that's okay to do thatover going to some big Christmas
festival or something that yousee in a Hallmark movie.
Like I'm afraid I need to dothese things, like I don't even
know.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
It's not real I always like if I watch one of
those things I'm always likeokay, first of all, if there was
really that amount of snow onthe ground, you'd be freezing.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Nobody would have thought they always walk around
with their coats and buttonsRight.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I mean they always have scarves like multiple
scarves.
That is true.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
That is true, we could pick apart.
If we could pick apart hams, wecould definitely sit and pick
apart at Hallmark movies for along time.
My point is Sorry, my point isChristmas music is one of those
things that you can fill yourhome, fill your holiday season
with.
You know it's good, it's simple, it doesn't take away, it only
(19:30):
adds.
And I personally have foundthat music in my home can be
such a game changer, whetherit's Christmas or not, when
we're having bad attitudes, whenI am getting depressed, when
everyone's getting frustrated,whatever Turning on good music
Can change the atmosphere ofyour home.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Okay, so we're gonna wrap this up before we go down
any more rabbit holes.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, we'll start talking about any more.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You know things.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Oh, this is us on our very, very best behavior.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Anyhow, if you want to bash Hallmark movies, give us
a call.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
We like them, we just thought something to turn them
apart.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
All right, well, merry Christmas and happy New
Year, because we're not gonna beon again till after the New
Year.
Happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
We are honored that you chose Simply Edified to be a
part of your day.
If this episode was a blessingto you, would you consider
subscribing to our podcast aswell as writing a review or
giving us a rating?
This would be such a help toour ministry.
We would love for other peopleto find us, and this is one of
the ways that they can Thank you.
Hello and welcome to Simply Edifies podcast.
Our goal is to encourage womenas we navigate the messiness of
life through biblical studies,personal stories and practical
tips that bolster our walk withJesus daily.
Thank you for joining us in ourepisode today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Merry Christmas everyone.
We are going to just talk aboutsome of our favorite hymns
Christmas hymns, in this episodeleading up to the week of
Christmas.
As my children informed meyesterday that we are a week out
, and I informed them that theybetter be expecting a very light
(00:40):
Christmas this year because I'mnot ready.
No, I'm not either.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
It's gone by so quickly and it just, it's just
like here, it's here.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I feel the whole year has just flown by.
I mean, there's been a lot ofthings that have happened in our
family as far as like movingand big things, but at the same
time it's like it just flew bylike way fast, way, way too fast
.
So here we are at the end ofDecember, going into our next
(01:12):
year and talking about Christmas.
We're going to sing for youtoday.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
No, I'm not.
No, we are not, I'm justteasing.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Having to listen to our talking voices is bad enough
, yeah you have to edit it.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So you don't want to have to listen to that.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Alithia asked me the other day.
She was like Mom, why don't youlike listen to your own podcast
?
I'm like because I actuallyspeak the podcast and then I
edit the podcast, and so by thetime I'm done with all of that,
I don't want to hear the podcastever again.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I never want to hear the sound of my own voice again.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Not that we don't enjoy it, we do.
Just we'll spare you the same.
That's the point of all, thatwe won't be long.
We spent the entire weekenddoing Christmas programs from
our church and our school.
So it has been three days ofChristmas program stuff and
actually weeks of it because ofpracticing at school.
(02:10):
So I am very Christmas hymnsright now.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
What is one of your top favorite?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Oh, we're talking about this before we started.
It's hard to narrow it down.
I really do love Christmasmusic and one of my favorite
albums to listen to you is theone you introduced me to your
college, which was the Von Trappfamily singers, grandchildren.
Yeah so like the real real VonTrapp, from the sound of music,
(02:41):
the real one, her grandchildren,great grandchildren.
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, I don't know if it's grandchildren or great
grandchildren, but yeah, justthese little voices yeah it's
adorable.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I found it on, like my Amazon music app and listen
to it and I love it.
But actual song.
I love the song in the BleakMidwinter because it's Moody and
I'm a little moody I think, andit's just very.
the music is really pretty, butI taught my kids and my students
(03:17):
we have learned that line andmy mom taught me the first.
I think it's the third versethat says what can I give him
for as I am, if I were ashepherd, I would bring him a
lamb.
If I were a wise man, I woulddo my part.
What can I give him?
I'll give him my heart.
I just think that's so simplebut so beautiful and really just
(03:41):
explains the importance ofChristmas and what is important
about Christmas in one littletiny verse.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Right, yeah, I like that one too, because it's just
like the melody in and of itselfis kind of soothing.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
It is.
It's like kind of almost alullaby.
Yeah, very beautiful and yeah,I like.
I love the songs that reallytalk about Christ as more than
just a baby and a manger.
That's something when I amtalking to kids, whether it's a
church or school or home, it's.
(04:19):
I'm like, guys, this is.
We sometimes forget that Jesusisn't still just a baby and a
manger.
That's what we talk about andsing about, but he's a real
person.
He is the king of kings.
He was.
You know, we go through allthat stuff, but so I like the
songs that have a little bitmore depth than like, oh, there
are some angels singing andthere was a baby in a manger and
(04:42):
right, those are usually funand pretty, but I just I like
the ones with a little bit moremeat to them.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, that's.
I chose O come, o come,emmanuel.
Because of that reason it is avery rich in prophetic Phrases
about Christ and what he woulddo when he came, but not just
from his first coming, his firstadvent, but also his second
(05:10):
coming.
Again the melody is more somber, it's a minor tone or whatever,
but it's the words are justvery rich and the truth found
throughout the scripture aboutChrist coming and what was the
significance of it.
So most people know the firstverse.
(05:30):
I'm just gonna read a few ofthe other verses because it's
not a very popular one but, likeI said, it's pretty rich.
So the second verse is O come,thou, rod of Jesse, free, fine,
own from Satan's tyranny, fromdepths of hell.
Thy people save and give themvictory or the grave.
(05:51):
And Then the next one is O come, thou dayspring, from on high
and cheer us by thy drawing nigh, disperse the gloomy clouds of
night and death's dark shadowput to flight.
O come, thou, key of David,come and open wide our heavenly
home, make safe the way thatleads on high and close the path
(06:13):
to misery.
O come, add on I, lord of might, who to thy tribes on Sinai's
height in ancient times Did givethy law in cloud and majesty
and off.
So those are just really rich intruth about who Jesus was and
why he came, not just as a babein a manger, but to die, to set
(06:39):
us free from the, the, as it wastalking about the tyranny of
death and Satan and hell, and ittalks about Jesus making a way
for us to To go on up to heavenwith him.
That's the whole point of hiscoming the first time.
And then it also talks abouthis return and coming to restore
(07:05):
and renew and you know it saysO come, o come, emmanuel, right,
and Emmanuel was the Jewishterm for the Messiah.
And Jesus obviously came as aJew to the Jewish nation first,
but he's not done with themright now.
As a gentile, I can come and Ican accept Christ as my Savior
(07:29):
and I have that open to me and Iam thankful and grateful for
that.
But he's not done with them.
And as, as believers, we needto remember that God still has a
special place in his heart forIsrael and he will restore them
to him, back to him in the end.
Those are just a few of thereasons why I like that song, my
(07:52):
daughter saying that with hergroup of kids at school.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
That was like many ages saying together, and so her
and a kindergartner in my classwere singing together and they
came back after practice andwe're like that's not just about
Christmas, that's not justabout Jesus coming back, and I
was like, yes, that was prettycool that they were being taught
(08:17):
that because I wasn't there, Iwas Actually got a break while
they were in practice, but justthat they learned just me.
And songs are so important Ithink we just talked about that
last week.
But songs are so importantbecause the kids kids really do
learn from them.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yes, we learned from them kids who, too, my husband,
I were just talking about thisactually last night, about, like
, modern Christmas songs, likeeven Christian ones, and how
Sometimes they just lack thedepth, you know, of the older
Christmas hymns, and we werejust discussing that and kind of
(08:57):
just comparing some of the thesongs and the hymns and stuff,
and really we were talking aboutlanguage itself.
We got to the point where, like, if this breaks down to
language itself, like ourlanguage has become so much
cheaper if I could use that wordlike our Vocabulary is
definitely Way lacking comparedto those a hundred years ago.
(09:20):
Plus we don't we don't.
The richness in our vocabularyand in our language and in our
thought process to express thesedeep and meaningful Ideas in
poetic form that can be sung,you know, and it's kind of sad,
it really is if you start usingwords that are a Little bit
(09:44):
outside of the scope of what isnormal people just stare at you
like what are you even talkingabout?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
These are words that like if you read a book.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I don't know you, probably it's not our like slang
vocab right.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yes, that's what I'm trying to get at.
Like if there's some depth, wekeep that, keeps that work.
He's coming up.
But like if there's like somedepth to it and more than just
space value, like there's theword has some depth of meaning,
then it's like a hit or misswhere there people in the room
are gonna be.
Like that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I don't know.
I've Obviously, you know, wehave our.
Everyone has their preferences.
But I just really love actuallydissecting the hymns that we
sing and kind of just Realizingthe truth behind them and how
(10:34):
the the writers themselves thisdidn't just come out of nowhere.
These people hold held thesetruth dear.
These people believed thesewords that they were Um putting
into music and some of them justinto poems.
We were talking also about Iheard the bells on Christmas Day
and that one is just.
(10:55):
You know, the story behind thathas become a little bit more
pop popular recently.
But yeah, that if you have achance and you haven't read the
history of Long fellow and whyhe wrote to him and all of those
things, I recommend you do thatbecause it meant something to
him, it wasn't just a prettyproblem.
(11:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Reconciling what he was seeing in reality a harsh,
bad reality and then what hebelieved in his heart Because of
his faith.
I get like so emotional everytime when it says God is not
dead nor death, he's asleep.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
The wrong shall fail the right prevail, with peace on
earth, good will to men.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, no, it's.
It's very rich, because I feelthat Most of us come to that
point in our life where we doquestion God, are you good?
And I see all of this horriblewickedness around and I see this
horrible things happening in mylife and that kind of just
Through that song, you see thatstruggle that he went through of
(12:07):
is God good?
Can?
He be trusted and and yes, theanswer is there.
Right will prevail, and yeah sojust things like that, just to
bring to memory if we alreadyknew, you know the background of
the song, just to bring it tomemory and if our kids don't
(12:27):
know it, to make sure that weshare that knowledge with them
and the meaning behind Some ofthe phrases in the words that we
sing.
You know?
Thou day spring on high.
Do you know what that isreferring to?
Thou were out of Jesse.
Do you know what that'sreferring to?
And where do we find that inthe scripture?
You know this is these are allOld Testament Prophecies of the
(12:52):
coming of the Messiah, and ourkids need to know that and we
need to know that, especiallynow, in this day and age where
everything is questioned in avery relevant and subjective way
.
We need to have some concretetruth and it needs to be
reinforced with our music.
So it's a great time to do that.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
It is, and I think that we let a lot of music into
our lives.
And I'm not going to go downthe rabbit hole style.
You know the actual types ofmusic, but if you just focused
on the lyrics, let's just takeaway the music aspect and just
the lyrics.
There's.
My daughter and I were justhaving a conversation about the
(13:37):
how some songs are just nottheologically sound.
Yeah, and they're.
You know there's them becausethey're hearing them, like on
the radio or something, and thenthey're singing because it's
coming from like a good source.
They think that it's truth andso I don't think that
(13:59):
necessarily you can't enjoy apositive song just because it's
like.
You know there might be a songyou hear and it's like, oh,
that's fun and catchy orwhatever, and doesn't mean that
it's evil.
But my point isn't to teachyour kids to be like detectives
necessarily more.
Teach them the truth so thatwhen they hear something that
doesn't line up with what istrue, they can recognize it and
(14:21):
that they can be like hey, how'sthat one with what I know is
true about God's word or what Ihaven't talked about.
That's where when David listento the radio and he's like man,
that's not true, that's terrible.
That's not true.
He's like four.
He had missed for the lyrics ofthe song.
It wasn't right.
(14:42):
According you know, in the wayhe was interpreting it it wasn't
right and I was really proud ofhim for, like, being so upset.
Right, he was like my.
That is not true.
Why are they saying that ifit's not true?
Yes, christmas is just a greattime to fill your home with good
music and to share.
(15:03):
I mean, you can literally go topeople's front doors, knock on
their doors and sing at them thegospel.
You can sing in the gospel atpeople's faces or like you don't
even have to do it.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Well, Right, go to a nursing home.
Yes, about your voice.
I remember I was looking uphere like how we can get into
nursing home.
I don't think we're going to beable to do it this year because
I haven't had enough time tolike, like you know, plan to go
there or whatever.
But in West Virginia I go everyyear with just me and my kids
(15:41):
and my husband and it's seen tothose older people and we didn't
sing very well because theywere all very little and we're
not the greatest singers, but wedid and they loved it and in
share some positive Christmasmusic and see the smiles on
their faces and stuff, it'sdefinitely worth it.
I was like trying to find aplace around here and I didn't
(16:05):
have good success with that yet,so maybe next year.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
So it's been probably three years since we've been
able to go to a nursing homebecause of COVID, so that was
like the worst thing in theworld.
It was super upsetting.
But this year actually, well,we're gonna be able to go to the
nursing home and Carol thisyear, yeah.
I was really excited when Ifound that out, that they're
gonna let us come back in, soit's a good thing.
(16:31):
My kids went caroling today fora little bit too, with the
church.
They did a couple places, nice,and there's just so much about
Christmas that is self-centeredand that is, even if it's not
necessarily bad, it misses thepoint and we can get so busy, so
(16:52):
stressed out, and I know, asmoms, and I know the majority of
the people listening to thisare the person in the household
who's probably doing the mostpreparation.
Yeah, yep, yeah, you'reprobably have that on your
shoulders and we can get very,very worn down by this season.
I know I can.
Some people just invigoratesand for some people it wears you
(17:12):
out, and I'm one of thosepeople that I really have to
know my limits when it comes toChristmas and what we can and
can do.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
And expectations you know like.
Realistically, I think ofthere's years where you can do
it all.
You know you can participate andyou can be there and you can do
the things.
But then there's other yearswhere you can't, and you have to
know that and you have to leteverybody in your family know
that.
I think that's one of thethings that happens is that we
(17:40):
feel like this pressure toperform, but we know that we
can't, so we get frustrated andwe don't let anyone know.
We don't let anyone know howwe're feeling or that we can't
do it.
There's just different times,there's different seasons where
you can't, when you have all thelittles and you or whatever,
it's harder to do all of thethings.
So you have to have thatexpectation and let other people
(18:03):
know your expectation of hey,I'd love to do this, but this
year we're only doing X, y and Z.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
So yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that,
especially when those thingsthat you're making time for are
the right things.
Yeah, and what's important toyou?
Like there's nothing.
Just because a tradition issilly or maybe isn't necessarily
like churchy, doesn't mean thatit's not important.
If your family's tradition isto all get matching pajamas and
(18:34):
watch a silly Christmas, maybethat's something that's
important to you.
Like that's okay to do thatover going to some big Christmas
festival or something that yousee in a Hallmark movie.
Like I'm afraid I need to dothese things, like I don't even
know.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
It's not real I always like if I watch one of
those things I'm always likeokay, first of all, if there was
really that amount of snow onthe ground, you'd be freezing.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Nobody would have thought they always walk around
with their coats and buttonsRight.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I mean they always have scarves like multiple
scarves.
That is true.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
That is true, we could pick apart.
If we could pick apart hams, wecould definitely sit and pick
apart at Hallmark movies for along time.
My point is Sorry, my point isChristmas music is one of those
things that you can fill yourhome, fill your holiday season
with.
You know it's good, it's simple, it doesn't take away, it only
(19:30):
adds.
And I personally have foundthat music in my home can be
such a game changer, whetherit's Christmas or not, when
we're having bad attitudes, whenI am getting depressed, when
everyone's getting frustrated,whatever Turning on good music
Can change the atmosphere ofyour home.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Okay, so we're gonna wrap this up before we go down
any more rabbit holes.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, we'll start talking about any more.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You know things.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Oh, this is us on our very, very best behavior.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Anyhow, if you want to bash Hallmark movies, give us
a call.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
We like them, we just thought something to turn them
apart.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
All right, well, merry Christmas and happy New
Year, because we're not gonna beon again till after the New
Year.
Happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
We are honored that you chose Simply Edified to be a
part of your day.
If this episode was a blessingto you, would you consider
subscribing to our podcast aswell as writing a review or
giving us a rating?
This would be such a help toour ministry.
We would love for other peopleto find us, and this is one of
the ways that they can Thank you.
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