It may go without saying, but one of the easiest ways to learn or memorize something is by listening to music. Not only is that true for you, but it’s especially true for children. In fact, I remember songs from my childhood I wish I didn’t, and quite frankly, I wish I never heard. The kind of music your children hear will be with them forever! It is important that they listen to music that builds them up, edifies them, disciples them, teaches them about God, His Word and our beautiful heritage as Christians.
As one line in a Kid’s Praise song says, “The music of God’s family is our heritage and history.” Whether we sing scripture, “old-fashioned” hymns or contemporary worship music, they connect us to generations and generations of Christians who have sang to worship God throughout history and throughout world. The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is older, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). The easiest and fastest way to start training up your child in the way he should go is with music.
Whether you’re a mother, grandmother, church nursery worker, school teacher, aunt or fill any other role where you have an opportunity to influence children, you can easily start discipling children in your care simply by playing music. You can listen while you clean the house, drive around running errands, while the kids play in the nursery, the possibilities are endless (Deuteronomy 6:5-9). With the right music, you can start to teach children things that are good, true and beautiful. Things that will point them to Jesus. With that said, I would like to share some of my favorite, (non-cheesy) Christian children’s music that I know your kids will love and I’m sure that you will love too!
Seeds Family Worship
First up, is Seeds Family Worship. I first heard about Seeds on Carole Joy Seid’s podcast, Homeschool Made Simple and my family and I absolutely love it. As a Christian parent, Bible memory is one of my highest priorities and I couldn’t ask for an easier way to help my daughter memorize scripture than with Seeds word-for-word worship music. As they say on the Seeds website, “Kids who SING God’s Word, KNOW God’s Word.”
Kids Praise
Next, is none other than Kid’s Praise, one of the many fruits of the Jesus Movement. I also heard about Kid’s Praise on Carole Joy Seid’s Podcast, and boy am I glad she shared it. My daughter absolutely loves Kid’s Praise, and to be quite honest, I love listening to it as well. It is so well put together, I am often amazed at the creativity and all the unique touches they thought of. It’s intelligent, it’s creative and edifying. To put it simply, it’s discipleship for kids in music form.
Sovereign Grace Music
According to their website, “The mission of Sovereign Grace Music is to produce Christ-exalting songs and training for the Church from our local churches.” As a result, they have been producing music for 35 years including several children’s albums, which I believe clearly demonstrate the mission they have aimed for throughout the years. Their children’s albums include: Listen Up!, The Ology, Walking with the Wise, To Be LIKE Jesus, and Awesome God.
Rain for Roots
According to their website, “Rain for Roots is a collective group of musicians and songwriters who write singable Scripture songs for kids and grown-ups alike.” They have produced several albums including: Big Stories for Little Ones, The Kingdom of Heaven is Like This, Waiting Songs (Christmas Album), and All Creatures.
Watoto Children’s Choir
According to their YouTube Channel, “Watoto brings hope and healing to vulnerable women and children in Uganda and South Sudan through the love of Jesus Christ.” They have produced several albums including: Oh What Love, Signs & Wonders, and Lifted. Their most recent album is Better Days, and one of our favorite songs on that album is Rhythms of Your Grace.
Kingdom Kids
According to their website, “Kingdom Kids exists to equip families to teach their children to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly through singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in their hearts to God.” Kingdom Kids has produced several children’s albums including: Hymns, Psalms, and various Worship in the Word albums.
African Children’s Choir
The African Children’s Choir is a program of a larger organization called Music for Life. According to their website, “Our mission is to help Africa’s most vulnerable children today, so they can help Africa tomorrow. The children in the Choir represent the potential of the thousands of children in Africa who are trapped in the cycle of poverty.” Some of their albums include: Just As I Am, Rejoice, and Emmanuel.
Music is a Form of Discipleship
As I mentioned before, music is the most painless way to learn or memorize something. Therefore, it is the easiest way to teach or disciple someone. And that’s exactly why the world uses music to disciple your kids, make no mistake about that. Give something a catchy tune and it sticks like glue! That’s also why music plays a major role in marketing to children. All I have to say is, “Let it go!,” and you immediately know what I’m talking about.
As Selwyn Duke explained, “Plato asserted that the purpose of the arts was to help shape emotions properly, to take children too young to grasp virtues in the abstract and instill in them a passionate (feelings-based) attachment to virtue, so that they would become instinctively virtuous and fertile ground for the acceptance of reason’s dictates later on.” In a nutshell that is discipleship. That is what God tells us to do in Deuteronomy 6:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” –Deuteronomy 6:5-9, ESV
Regardless of the music you have your children listen to, it’s important to recognize the profound power and influence music has, whether for good or for evil. To counter the sway this world wants to have on your children, start teaching your children the music of God’s family!