Sing to the Lord: Why Your Child Needs More Than Nursery Rhymes

Posted on Apr 21, 2022 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Heather Green

There are some universal truths of parenthood:

One of the very best smells in the world is a newborn baby’s head.
One of the most adorable (and “hooray, now I get a nap too”) sights is a sweet baby, toddler, or kiddo sleeping.
There is no sweeter sound than a toddler singing.

It’s that last truth that especially fills my heart with joy: listening to a little person sing. I love hearing the little voices and the imperfect speech and the misunderstood words. Often, we start by teaching our kids something like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. The more ambitious among us might start with the ABCs (Trivia side note: Have you ever noticed those two songs are sung to the same tune?). How many of us moms, dads, and grandparents have sung any number of nursery rhymes on repeat trying to get our kids to sleep?

Each of my four kids has a favorite go-to song. My oldest daughter loves You Are My Sunshine, my oldest son loves Row, Row, Row Your Boat (and he’s also decided it is the favorite of my nine-month-old and sings it to her anytime she cries…aww!). When I had my third child, I started singing him It is Well with My Soul. Clearly, this isn’t a traditional nursery rhyme standby, but it filled me with a sense of peace during the seemingly endless nights rocking with him. I still think of it as his song, and now at three-and-a-half years old, he still requests it often at bedtime and can be heard singing it when he’s playing.

With that in mind, I amend my earlier statement: there is no sweeter sound than hearing a toddler singing a hymn to Jesus. I imagine it is the same way for Jesus when we are worshipping Him. Imperfect but heartfelt. Flawed but earnest. There is no sweeter sound to God than hearing any of His children of any age or stage singing to Him.

With this in mind, we developed a series of board books, Hymns for Little Ones, that teaches kids, even from a very young age, the importance of worship. (Not that there is anything wrong with a rousing round of Row, Row, Row Your Boat; I’ll always enjoy that with the kids) Hearing your child sing Amazing Grace will not only put a smile on your face but will also instill timeless truths about the faith, even though little ones can’t yet truly comprehend the depths of the words they are singing. What a blessing it is to hear them excitedly proclaim that nothing can take away their sin, except the blood of Jesus! They will remember these songs, hold onto the lyrics, and someday cling to these truths as they worship and walk with Him.