Delighting in Sound
Delighting in Sound
Last Friday we explored the beauty and delight found in fragrance. Today we will explore ten simple ways to make your home a rest and pleasure to the ears. Do comment with further suggestions!
1. Play beautiful music throughout your home. With modern music recordings, you can fill every room in the house with the beautiful strains of your favorite music. See the page About Me for a listing of my own favorite composers and singers.
2. Sing hymns and psalms as your work. What better way to praise the LORD as you go about your daily business? Singing (even if you can’t sing well - I should know) is lots of fun, and you can hardly maintain a grumpy attitude while you do it. Consider learning how to sing in harmony with your family, or hosting a monthly hymn-singing at your home or church. Sing a hymn (or two, or so....) every day after your family Bible study. A benefit to singing - in addition to the joy it brings to God, to others, and to yourself - is that your speaking voice will become more even and melodious.
3. Practice or learn to play an instrument. I deeply regret not learning to play the piano at an earlier age. Listening to beautiful music is a joy - what must making music be like! Bless your family and friends by filling the house with your music - perhaps every evening?
4. Hang wind chimes. We hung a beautiful little wind chime in our bedroom on the curtain rod, where it can catch an occasional breeze from the open window or the ceiling fan. It is so sweet and peaceful to hear its silvery ripples just as I am falling asleep each night.
5. Laugh more often. “Laughter is a smile that bursts.” A genuine laugh is one of the sweetest sounds in the world, routing Bach and Mozart in one swoop. It holds joy, contentment, humor - and power. One laugh is sufficient to transform a heavy atmosphere, and soon others will want to laugh also. A house ringing with happy laughter is a truly beautiful thing.
6. Cultivate a soft, sweet, and joyful tone of voice. Make a conscious effort to cleanse your voice of harsh, efficient, sarcastic, or moody tones. Think of how eagerly a family’s ears prick when they hear a gentle voice they know and love well.
7. Maintain pleasant speech. Do not allow yourself to bicker and argue, and encourage cheerful subjects. Avoid that which is negative, coarse, or repulsive. Let your speech be constructive, and not be wasted in idle or silly chatter.
8. Read poems or favorite storybooks aloud to your family. Here is an old-fashioned pastime that everyone loves. Turn off the television and the radio, and engage your imagination with words. An additional benefit is that your conversational voice will become more clear and fluent.
9. Pray aloud with your family and friends. Soulful prayer is a beautiful and personal thing, and many times we want to reserve it for private times. Still, praying aloud with your family is a wonderful way to bind your hearts together in the LORD, as well as to make yourself aware of the concerns and needs of those closest to you. If a friend has just shared a trouble, why not ask her to pray with you right then? It will be a tremendous blessing!
10. Listen to others. Sometimes we make too much noise. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. Does a sibling or friend have something to say? Stop and listen to them.
Text: Delighting In Sound. © Handmaidens of the Shepherd, September 2007.
Photograph: Violin. From the .Mac Pages program.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007