Archive for the 'Children' Category

God Feeds His Children

Published August 8, 2011 Children , Family , Food and Drink , Home Leave a Comment

This quote is from a collection of text studies arranged for the church year and published in the 1850s and 1860s. They were compiled from the Harmony of the Gospels by the Lutheran theologians Martin Chemnitz, Polycarp Leyser, and Johann Gerhard, published from 1593 to 1652. This section is on the Gospel for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, Mark 8:1–9, which is talking about the disciples’ lack of trust that Jesus could provide food for 4,000 as he had for the 5,000.

Let us also recognize our own lack of trust, which frequently tends to plague us in household affairs, when perhaps God grants more children and entrusts a larger family to us for their maintenance. Then these kinds of words are commonly heard: Where will I get enough bread to satisfy this bunch? Where will I get the money and the means, so that in such a precarious situation I will be able to take care of me and my own? But trust in God—He, who gives fodder for the cattle and for the young ravens, who call on him (Ps 147:9)—He will also nourish you. Say to your hearts: Why do you torment yourself with useless worries? God is your Creator; he has given you your body and soul; he will also give you food.

Echt evangelische Auslugen der Sonn- und Festtags-Evangelium des Kirchenjahrs,
übersetzt und ausgezogen aus der Evangeliien-Harmonie
der lutherische Theologen M. Chemnitz, Polyk. Leyser und John. Gerhard.
Vierter Band. 1864. p. 113

Worship Conference

Published July 26, 2011 Children , Hymnody , Worship Leave a Comment

There are no words which can adequately describe the experience of attending the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts. The best I could do would be to encourage you to view online the two services which were held on the Martin Luther College campus in the Chapel of the Christ. Of course, it’s not quite like being there, but maybe it gives you some idea.

The theme of this year’s conference was handing down the Lutheran heritage to the next generation. WELS President Mark Schroeder, who was just re-elected to another term today, wrote in his introductory letter to the conference:

Lutherans have been blessed with a rich heritage—an astounding array of spiritual treasures, passed down to us over the centuries through faithful Christians who have gone before us. It’s a biblical heritage that grounds us firmly on the Words of Scripture. It’s a confessional and theological heritage that connects us to faithful confessors and to the church of all ages. And it’s a liturgical heritage that respects our roots and values commitment to worship that focuses on the proclamation of the gospel in all its beauty.

We Lutherans today are the beneficiaries and recipients of such a rich heritage. But blessings such as those we’ve received bring with them a solemn responsibility. Our heritage is one to be treasured for ourselves to be sure, but it is also one that we will want to pass along to the next generation of Lutheran Christians. By treasuring this heritage for ourselves, we keep the gospel of Jesus Christ as the focus of our worship and of our efforts to bring the good news of Christ to a fallen world. By passing this heritage to the next generation, we take our place in a long line of faithful witnesses, as “one generation commends [God's] works to another” (Psalm 145:4).

Throughout the week, this theme was expressed in several ways, most notably in the keynote address, in the 48 voice children’s choir assembled for the conference, and in a number of the presentations.

It was under this theme that I presented the topic of “Hymns in the Life of Church, School, and Home.” I maintain that the church’s song—especially her hymns—provides us with a vehicle for passing the faith on to the next generation. This happens when these songs not only provide musical accompaniment for the proclamation of the gospel in corporate worship, but especially when these hymns accompany the lives of the church’s members. It starts with children at a very young age; when hymns are learned young and learned well, they provide for a lifetime of comfort and strength.

I have created a web page with all kinds of information related to this topic. There you can find links to all the books, presentations, CDs, etc that I referred to in my presentation. On the page you can also view the slides I used. Keep in mind that the slides are not the presentation itself; they were mainly used to illustrate the stories I used to make various points. If you click through the slides you will see various images, videos, and audio clips. Over the next several days I hope to post a few of the stories to which those slides refer.

Hymns and Children

Published July 1, 2011 Children , Hymnody , Worship Leave a Comment

Yesterday I heard an interesting segment of Issues, etc, on teaching hymns to children. You can listen to the segment here.

This covers some of the same ground that I will be presenting in a few weeks at the WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts in St. Peter, MN.  Here is a description of my presentation:

A Lutheran hymnal is a rich devotional resource that deserves to be used in every church, school, and especially, in every home. Already at a very young age, children are capable of learning hymns and participating in worship. These hymns provide solid teaching and strong comfort for Christians, young and old alike. This presentation provides practical and inspiring ideas and anecdotes for teachers, parents, pastors, and all who influence children and worship.

After the conference, I will post my presentation and materials here. But I’m looking forward to seeing some of you in Minnesota in just a few weeks.

Lord, Have Mercy

Published June 7, 2011 Children , Devotions 1 Comment

Our practice of home devotions has evolved over the last several years. Naturally, as the children have grown, our devotions have grown as well. The tricky thing, I suppose, with a family that spans several ages, is to find something that engages the older kids and that the little ones can also participate with. We’ve tried Bible story books (some have worked well) and devotional books (not as well, because they’re usually written for a specific age group).

We take time for this at bedtime, so nighttime prayers have always been included. “Now I lay me down to sleep…” and Luther’s evening prayer. Sometimes we have also sung hymns, at devotion time or after the kids were in bed. But I was seeking something more. Perhaps, I thought, we could follow something like Luther’s orders for morning and evening devotion in the Small Catechism (which I have written about here). Or, perhaps we could use elements of hymnal services like Vespers (Evening Prayer) or Compline (Prayer at the Close of Day).

So I compiled two brief orders of evening devotion, one based on Vespers and one on Compline. It’s quite abbreviated, so that each one fits on a half sheet of paper, front and back. It has actually worked rather well. The kids were already familiar with music for Compline, and the short responses for both of them.

I have long maintained that a strength of liturgical worship is how it allows even little children to participate through the rich repetition, especially with brief responses like, “Lord, have mercy, “Alleluia,” and “Amen.” I should not have been surprised to find that this same strength applies to worship around the family altar.

It seems that the kids’ favorite part of these devotions are the prayers in our “Evening Prayer” order. It is very similar to the Kyrie on p. 59 in Christian Worship, though I took some of the petitions from its counterpart in the Lutheran Service Book. The response is the same every time: “Lord, have mercy.” Isaiah (4) and Miriam (2) sing it the loudest. It’s simple enough for the youngest to participate fully, but these words are so far from being trite or trivial.

Evening Hymn

Published April 12, 2011 Children , Family , Hymnody , Music 3 Comments

I can visually remember the words of the hymn up on the overhead in Mrs. Kraus’ first grade classroom. “Lord Jesus, who dost love me…” I can also remember having difficulty finding the hymn in the hymnal at home because we didn’t learn the first stanza.

Those final two stanzas of Paul Gerhardt’s evening hymn, “Now Rest Beneath Night’s Shadow” have probably been sung in our home more than any others. I have sung them to the all kids at bedtime since they were born. I have also sung these stanzas frequently in hospital rooms and in the sick room.

Tomorrow evening our school kids will be singing this hymn during our Lenten Compline service at church. They have been learning it and practicing it at school, and we’ve been singing it at night before bed.

I took one year of piano lessons in grade school, and a few lessons here and there since then. I’ve always wished I had stuck with it, and I’ve always had a strong desire to at least be able to play hymns. For many years now I have spent considerable time at the piano playing through hymns, often slowly and with many mistakes. Since we have had a piano in our home, I have been able to play much more regularly, and there are at least a handful of hymns that I can play fairly well. This evening hymn is one of those. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to be able to accompany my children and sing these words with them.

Now rest beneath night’s shadow
The woodland, field, and meadow;
The world in slumber lies.
But you, my heart, awaken,
With prayer and song be taken;
Let praise to your Creator rise.

The rule of day is over
And shining jewels cover
The heaven’s boundless blue.
Thus I shall shine in heaven,
Where crowns of gold are given
To all who faithful prove and true.

Lord Jesus, since you love me,
Oh, spread your wings above me
And shield me from alarm.
Though Satan would assail me,
Your mercy will not fail me;
I rest in your protecting arm.

My loved ones rest securely,
For God this night will surely
From peril guard your heads.
Sweet slumbers may he send you
And bid his hosts attend you
And through the night watch o’er your beds. (CW 587)

Baptized into Christ

Published January 21, 2011 Baptism , Children 1 Comment

On Sunday, January 9th, Joanna was baptized into the name of the Triune God. This was also the First Sunday after the Epiphany, on which we observed the Baptism of our Lord. Since we had family in town for the baptism, we decided to have the group sing in the service. We sang Kevin Hildebrand’s setting of “God’s Own Child I Gladly Say It.” The kids sang the first stanza, the adults sang stanzas two and four, and the congregation joined in on stanzas three and five. The video below is the first stanza. It was recorded from the back of church, where the piano and clarinet were playing, but you can still hear the kids singing.

Joanna Eveline

Published December 28, 2010 Children , Family 5 Comments

Today at 11:24am, we welcomed Joanna Eveline Caauwe into our family. She weighed 8lbs, 5 oz., and was 20 inches long. She did break our “girl…boy…” pattern, but she gets us into the “four daughter” club—an exclusive group of families that have the privilege of raising four girls. I can think of a few closely related families which have that distinction.

I was reminded today what a treasure and a gift each child is. One might be tempted to think that the birth of the sixth might be less remarkable, as though “cheaper by the half-dozen” somehow made Joanna just “one more.” But it is never that way. My vocation as parent is not simply “child x 6″. With each child the complexity and privilege of this calling multiplies exponentially.

Our intent is that Joanna will be born again by Word and Water on January 9th, when we also observe the First Sunday after the Epiphany, the Baptism of our Lord.

I have a gallery of pictures up here, which you can subscribe to if you would like to be notified when I add more.

http://gallery.me.com/caauwejw#100717

Ultrasound

Published August 3, 2010 Children , Family Leave a Comment

This morning I had the privilege of accompanying my bride to an ultrasound appointment. Yes, in early January we will be expecting our sixth child.

I was just about to write about the fact that no matter how many I see, it always becomes real for me when I see the little fingers moving around. Then I thought to myself that I might have written something like that. Here’s what I posted on September 22, 2008, when we saw Miriam for the first time:

Today we got to see ultrasound images of our littlest one. We’ve seen plenty of ultrasound pictures, but seeing those little arms and feet moving around never gets old. It always amazes me to see four chambers of the heart and a cross section of this or that, or to measure the skull or abdomen. But what always gets me are the little fingers and toes.

The remarkable thing is that it gets me every time, but the reason that it does (I think) is because each new child is a new child. Yes, they have so many similarities and they do so many of the same things. But the thing that gets me about the whole things is just how different and unique they all are. Nearly every day I marvel at some unique trait of one of the kids. And that uniqueness starts now. This baby at 18 weeks is not same as any of the others.

Seeing a new baby squirming around in the womb brings home to me the reality that—God-willing—I will now have the opportunity to get to know a brand new member of our family. It reminds me that my vocation as father just got bigger. It reminds me that God has heaped upon me and my family yet another blessing from his gracious hand.

Let the Children Come

Published January 23, 2010 Children , Devotions Leave a Comment

As I was getting ready for bed this evening, I turned to today’s selection from the book of devotions I am reading this year, called To Live with Christ by Bo Giertz. The devotions are arranged by the church year, not the calendar year. But it seems like it could have been written specifically for today, the 37th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision.

Friday after the Second Sunday in Epiphany
“Let the children come to Me; do not hinder them.” Mark 10:14

This was a severe reprimand to the disciples. They thought children should wait until they were able to understand what the sermon was all about. That would be soon enough. But the parents wanted the right thing for their children.

Being a parent is one of the greatest gifts God can give. It’s also one of the greatest tasks you could ever undertake. Having a child together allows parents to share in God’s creative work. We couldn’t live here on earth or be God’s children eternally if the parents of countless generations before us had not labored with their own children and even given their lives for their children. Now it may be our turn to bring life into the world. We cannot take this task lightly.

God put us here in an immense generational context. Of course, not everyone is called to be a parent. Not everyone gets married and is gifted with children. But if you get the chance, you can’t deny children their right to live. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? You can’t exchange the life of one child as payment for the luxuries you want to provide another. Jesus says, “Let the children come to Me.” It’s awe-inspiring. The first condition for being able to be a child of God and share all the joy that is the meaning of life, now and in eternity, is that there are people on earth who are willing to take upon themselves the task of parenting.”

One wonders just how many little children have been hindered, not just those who have been killed by abortion, but those who have never had the chance to “come to Jesus” because of a negative attitude toward God’s gift of life, marriage, sex, and children, which pervades our culture and society, of which Roe v. Wade is just one part. Kyrie eleison.

[Quote from: Bo Giertz, To Live with Christ. Concordia Publishing House: St. Louis, 2008. pp. 121,122.]

Christmas Medley

Published January 2, 2010 Children , Music 2 Comments

For those of you who haven’t seen this on Facebook or YouTube, here is a little video of the kids singing a few Christmas songs. We got a new video camera for Christmas, and it’s perfect for exactly this kind of thing. Hope you enjoy, especially Isaiah and Lydia’s “Dueling Christmas Carols.”

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