Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
I had just spent over a week not being able to talk or sing and was working with my 8th grade band when suddenly in the middle of the lesson a thought came to me...
Wow! what a great job!
It was a funny thing to happen. It wasn't as if the class had been particularly well behaved or productive. I personally wasn't able to talk so there was no real way to quiet things down when the group started to talk a bit, except to wait. The kids noticed me waiting. The murmuring stopped with some hushes and shushes between them and we were on our way. Actually I rarely ask a group to quiet down. After over 23 years of teaching I've learned yelling over a class rarely helps the situation. That said, I realized that working with kids was more than telling them what to do. It's often times setting up kids to succeed on their own. We do that with our congregations. This last weekend we played a song that I knew many in our congregation probably would know better than our own music group because it is a popular tune on christian radio. My advice to the group was to not force the song. If a part is difficult for you to sing because it's not familiar and isn't an easily singable melody then let the congregation sing it and get out of the way. It worked. I could hear the congregation almost lead us through the song and frankly we were more just accompanying them. It's always a beautiful moment to hear the congregation sing that way.
Psalm 90, Fill Us With Your Love - Sheet Music