Do the hymns you sing at church seem like just a formal routine that you get through at the beginning of each service while trying to manage little ones hanging on you and flipping through hymnals they can’t yet read? Do the lyrics pass under your glance and roll off your tongue without really doing anything for your soul?
Or do these great songs of the faith express the struggles and desires of your heart? Are they so much a part of you that you sing them at home as you go about your busy mom days?
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” – Col 3:16
Congregational singing and church specials can be a wonderful way to “teach and admonish” each other as believers, but this verse reminds us that our singing should be primarily to the Lord, “in our hearts.” This means not only singing in church, but lifting up our voices to God as we go about our days. If that’s not your habit already, how can you start?
Eph. 5:18–19 remind us that being filled with the Spirit comes before “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,” so the first step is making sure we’re right with God and abiding in Christ. But if you’re like me, one of the biggest obstacles to singing is just remembering to do it. What if we had an arsenal of hymns ready to go for whatever frame of mind we were in, or for different activities throughout the day? Then we could be ready to sing while washing dishes, walking around the house, or thinking about a problem that’s bothering us. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather face the day with the truths of those songs running through my head and heart than with my own grumpy thoughts.
As English speakers, we have a treasure of many thousands of wonderful psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to choose from. You might start by trying to learn by heart some of the ones you sing in church. You can easily look up the lyrics for your favorites in one of the excellent hymn resources online (hymnary.org, thehymnalproject.com, and happyhymnody.wordpress.com). But I find it’s helpful to also have a hymnal at home to flip through and find new ones without having to stare at a screen. If you don’t have a hymnal already, you could buy one of those used at your church or get one of my favorites (Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs and The Rejoice Hymnal).
To give you a simple place to start, I’ve created a roundup of ten of my favorite hymns that help me meditate on different truths. I’ve tied each of them to an emotion or circumstance we might face as moms, so you can start with the ones most applicable to you—but they’re all so good, I hope you’ll try to learn them all!
Today we’ll just look at the first three, but you can go ahead and grab your free printable with the lyrics for all ten here:
1. Facing Fear: A Mighty Fortress
What Mom doesn’t face fear at least occasionally? Some find it easier than others to shove aside the paranoia that attempts to drown us when we think of all the ways our children could have their lives, safety, health, or innocence taken away. It’s like a dangerous undertow in an otherwise peaceful river, always threatening—it’s one reason that once you become a mom, life is never the same again.
Sometimes you might be able to go days or weeks ignoring the thought of all those possibilities. But then there are those moments when the enemy is knocking at your door and you are blindsided by the raw terror that this will be the day you lose your child. Or your own life. Or your home. Or whatever you particularly love and fear to lose. What then? Is there any refuge when the trickling current becomes a mighty flood of mortal ills?
Yes, there is.
A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing;
Our helper he, amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
Does seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord Sabaoth his name,
From age to age the same;
And he must win the battle.And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God has willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure;
One little word shall fell him.That Word above all earthly powers
No thanks to them abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still;
His kingdom is forever!– Martin Luther, “A Mighty Fortress”
What if instead of giving in to worry and anxiety, we started singing this song and meditating on the power of God and His unconquerable truth? I wonder how many trials, persecutions, and tragedies Christians have been carried through in the last 500 years by doing just that.
2. Overwhelmed: Day by Day
Another great temptation we face as moms is to give in to the feeling of overwhelm rather than submitting to God’s providence and asking Him what is the next right thing to do. It seems like there are too many rooms to clean, too many meals to cook, too many voices to process, and too many character flaws to work through—the children’s and ours. Maybe we’ve set life goals or yearly goals or weekly goals, but they seem impossible to reach because it’s just all too much.
The solution isn’t to cover our feelings, complain, or cave in, but to commit ourselves to the Lord. When we realize that the Lord Himself holds all our tomorrows, we can trust them to Him and simply submit to His will for today.
Day by day and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what he deems best–
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.Ev’ry day the Lord himself is near me,
With a special mercy for each hour;
All my cares he gladly bears and cheers me,
He whose name is Counselor and Pow’r.
The protection of his child and treasure
Is a charge that on himself he laid:
“As your days, your strength shall be in measure”–
This the pledge to me he made.Help me then in ev’ry tribulation
So to trust your promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation
Offered me within your holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when, toil and trouble meeting,
E’er to take, as from a father’s hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the promised land.– Carolina Sendell, “Day by Day”
Imagine singing this the next time you start feeling overwhelmed, and being comforted to know that “He whose heart is kind beyond all measure” is giving you today “what He deems best.” Even better, go ahead and download, print out, and post up the hymn text somewhere in your home so you’ll be ready to sing the next time overwhelm surges in.
3. Weary: We Dwell with the King for His Work
Weary moms understandably long for rest, recharge, and refreshment. Decades of psychological dogma have convinced us that we have a fundamental need for self-fulfillment and time to pamper ourselves, away from the constant demands of preschoolers (or older kids acting like preschoolers). And yes, as someone who has hardly gone a day in the last fourteen years without changing diapers, I can sympathize.
But mamas, this work we are doing is not meaningless or inferior. Changing diapers or cooking meals or cleaning up the same mess for the thousandth time, if it’s the work the King has chosen for us, is infinitely more valuable than anything we could choose for ourselves.
In the middle of a long genealogical record in I Chronicles is an obscure verse that reminds us that even the mundane is valuable when it is done for a king (and by analogy, for the King):
These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work. – I Chr. 4:23
This next hymn is based on that verse, though it’s sometimes called “We Have a Most Glorious King.” I can’t even remember where I found this treasure, since it doesn’t seem to be in any of my collection of old hymnals, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard it sung before. But somehow I did find it several years ago, and it became one of my favorites.
Even though I loved the words, there were a couple of doctrinal problems in the text, and the tune didn’t quite seem to fit. So I adjusted it slightly and made up a new tune that I’ll try to record for you soon:
We have a most glorious King;
The heavens, He says, are His throne;
All worlds are His mighty domain,
All kingdoms His scepter shall own.
He dwells with His people below,
He loves in their trials to share;
We dwell with the King for His work,
His burden we willingly bear.I’m dwelling with Jesus my King;
I’ve found where He dwells with His own;
I’ll trust Him with all of my heart,
My body His temple alone.
Like Mary I sit at His feet,
Like John I recline on His breast;
His presence is fulness of joy,
His bosom is infinite rest.I dwell with the King for His work,
I’ve part in His glorious plan
To seek first the kingdom of God
And tell His salvation to man.
The world has its work and rewards,
I count them but folly and loss;
My business is only His work,
My message is only His cross.I dwell with the King for His work,
The work, it is His and not mine;
He plans and prepares it for me
And fills me with power divine.
So duty is changed to delight,
And prayer into praise as I sing;
I dwell with my King for His work
And work in the strength of my King.We’ll dwell with the King for His work
And work thru each day of the year.
Perhaps ere it passes, the King
In glory Himself shall appear.
Oh, then in some closer embrace,
Oh, then in some nobler employ
We’ll dwell with the King for His work
In endless, unspeakable joy!– A.B. Simpson, “We Dwell with the King for His Work”
Refreshed by Responding in Song
I don’t mean to imply that just singing a hymn now and then will solve all our problems with fear, overwhelm, or weariness. God will often lead us to other remedies—sharing our struggles with a godly mentor, cutting out unnecessary clutter in our lives, or just getting more sleep.
But obeying His command to speak to ourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs can be a great first step. It helps us get in the right frame of mind so that we can trust Him to take care of and lead us. And it’s a great everyday practice, strengthening us to keep up the habits that we know He wants us to do.
If you want to begin building this habit, don’t forget to download your free copy of the lyrics to all ten hymns in this series:
