The musician Taken from the Sheepcote

The Musician taken from the Sheepcote

       II Samuel 7:8 states, “Now therefore so shalt thou say unto thy servant David, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel.”

       Every time I read this scripture about King David’s beginnings, I think of myself.  I was raised on an eighty acre farm about five miles east of Fort Scott, Kansas about a mile and a half from the Missouri state line.  No one in my family background was an important person.  As they say in Kansas, I was born a” nobody of nobody’s”.  No one knew me from “Adam’s off ox” because we were common crop farmers who ran a very small grade “C” dairy.  So, I truly was taken from the sheepcote to minister musically unto God.

       I grew up with my older sister Virginia and two older brothers David and Nathan.  When I was a little boy our family was very poor.  However, my parents always put us first.  We always went to school with starched jeans and spotlessly clean clothes!  We always had plenty to eat and the very best of what our parents possessed.  Since we always had what we needed, we didn’t even know how really poor we were.

       Dad worked on the farm and off the farm as a painter and carpenter.  My mother worked at the hospital as a nurse’s aid, and later after we were raised, she went back to school and became a licensed practical nurse.

       My first memories of going to church include my mother practicing songs with me and the preacher lifting me up on a chair behind the pulpit to sing special music about Jesus.  I have told you all this to remind all of you Christian musicians that your family’s musical training really matters.  No matter what you have or don’t have, the things that matter are not “things”.  I was given a Christian upbringing, and I was given every opportunity as a child to give my musical talents back to God.

       Mothers and fathers give your children an opportunity to develop their musical talents and give those talents back to God!  That is what really matters.  Children learn musically by doing.  If you want your sons and daughters to give their musical talents to God in adulthood, make sure their early memories of going to church include musicing unto God.