The Musician Taken from the Sheepcote

The Musician Taken from the Sheepcote

       2 Samuel 7:8, “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 five miles east of Fort Scott, Kansas about a mile and a half west of 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 nobodies” and no one knew me from “Adam’s off ox” because I was the last child born to a crop farmer who ran a very small grade “C” dairy. 

       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 but our parents always put us first.  My brothers and I 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 did not know how really poor we were.         Dad worked on the farm and off of the farm as a painter and carpenter.  My mother worked at the hospital as a nurse’s aide, and later after we were raised, she went back to college and became a licensed practical nurse.

       My first memories of going to church include my mother practicing songs with me and praying 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 parents that your children’s musical training really matters.  No matter what you have or do not have, the things that matter are not “things”.  Whatever it takes, make sure that your children receive a quality music education and that you provide them opportunities to give their musical talents back to the God who gave them to your children. 

        I am grateful that Dr. John I. Page and his wife Virginia took me to church fellowship meetings and to retirement communities to sing the gospel as a little child.  I was extremely blessed to have a pastor and his wife that cared about a little boy who had some musical talent.  I am also grateful that in July of 1967 Dr. Page invited me to an altar of prayer where I confessed my sins and wept my way into the loving arms of my forgiving Savior Jesus Christ.  I will forever be thankful that I was given a Christian upbringing, and that as a child I was given musical training and many opportunities to give my musical talents back to God.

        I believe that every child is given musical talent by our loving heavenly Father. Mothers and fathers you have the responsibility to give your children an opportunity to develop their musical talents and at an early age give those talents back to God!  That is what really matters because 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 Him.