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For the tots
Probably some of you have now gone to school. You are growing bigger and you are working hard trying to learn to read and struggling to learn to write. Do you use blackboards and chalk? That is what I did a very long time ago. Or do you simply copy from something which is written above? Two letters which always seem to cause problems are 'b' and 'd' especially when we are printing.
Soon you will be able to use a Hymn Book and be able to read the words of the hymn you are singing. You will also be able to read bigger and bigger books and when you have finally mastered reading you will be able to read a Children's Bible with lovely pictures in it. You will possibly need help from mum or dad for a bit but you will have fun learning. Just you try very hard!
For the teens
Recently I read a book about a small community in Canada. Many of the young people were volunteering to go to war but one young lad was rejected because he had flat feet. Naturally he was disappointed and felt quite uncomfortable about being left at home. Later he did realise that with so many young people away there was a shortage of workers on the land. As a very young lad he had learned how to plough using a horse or horses as well as how to look after cattle and sheep. Soon he was doing very important work for the area in which he lived and began to lose some of his disappointment.
We sometimes want to do particular things but we are prevented because of a problem we have. Disappointing though that may be what we have chosen may not be what God has claimed for our life. I trust that you will all be successful but that you will also be happy with what you can do and not envy anyone who is better at certain things than you.
Goodbye to an old friend
When I was young, I remember coming to Church with my mother and father and once we had made our way to the usual pew, my mother would scan the board that tells us what hymns we would be singing that morning.
424 - That's 'O love that wilt not let me go' she would say.
309 - By cool Siloam's shady ril!
388 - Jesus shall reign where're the sun
535 - Onward! Christian soldiers
Every Sunday morning she would be able to identify at least two or three of the hymns on the board without looking up her book. I tended to find this a wee bit annoying because the only ones I could identify at that time were:-
660 - Jesus loves me and
704 - Yield not to temptation
As the years went by, I became more familiar with the numbers of my favourite hymns and carried on the tradition of annoying my own daughter with this procedure every Sunday morning.
Well.... Not any longer!
We have our new hymnbook and I couldn't tell you the new number of any of my favourite hymns but I'm pleased that most of them are still included alongside a whole lot of new ones that we'll be learning together over the coming years. Each of the Interim Moderators we have had over these past years suggested we move to the new hymnbook and now at last we have.
Hopefully some of the young folks that attend Church just now will be able to annoy their own children in years to come with their familiarity with the numbers up on the board.
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