Colossians 3:16 — 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.
Did you realize that singing is not optional? Well it isn’t! Paul makes it clear … we have a duty to teach and admonish each other in our singing. Harry Ironsides says “as thus controlled by the Word of God, our lives will be lyrical and our hearts filled with melody, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.” I know what he’s talking about — since I became a Christian I have found myself singing more and more, which is a funny thing …

Here’s the thing. When I was about nine years old. I was humiliated in a singing lesson. There was some joking around going on and the teacher decided to make an example of someone. I was called to the front of the class, shouted at, and told to sing the song on my own — which of course I couldn’t. It was six years and a different school before I had gained enough confidence to be an unobtrusive occasional part of a school chorus.

I sang a bit in college, but somehow singing wasn’t a natural part of my daily life … and now I know it should have been.

What’s really sad, of course, is that there’s nothing unique about what happened to me. I’m sure some of the people reading this piece have had similar experiences. Knowing that, I was fascinated to read of research conducted at Northwestern University that showed that singing on key is, to a great extent, a learnable skill. Here’s what I read:

Children who have been told they can’t sing well are even less likely to engage with music in the future and often vividly remember the negative experience well into adulthood. Being called “tone deaf” can have devastating effects on a child’s self-image, the researchers wrote in the study. … Singing on key is likely easier for some people than others. “But it’s also a skill that can be taught and developed, and much of it has to do with using the voice regularly,” one of the researchers said. “Our study suggests that adults who may have performed better as children lost the ability when they stopped singing.” 

(You can see more details at:

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2015/01/cant-sing-keep-atit.html#sthash.npFTI6ka.dpuf)

So what do I draw from this? Three things.

First, God wants us to sing — so anything that gets in the way is ungodly.

Second, if you don’t think you can sing, sing anyway. Practice makes perfect (or at least, makes it better).

Third, don’t let anyone get away with discouraging a child you know from singing — especially if it’s the Lord’s song. Sing along!