Beautiful Music and Other God-Given Gifts

As I sit at my desk, I'm listening to Saturday Morning Requests on Wisconsin Public radio. There's a rousing piano/choral fantasia that Beethoven wrote being performed right now. Music is a precious gift that the Lord has given each of us. No, we're not all Beethovens. But God has given us the ability to sing. This past week the fourth graders spent considerable time memorizing three songs for our Christmas service. These songs have been written specifically for this Christmas service written by Northwestern Publishing House, so the students were not familiar with them.

The children are putting their hearts into it...and they sound good. More importantly, the sweet message of the Gospel is being told in song. The students that take piano lessons are learning songs for their Christmas recitals. I hope that they will be able to play their songs for the class, too.

Another wonderful gift...creativity. The children cut symmetrical Christmas trees to decorate our classroom walls. They all started with the same supplies: A green piece of construction paper, scissors, and glue. If they followed the directions, they were able to produce two trees with little to no green paper wasted. The decorations they created are all very unique!

Teamwork is a another gift. The children have been working in groups to create bridges made with newspaper and two meters of masking tape. We've run two trials so far. There wasn't an opportunity to do any trials this past week because each day we had classmates out with sickness. I hope to get back to it this coming week. So far the strongest bridge supported 16 math books before it toppled.

Make your own slideshow design May God bless you this Advent season… Psalm 100:4-5 ========================= Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.