I want my sons to grow up believing that a grown man singing is one of the most natural sounds in the world.
It doesn’t have to be great singing. I’m no accomplished vocalist. Yet I don’t want my boys—or my daughter, for that matter—to ever think it’s strange for men to sing. Rather, it’s strange, and sad, when men don’t sing.
To my fellow dads, I’d love for you to consider with me what it might mean to put your fathering to song. What small but significant steps might you take toward making your home a more tangible place of happiness?
You don’t need to sing well to parent with song. We’re not talking about talented baritones and basses. Just singing. And of course, this isn’t just for dads. Moms have an indispensable part to sing as well, with unique potential to bring joy into the home through music and song.
First, consider two reasons why we would want to intentionally fill our homes with song, then a few practical ideas from a young father who’s finding his way. Even if you weren’t raised to sing, perhaps this is your chance to begin redeeming God’s marvelous gifts of music and song for your family.
Home Made Happier
When Daddy sings, the home is happier. Singing is the sound of joy in God. It is joy in God made audible. Singing around the house, in the car and as we go through life fills the air with joy, and helps to establish a family fellowship of warmth, rather than coldness. Dads who are man enough to sing contribute in significant measure to making theirs a happy home.
We Christians sing because we know a God who is indomitably happy (Psalms 115:3), even in the most trying of circumstances. Our God is a God who sings, even over us:
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
If Christians don’t sing, who will? Television talent contests fill with soloists raised in the church because non-Christians have fewer reasons to sing. Does an atheistic, agnostic, secular or pragmatic worldview inspire song? We find exceptions to the rule, but the exceptions accent the norm. Song is the language of praise when you worship a happy God.
