SING
The Choir Room
“Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”
Ephesians 5:18-19 · KJV
The Choir Room was added to the household in the fourth generation, after the Civil War, and has held the same upright oak piano ever since. Sunday afternoons are for singing. The hymn book on the bench was hand-copied by the fifth generation in warm brown ink and is still corrected each generation.
Music enters the house not as performance but as devotional practice. The visitor is invited to sit and listen, or to sing with the household. The instruments are cared for by hand.
The Hymn of the Day is set here every morning before breakfast and rings out through the kitchen wall.
“A hymn was sung here yesterday. A hymn will be sung here tomorrow. I could sing along.”
A prompt for the household
“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.”
Colossians 3:16 · KJV
Before you leave the Choir Room today, sing one line of a hymn under your breath — not for anyone else, not for practice, only for the Lord who hears it. If you cannot carry the tune, hum. The angels are not marking your notes; they are noting the direction of your heart.
Family and community
The Choir Room is where the household has always sung imperfectly and together. When a child cannot yet read the words, they will still learn the tune from you — sing the hymn slowly, the same one each week, until the child holds it in their bones. When a neighbour comes in grieving, the piano is enough. Play softly. Silence is also a hymn.
Sing praises to God, sing praises.
Psalm 47:6 · KJV