Spilled Milk and Jesus Songs

Last week  was VBS week here in our hometown.  All three of my kids attend “camp,” while I volunteer to teach.  Every year, I claim that it’s the last year I’ll teach, yet every year, I find myself signing up again in April.  By the end of the week, though, I know why I waffled.  It just feels good to be involved in such a great program. It’s an innocent, fun week.  And, since our summer schedule means that we rarely make it to church on Sundays, we could all use a little more religion in our lives.

As a family, our absolute favorite part of VBS every year is the music.  Each family who attends gets a copy of the CD with each grade’s songs.  We pop the CD in the minivan and have a family singalong every time we head out.  When my husband gets behind the wheel, he turns down the volume and looks at me,  “Listening to Jesus songs again, huh?”

We laugh and watch as the kids teach each other their moves for the songs their classes have learned.  As is typical in our family dynamic, our youngest, my four-year-old daughter, is the most passionate about her performance.  She sings with as much feeling and expression as a soap opera star holding a dramatic pause.  While I pray that her ear for music will develop and she’ll eventually be able to carry a tune, I still love listening to her shout out the words while she throws her whole body into the motions.

She was doing just that at the breakfast table this week.  She was performing her song, “You, you, you,” over a bowl of cereal.  Her lyrics are:

You, you, you, You can trust God

You can take Him at His word, and give Him your heart.

You, You, You, You can trust God.

You don’t have to be the fastest, strongest,

You don’t have to hold your breath the longest,

You don’t have to be a star.

It doesn’t matter who you are.

Raise your hands and repeat after me,

You can trust God, definitely!

It’s a cute song.  Perfectly fitting for the 4-year-old classes.  Only, as she belted out the words, “You don’t have to be the fastest, strongest,” she reached out her little fists and pretty much punched her cup of milk across the dining room table.  It sailed across the wood table top, then toppled and spilled its contents all over the table, floor and rug.

Par for the course in a household with kids, I grabbed the paper towels and started sopping up the mess.  My two boys, however, have honed their song-writing skills for just these occasions.  They know every alternate verse for “Jingle Bells, Batman smells,” and “Joy to the World, that Barney’s dead,” among others.  They saw this as the perfect moment to chime in.

Now, when my daughter’s VBS song comes on in the car, they all sing along:

You don’t have to be the fastest, strongest.

You don’t have to punch your milk the farthest.

You don’t have to wipe up anything.

It doesn’t matter how you scream.

Raise your hands and repeat after me,

You can spill milk, most definitely!

Sigh.  At least we got our one week of Jesus songs and religion in this summer.  Till next year, we’ll just have to balance our trust in both God and super absorbent paper towels.