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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Heart of the Family - Introduction

Here's the conclusion...

In fact, a third experiment showed that humans are just as affected by music. Attitudes such as hostility, fatigue, sadness and tension decreased with classical and ‘designer’ music, but those same negative attitudes dramatically increased with ‘grunge rock’[i]. What exactly is ‘grunge rock’ you ask? You know, groups like Anthrax, Nirvana, and Electric Wizard; the same groups that the online music genome project, Pandora (www.pandora.com), categorizes as ‘Stoner/Doom Metal’. Hmmmm.

The beat of ‘grunge rock’ goes against the natural rhythms of our very own bodies. This conflicting beat triggers stress and results in feelings of hostility, fatigue, sadness and tension. No wonder the rats in the 3rd group started attacking each other. They had no break what-so-ever from this stress inducing racket! If indeed the popular motivational quote, ‘attitude is everything’ holds any truth, then music really does have a profound influence on life. It affects our very attitudes about life.

So what does all of this have to do with the family? Just this – the clamor of our world has had a significant impact on the heartbeat of today’s family. We are being bombarded by the disharmonic drum beats of a clamoring society and increasingly unable even to hear the heartbeat of God. How are we supposed to be families after God’s own heart when many families are focusing primarily on running the ‘rat race’? God himself cries out, “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!” (Deut 5:29). In the same way it is the cry of my heart that families would have the heartbeat of God within them, that they would fear their God and keep all of His commandments always; that they may not only run the race, but that they and their families would have victory over it! And it will be well with their children forever! Will your family be a family after God’s own heart or a family struggling to survive amongst the disharmony and non-synchronized clamor of our world?



[i] “The effects of different types of music on mood, tension, and mental clarity” (McCraty, Barrios-Choplin, Atkinson, Tomassino) Alternative Therapies, Volume 4, No. 1, January 1998



Coming Up Next: Home is Where the Heart is



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Seriously LOVE this . . . .