A Hymn by Watts

I was redoing my RA bulletin boards today, and I came across an old hymn text by Isaac Watts that I put up on my "serious" Christmas board. It's not a Christmas song by any means, but the words stuck out to me, and I wanted to pass them along to my girls who might read the board, and any of you who read my blog. May it be a blessing to you!

Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,

With all Thy quick’ning powers;

Kindle a flame of sacred love

In these cold hearts of ours.

Look how we grovel here below,

Fond of these trifling toys;

Our souls can neither fly nor go

To reach eternal joys.

In vain we tune our formal songs,

In vain we strive to rise;

Hosannas languish on our tongues,

And our devotion dies.

Dear Lord! and shall we ever live

At this poor dying rate?

Our love so faint, so cold to Thee,

And Thine to us so great?

Come, Holy Spirit, heav’nly Dove,

With all Thy quick’ning powers;

Come, shed abroad the Savior’s love

And that shall kindle ours.

Ready for Christmas

It's down to 1 1/2 weeks until Christmas break, and you can tell it. In the meantime, we resort to Christmas decorating when we don't feel like studying. 

Tonight is going to be the best ever - Christmas Lighting Ceremony and Carol Sing! Yes! So wonderful to dress up warmly and go stand out in the cold and sing Christmas songs, all the meanwhile wishing there was snow on the ground... 

Hymn Arranging

This semester I started arranging my second hymn solo for piano (with the help of my teacher to help me make it even better). Just this week I think have finally finished it, and I am excited to be playing it for an offertory at church tomorrow. The arrangement is Here is Love, originally by Robert Lowry. Feel free to get in touch with me if you would like to view a copy of it. :)

I am finding it very exciting to arrange my own songs... it makes it even more fun when you realize that there are two of me... Well, two pianists with the exact same name and at the same college. Only difference is that the other one is piano faculty, and I am just a senior with a music minor... I've started putting my middle initial on my arrangements to differentiate them, although that could still be problematic since we both have the same middle name too.

Well, happy day to you all.