Three Daughters of Heman - Developing Talents (2)

Learn to sing, play, or lead a song from the Children’s Songbook. Teach or share the song in a family home evening or at Primary. Discuss how developing talents helps prepare us for service to Heavenly Father and others. -Developing Talents #2

 2 1/2 months ago I sent an email to all the parents introducing the idea of the Daughter's of Heman and saying we would be having a Musical Showcase. I wrote:

We will be learning about the Three Daughters of Heman. They were called to serve the Lord by playing music in the temple. We will learn how to lead music and talk about how music is a form of prayer and worship. We'd like to have a music showcase, where each girl can show off her musical talent in a relaxed, informal setting. Please let me know if your daughter can play an instrument, dance or sing. Hymns are preferable but not required. The girls can perform a solo or in groups. 

 I was met with anxiety: several of the parents told me their daughters had no musical talents and had nothing to contribute. This really surprised me. I do not consider myself musically gifted at all, but I thought all 8 year old girls loved to sing! Maybe calling it a "Musical Showcase" was setting the bar too high?"

 I followed up that email with several reminder emails and expounded on the showcase: "Music appreciation is a talent! Just play your favorite hymn from your phone and we'll all enjoy it together." But was still met with a surprising amount of resistance.

At first I tried to get the parents to tell me what their child would be doing so I could make a program, but I gave up on that because it was a) too hard to get answers and b) Setting the expectations too high.

On the day of 4 of the girls did not show up. The parents later let me know that two of those girls did not want to go because they were so anxious about performing. By that time I had already realized I had made a huge mistake in the way I introduced this. What I should have done was to forget that first email and instead send out an email a few weeks before that said this:


Every activity we do is related to the requirements in the Faith In God book and furthering the girls to their award. In the Developing Talents section, the suggested activity is : Learn to sing, play, or lead a song from the Children’s Songbook. Teach or share the song in a family home evening or at Primary. Discuss how developing talents helps prepare us for service to Heavenly Father and others. This is what we will be doing this month! We will learn to lead music and we will talk about how developing talents prepares us for service to Heavenly Father. We will be learning about the Three Daughters of Heman who were called to serve the Lord by playing music in the temple. 

Please have your daughter learn to sing, recite, play (on any instrument) or dance to a song from the children's songbook. She will perform that song at Activity Days. 

PLEASE REMEMBER this "performance" is no big deal. It's two leaders and a bunch of friends! We expect practice, not perfection. This is not a recital, this is fun!


I think that would have gone over better.

In any case, the day came!  We met at a leader's house. We did our opening stuffs and I gave my lesson:

The Three Daughters of Heman

In 1 Chronicles there is a story of the 3 Daughter of Heman. Heman and his children were Levites, they were of the tribe of Levi, this meant they were descended from the Son of Jacob named Levi. The Levites were different from the rest of the 11 tribes because they had no land of inheritance: They were assigned the task of ministering in the sanctuary and assisting the priests with their duties. The Levites were offered up to the Lord as an offering. They were the Lord's peculiar property

God blessed Heman with a talent for singing. Heman practiced over and over, for hours and hours, until he became really good at singing. Heman  had 14 sons and 3 daughters. Can you imagine having 14 brothers? Heman wanted all his children to practice music, so each one of the 14 sons, and each of the 3 daughters sisters practiced practiced and practiced. Is there something you practice with your sisters? Is there something you practice with your siblings?

The three daughters got better and better and making music. They sang, they danced, and they played the cymbals, psalteries, and harp.

When they lived The Ark of the Covenant was very sacred, just like the temple today, it was very important and you had to have special permission to be with the Ark of the Covenant. Unlike the temple today, the Ark could move. Usually, after the ark had been moved, they would set up a special giant tent around the Ark. The tent was called the Tabernacle, and it was a substitute for a temple.

The daughters of Heman, along with their brothers and their father, were called to play music whenever the Ark of the Covenant was being moved (1 Chr. 15:16), and when the Tabernacle was set up. Why do think it was a calling to have music playing whenever the ark of the covenant was being moved (1 Chr. 15:16), and when the tabernacle was set up? Why is music so important to God?

Later, King Solomon built a temple: A solid building made from stone. The Ark of the Covenant was moved into the temple. Three Levite families were called to "prophecy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals in the temple. One of those families was Heman’s family.

A prophecy consists of divinely inspired words or writings, which a person receives through revelation from the Holy Ghost. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10). A prophecy may pertain to the past, present, or future. When a person prophesies, he speaks or writes that which God wants him to know, for his own good or the good of others. So if they were called to prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals, that means they were called to play their instruments, maybe sing, maybe dance, and that the music or words or movement would be divinely inspired to bless the lives of all who heard and saw. Their music was service to God.

When the people who wrote the hymn in our hymn book, sat down to write a hymn, they were prophesying. They were bearing their testimony of Jesus Christ, and were divinely inspired with the words to the hymn. When you bear your testimony, you are prophesying. When you practice something over and over and over again, and you Pray to Heavenly Father to help you, and  you use your talent that you have developed to bless others, you are prophesying.  If you practice over and over again, like the Daughters of Heman, God will call you to prophesy with your talents.

The daughters of Hemen worked in the temple. They went there and prophesied with music for as long as they were called to do so, which was probably their whole life. It was calling in life to prophesy and worship God through music;

Afterward we taught the girls how to lead music. We are by no means experts (or even gifted in this area) so we printed out a handout with the different leading patterns from the hymn book and gave one to each girl. We taught them how to find the leading pattern numbers on each hymn, and how to match those numbers to the leading pattern, which are just your hand movements. We then practiced the two, three, and four beat patterns.  We told them that if they forgot everything we taught them, to just write your name in cursive in the air, and no one would know the difference.

The best was four beat, because we said: Cut the watermelon in half, scoop one side off, then the other side, back up and cut the watermelon in half...

We then took turns picking a girl. We gave that girl a hymn number, she had to look it up, find the beat numbers, decide how to wave her hand, then we all sang the hymn with her leading. We did this so each girl could have a chance leading. I wish we had a paper that gave tips like: If the hymn starts off mid-bracket, start leading on an up instead of a down, but I really don't know that much about leading, so I'm not even sure if that tip is true, and there is no way I could come up with more tips.

 Then it was time for our showcase!

That part went great! We had a performance on a lap harp, a recorder, a piano, and then two girls sand a song together, one girl sang a song she made up, and one girl performed gymnastics. It was wonderful! I took lots of pictures to share with their parents.

At the end we had some time to spare, so we all led a song together. I then passed out the hand-outs (Taken from womeninthescriptures.com) and that was it!

The Three Daughters of Heman

Facts about them:

• They were Levites, which meant they had been assigned the task of ministering in the sanctuary and were to assist the priests with their duties. Unlike the rest of the tribes the Levites received no land of inheritance. Instead, they, as a people, were offered up to the Lord as an offering. They were the Lord's peculiar property;
• They had 14 brothers. Their names were Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth;
• Their father's name was Heman and he was the "the king’s a seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn" (1 Chr. 25:5);
• They were instructed to play songs with cymbals, psalteries, and harps;
• They played music in the temple;
• Their music was service to God.

What we can learn from them:

• Music is a way to worship God;
• It can be a woman's (and a man's) calling in life to prophesy and worship God through music;
• Women can prophesy;
• Women were, and still are, called to serve in the temple and participate in sacred things.
• The Lord wants and expects women to work along side their brethren in serving in the temple and prophesying.

Questions:

• What do you imagine their music sounded like?
• Why is music so important?
• Why would God specifically call people to worship him through music?
• What does music mean to you in your life?
• How do you use music to prophesy or worship God?
• What would have happened if instead of working in the temple, they had spent time using their talents to entertain the people and make money? Their music would be influenced by the people instead of by God. How would it sound different?
• What talent do you want to practice over and over to become good at doing?