Daughter # 2 and the Piano

Daughter # 1 and Daughter # 2 both had an interest in the piano when they were growing up. So, my beautiful, upright piano was moved once more and lessons for Daughter # 1 began.  They lasted about three months and she decided she wasn’t learning fast enough.  There were more important things she could be doing with her life she decided.

When Daughter # 2 was about seven years old, she began to beg for a chance to play the piano. I was the church pianist at the time at the big, red brick church down the street from the post office, and that was what she wanted to be. So, lessons began and she showed real talent. I remember her first piano teacher saying the first time Daughter # 2 laid her hands on the keys of her piano, she knew she had what it took. Thank you, Ms. Sue, for your talent, encouragement and patience that started Daughter # 2 on the track to becoming the musician she is today.

Like Daughter # 1, Daughter # 2 loved playing the piano but practicing everyday was something else.

“If you will just continue with lessons through the summer and if you don’t like it then, when fall rolls around and school starts, you can quit,” I told her.

So, it was that she stayed with it; grumbling all the while. Finally, just before school started, something clicked……songs began to come forth from that big upright piano and she was hooked. From then on, every time I would sit down at the piano to play, she would suddenly feel the urge to practice.

It was first recital time at the Christian Church. I made her a little blue long dress with a big white collar and she was so excited. She played………..and she played well. From then on, she was the pianist of the family.  By seventh grade, she was playing for all the school activities. By ninth grade, she was giving piano lessons.  The John W. Schaum piano books; red, orange, purple and brown, were the books her students used.  She became our church pianist at the big red brick church down the street from the post office and eventually the pianist in other churches.

The old upright piano has been refinished to a beautiful, shiny oak. It sat in her livingroom here in town where she again gave lessons from those John W. Schaum; red, orange, purple and brown books. After her family moved a few years ago, that old piano moved with them. Once more it sets in her living room. She doesn’t give lessons now but rather teaches school. However, the piano that first sat in my living room nearly sixty-five years earlier, still sounds wonderful when she touches its keys.

I visualize my great-grandchildren will someday be playing on that old upright piano.....my piano.......from so many years ago.

I think God has a lesson here for all of us. No matter the age of the instrument or the person, both can still bring glory to the Father in their own special way as long as they are dedicated to their purpose in life.

“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” 2 Timothy 2:21 ESV