Testimony

Lately I've been thinking about people's testimonies. We heard another moving one at church this weekend, from a young man who had been caught in the world of drugs and alcohol and hit rock bottom depression, then finally decided to give God a try, wherein God answered his prayers and rescued him, so he became a Christian. I've been inspired by my fiancee's testimony which was similar; it's hard to believe that he lived that kind of lifestyle in the past, considering what a Christ-like gentleman he is now. I believe with all of my heart that God can transform lives, as in 2 Corinthians 5:17--"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

The problem is that we hear these testimonies a lot, and sometimes it actually makes it difficult for those of us who don't have these stories ourselves. The world makes it seem like we need to have this amazing conversion story from jail or skid row in order to witness to others about what Christ has done for us. Obviously the last thing we ought to do is live the wild life in order to repent and have a testimony to tell, but without that, sometimes it's almost discouraging to think that we don't really have a good story.

My personal testimony is that I've had ups and downs in my spiritual life, and to be honest, they haven't always coincided with my feelings of happiness or depression. There were times when I wandered from daily devotion and didn't think so much about God, and some of those times were lonely and others were quite happy. There have also been times where I've reached out to God and kept close to Him, and some of those times were filled with happiness and others were moments of deep depression. I can't honestly say that I was miserable without God, then at a certain point I repented and gave my life to Him, "and now I am happy all the day," to quote the song (frankly, that's why I don't really like that part of the song that much anyway).

I had been thinking about this a lot lately when I happened to turn to Hebrews 11 this morning. It's such a famous chapter that sometimes it's easy to gloss over if you pretty much have it memorized already. But what struck me was that the champions of faith mentioned in this chapter, such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, never really had a fantastic "conversion" testimony. They were simply--faithful.

The verse that struck me the most was Hebrews 11:5 (emphasis mine).

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony: that he pleased God.

Wow, Enoch had the best testimony ever: he didn't even have to die, he was that close to God! God just took him to Heaven! And what was his testimony? One simple thing: that he pleased God.

So, for those of us who don't have a great story--or those who do, it doesn't really matter in the end--it's not so important what your story is, your testimony is simply this: Can it be said that you pleased God?

By the way, the next verse defines what it means to please God:

But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

So, the way we please God is to have faith in Him. And according to this verse, the way to have faith in Him is to: 1. believe that He is (exists), and 2. believe that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

Apparently those two elements are the most powerful testimony in the world.

Thought for the day: on arbitrary laws

Just a little thought I came up with while studying to teach this week's Sabbath school lesson on sin.

Often, people look at the test of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden as an example of the arbitrary laws of God. Laws, they say, ought to be for our protection, and make sense with the laws of nature, and so on, whereas, just simply eating a fruit (not even one that was particularly poisonous) is completely random. Why should they have been forbidden to eat the fruit of one particular random tree? Therefore, God is arbitrary and harsh, and only wants to display tyrannical qualities, etc. 

This leads to the question: Is it fair for a parent to test their child's obedience? We can safely assume that most parents would agree that complete obedience to their word is best for their child, so that they will know that if they yell, "Get out of the street!" their child will immediately respond and obey, not a second too late. Therefore, parents spend most of their children's young lives training them to be obedient to them. But a random test, as random as the seemingly useless tree-test, just to see if they will obey?

Perhaps one answer lies in the context of Adam and Eve's test, compared to the surroundings of every child since. Quite simply, Adam and Eve did not have traffic, and there were no cars to get out of the way of. They had no hot stoves, no swimming pools to drown in, no poison on their shelves, or sharp glass objects to break. In fact, they had no other dangers that God had to train them to stay away from, because it was a perfect sinless paradise. However, parents today have all of those dangers and many more at every corner to use as practical training in obedience. There's no need to think up any arbitrary test of faith or obedience when our children are constantly exposed to dangers all around, whereas God had to think up something to see if His new people would take Him at His word.

Now, after 6,000 years of evil in the world, we know something very clearly that Adam and Eve did not know at the time: if we run too fast in the yard, we could trip on a rock and scrape our knees up real good. But there might just be other dangers beyond our comprehension, dangers only God really knows about, dangers beyond our street and our medicine cabinets and our hot stoves. Those are the dangers we just have to trust God to know about--and again, just take Him at His word.

Musings on faith and prepositions

I realized that one of the reasons why I haven't been blogging lately is because it's so much easier to come up with a one-sentence status update on Facebook than an entire essay for a blog. Right now I'm going through a brief "fast" from Facebook because I have other things I need to get done, namely practicing violin (what a thought! A professional violinist needing to practice violin?). Also, I heard a great sermon this past weekend based on Hebrews 12:1, and realized that I needed to go on a diet. So, now I have more time to...blog. (So much for practicing. Well, I got 2 hours in this morning!)

However...what will the philosopher write about today? I've had a lot of things on my mind recently, some from personal experiences, and some ideas from sermons I've heard. (In case you're wondering about all the links, yes, I'm promoting Audioverse. No, they don't pay-per-click.) We've been studying the first half of Romans at prayer meeting lately (there I go again), and I've been blessed by the light that Dr. McNulty has shed on justification by faith. The study on Romans 4 especially struck me. The summary is that Abraham was justified before God through his belief (Rom. 4:3)--which was evidenced in his works (James 2:21-24). What was that faith? He believed that what God had promised, He could fulfill. In Abraham's case, God had promised him that a child would be born to him, even in his very old age, and that child would become a great nation. Twice Abraham was tested in that, first, just being able to have the child at all at his and Sarah's age, and secondly, after this miraculous child was actually born and raised, God told him to sacrifice him. But Abraham trusted God at His word--that whatever He said would happen, would happen. 

So that's the first important lesson of justification by faith: our actions testify to whether we believe God's word is good or not. The second involves where that faith comes from. Dr. McNulty brought out an interesting point regarding Galations 2:20 and Revelation 14:12. The King James Version is the only version that has this in common with those texts: the little phrase "faith of Jesus." Most of the other versions say "faith in Jesus" or something to that effect--remaining faithful to Jesus, etc. In the original language, there is no preposition at all, so I'm not sure what the translations are based on. But it's an interesting thought that a world of difference exists in those prepositions. Having "faith in Jesus" is certainly important, and I believe our faith in Jesus is what I've described above. But having "faith of Jesus"--what does that mean? It means that we take hold of the faith that Jesus had when He was on earth--and certainly, there was never a person who has ever lived who had as much faith as He! His connection with His Father was unbreakable, unimaginably deep. If we have the faith "of" Jesus, we can share in that connection through Christ Himself, whose life on earth made it possible that we can be saved through His merits and His faith, instead of relying solely on whatever faith that our own feeble minds can come up with.

"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

How I Went To Sleep Last Night

Memory verse #1:

2 Cor. 10:4-5 "The weapons we fight with are not weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ."

Weapons. Demolishing strongholds. Captivity. 

Fighting words.

Who can fight that?

Memory verse #2:

Exodus 14:14 "The Lord shall fight for you, you need only to be still."

Good night.

2008 Year in Review

Nothing happened this year, either.

Chicken Soup for the Soul

I haven't written a blog post for a while; writer's block, I suppose. I've been focusing my energy on organizing the music for the Generation of Youth for Christ conference, coming up just next week. I still feel somewhat overwhelmed with what needs to be done to get everything ready, but at the same time I'm not exactly sure what that is at this point; put out fires wherever they occur, I suppose, and see what happens when I get there. 

I really ought to get out of bed and get to work, but I felt compelled to finally write another blog post, lest my readers (whoever they are!) get discouraged that this blog hasn't been updated for so long that they quit checking it. Today's topic: emotions. 

The title of this blog evokes feelings of comfort food and nice puppy stories, but that's not what I have in mind. I was thinking today about the soul's emotions and how we care for them, compared to our physical weaknesses and how we care for them. I think that emotions are like a cold or a flu. It's inevitable that at times we may feel under the weather. If you're a fairly healthy person and do all the right things, it may be less often than otherwise. We are taught to eat healthy foods and avoid sugar and take our vitamins, dress warmly, get lots of exercise and rest, wash our hands regularly, and avoid getting close to people who are sick to avoid catching something. If we do these things, our chances for getting a cold may decrease, and we may be able to heal quicker and not lose as much productivity. However, I don't believe there's ever been a person on earth who has been so healthy and done all the right things so that they didn't ever have a day where they just felt icky and feverish and had a cough or sore throat and wanted to stay in bed. It's just the way things go. 

Likewise, our emotions can be controlled--and not controlled--in the same way. If we eat healthy foods and avoid sugar and take our vitamins, dress warmly, and get lots of exercise and rest, it helps to strengthen our minds as well as our bodies so that we can have clear minds to make good decisions and deal with things. Very importantly, we also ought to keep our hearts clean as well as our hands, and avoid contact with influences that will contaminate us. However, as colds, emotions and temptations do come into our minds without our consent; it's just part of life. 

I was listening to a sermon from Audioverse yesterday, and it mentioned that it's not our emotions that define us, it's what we choose to do with them. Too many times, people think that just because they feel something, that means they have to act on it, which is often times not the right decision. (I'm talking about the kind of emotions that could lead us to make the wrong decision, such as anger, unsanctified attraction, jealousy, despair, etc.) In this case, it helps to think of these emotions as a cold--do the best you can to get over it, but understand that you just have to let it go. And just like the times when you are lying in bed with at fever of 100 degrees and feel like you can't remember what it was like to be well and will never be healthy again, you just have to realize that with time, you'll be all back to normal again.

Studying

Sometimes I'm struck with how similar the method of studying the Bible is to studying music.

Take, for example, the Bach unaccompanied sonatas and partitas: if you're unfamiliar with them, they're nothing but a collection of enormous, overwhelming works for plain old solo violin, and they tend to sound similar. Even simple sounding. If you're a violinist and you're trying to play them, some movements are not technically terribly difficult to play (well, excluding all the fugues and the Chaccone, of course), but it doesn't take long to realize that if you actually want to play them in tune, they aren't as easy as they look. What I've found about the Bach unaccompanied works is that the more you dig into them, the more you realize is actually in there and how very challenging they are. Soon you find that it's a lifetime work.

The Bible is the same way. You can look at it on a shallow level and think you've pretty much got the hang of it. But the deeper you study it, the deeper you realize it is.

This led me to think about the technique of studying the Bible, something I've been wondering about and working on for a long time. It occurred to me that, since I teach the violin all day every day, perhaps there's something I can learn from learning an instrument like the violin.

The first thing I teach beginning violinists is technique. I don't hand them a violin and say, "Here's a concerto, figure it out and go play it." The first two or three months are spent practicing holding the violin and bow over and over and playing games to develop coordination, ear training, and general comfort with the instrument before the bow is even placed on the string to make a sound. The next step is "patterning," where the child's teacher and parent actually move the bow on the string for him, so the student can gradually develop the feeling of what it's like to move the bow, and what it should sound like. Eventually, after weeks of daily practice (often with tears), the student gets a turn once in a while to copy Mom's pattern. Then, after more time of developing the technique, the student is able to play one simple rhythm pattern--but play it much more beautifully than a student who has never been through this process could play the Mendelssohn concerto.

With the Suzuki method, while all of this technique is being developed physically, the student is constantly listening to the CD of the music he or she will be playing to internalize it in the same way language is listened to and internalized for every child. By the time the student is ready to play, he or she will know the music so well that it's a natural progression to just play the tune that's already in his or her head.

When the student gets advanced enough to play a longer piece, great care needs to be taken to encourage him to avoid playing through the entire piece once at top speed, then saying, "There, I did it, now I can stop practicing." We can all guess how much the student would improve from that type of practice! Yet it's so unnatural for a student to go slower, take a 4-6 note "nugget" to practice, and play it over and over and over to really understand it and make it so easy that it's impossible to play incorrectly. Parents and teachers are absolutely necessary for directing a young student to do this. When each difficulty is mastered, then the student can successfully play through the entire piece as beautifully as the recording she has been listening to. 

Sometimes in my Bible study I find myself doing the same thing as my Book 1 students studying the Bach minuets (yes, the same composer who wrote the enormous unaccompanied works). I read through, halfway thinking about what I'll eat for breakfast and what today's jogging route will be, and say "I've read it, I'm done." It would be so much better if I used the following method while studying:

1. Listen, or read, over and over. Really know how it goes.

2. Find a smaller passage to dig into--not the whole book at once.

3. Ask: What is the challenge in this passage? What questions can be answered?

4. What small "nugget" of information can I find to answer the question?

5. Am I willing to study that nugget and do whatever it takes to internalize it--to make it so easy that it's impossible to think incorrectly? How can I apply it to my life?

6. Now, going back over the larger passage and connecting it with other passages, how can I fit it into the bigger picture to make the whole thing hang together in a coherent way?

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.  (Heb. 5:12-14). Well, we're getting there. 

Philosopher off duty

Why bother, when you can just hear this?

Wages

For the wages of sin is death... Rom. 6:23

Could we compare that statement to this: the wages of unplugging a lamp is darkness?

Walking on eggshells

I've been on leave from the philosophizing business for a while, much to the disappointment of my dad. Well, it's a hard job to be a full-time philosopher. It's a risky business, and the inspiration has to hit you just right. I'm glad I don't make my money doing this. Actually, I can't imagine making money being a philosopher. Who would pay someone to think for them? I suppose inspiring someone to think for themselves might be worthy of payment. Of course, the kind of philosophizing done nowadays seems to lean toward the "it's all OK, there are no absolutes, right and wrong has been out of style for a while now, so do and think whatever you want, just as long as you don't actually make it look like you're stating a concrete truth" mode. Because, America, it's time for a change!

So, I'll give a report about my vacation. A few weeks ago, when my mom was here visiting, we took a day trip to Anacapa Island, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. The Channel Islands are known as "the Galapagos of North America" for the diversity of flora and fauna which has adapted to the islands and is not known to any other place, such as Torrey pines, tree sunflowers with a trunk, tiny foxes, etc. It was overcast the day we visited, thankfully, because there are no trees at all, only scrub. There are no beaches on Anacapa Island, it is one huge rock, looming out of the ocean. We had to climb the equivalent of several flights of stairs to get from our boat to the top of the island, because every edge of the island is massive cliffs plunging into the sea. The entire island is about one mile long, so you can walk back and forth on the whole thing within a few hours. And you'd see the same thing everywhere: scrub, these funny short tree sunflowers (which had dead blossoms at that time), and, oh, birds. Birds. Seagulls everywhere. And seagull poop. 

Another indigenous bird on the Channel Islands is the brown pelican. Our tour guide was careful to inform us that the other half of the island, about a quarter mile away and separated by a small isthmus, was off limits to all humans because it was a brown pelican rookery. We were told that the brown pelican population had been diminishing because of the pollution of DDT in past decades. Apparently the presence of DDT in the ocean's food chain affects the brown pelicans by causing the eggshells to become soft. These type of birds have the habit of standing on their eggs to incubate them, instead of sitting on them, so with the soft eggshells, the parents actually break their own eggs. Out of 500 or so eggs laid in this rookery one year, only one survived, we were told. 

Of course, this had caused widespread panic among environmentalists and brown pelican fans. DDT was outlawed, and vast amounts of money was spent to try to clean it up and establish safe havens for the poor creatures. My immediate thought was, why doesn't someone just try to teach the pelicans not to stand on their eggs? Which led me to wonder about something: We are told that life has changed and adapted over 5 billion years or whatnot, from the level of protozoa through frog and monkey and finally human. These changes have been a result of adaptation to surroundings, even to the point where not only will a given animal physically and genetically adapt to a challenge it faces, say, color to match its surrounding, but it actually has the capacity to change into another species. My question is: If a frog can, over time, transform itself into a bird to solve the problem of, say, wanting to catch flies which are higher than it can reach, why are humans so disturbed about the pelican and its eggshells? You would think, logically, that the evolutionists would be the first to say, "Who cares about DDT? Just give it time, and the pelicans will evolve to figure out not to stand on their eggshells. Then, eventually, they will turn into beavers." Creationists ought to be the ones to worry that what we're doing might mess up God's creations the way they were originally designed. 

Quote of the day

"If I had a message, I would write it down and e-mail it to everybody. I would save a lot of paint that way." --Performance artist Laurie Anderson, when asked what the message is in her work

See ya!

I'll be back August 19. Until then, this is where I'll be: 

(the ocean below being Cape Cod)

Safari vs. Firefox

A lot of hype has surrounded the release of Firefox 3, I'm still not sure why. I downloaded it anyway. I used to love Firefox when my only alternative was Internet Explorer, but now that I have Safari on my Mac, I'm not sure. Is this my imagination, or has anyone else noticed a distinct difference in photo colors? I can't think of any other reason besides the browser. (Safari is on the left, Firefox on the right)

The Value of a Human Life

Prayer meeting last night was led by my friend Angie's grandfather, who gave an inspiring and beautiful message about the value of a human life in God's eyes. It was a message we all ought to know, however, we often need reminders, especially when going through times of difficulty when we feel worthless. 

His message focused on the contrast of how humans often view our own worth, and the worth of other humans, compared to God's value placed on us. He reminded us of the many hundreds of thousands who were ruthlessly slaughtered in the last century as a result of the extremely low value placed on human life by vicious dictators. We must compare that to the infinite value God sees us as being worth, so much that He was willing to pay the infinite price of His death and being changed forever, for the benefit of every single human who ever lived, regardless of race, nationality, or intelligence.

"Look at how humans value each other. See the incredibly low value we have placed on humanity, and on individuals. What value do humans say that life is worth? But look to Jesus--look at the infinite price He paid for each of us! What did Jesus say that a human life is worth?"

A voice from one of our resident quick-wits arose from the back of the room in response:

"Many sparrows!"

Weekend

Today was Memorial Day, and I went to a memorial service, as I mentioned in my last blog, for my friend Ardyce. I managed to get through most of it without too many tears, mostly just a few at the very end, the postlude, which was an LLBN videotape of part of a church service from a few years back when Ardyce played Schubert's "Prayer" (arranged from the Octet) and "The Holy City" during communion. I think I remember that day, because I remember one time she was playing and I think that was the dress she was wearing. She played very well, and looked beautiful and so full of life, as she did all the way up through the week she went to the hospital. The rest of the service was lovely--Joan Coggin did the life sketch, which was characteristically amusing but very reverent. Ardyce's grand-niece and I played a duet; I felt very honored that her brother asked me to play with her. (And it went well, much better than I played at Advent Hope the week before--thankfully! I was getting worried about myself!) The rest of the music was provided by the LLUC choir and orchestra. The orchestra was huge. Often we have trouble filling up the string sections, but there was a huge turnout today, even with the holiday. One of the violinists suggested we leave Ardyce's most recent regular chair empty in her memory (second chair second violins), which was a beautiful little tribute to her, but very sad. It was very, very strange to look over there to an empty chair and not see her--I still kind of keep expecting her to show up at the next rehearsal. 

Other than that, I attended two graduation parties and a going-away party this weekend. Fortunately, the honorees of both of the grad parties are staying in town. In fact, one of them, with his new bride-to-be, will be my neighbors! Tim and Sunny are moving in right behind me! Tim and I have been joking about listening to each other practice through the windows. He and Sunny will yell at me that my C#'s are out of tune, and I'll yell at them for not practicing enough. 

So that is life...graduations, moving away, memorial services...right now I'm feeling regret that I never got a picture of myself with Ardyce that I know of. I love photography, and I tend to get caught up in composition and lighting and scenery that I often forget to take pictures of people, and I absolutely hate pictures of myself, so I'm not one to go around asking everyone to take a picture of me with such-and-such. But maybe I should, because life is short. I'm also feeling regret that I never was able to thank Ardyce enough for her kindness to me since I've lived here, and I never got near returning even a portion of that kindness. Somehow time passes, and suddenly it's been months and months and we still haven't gotten around to having that big Sabbath lunch party, or going to check out that beach or trail with friends, or go camping, or throw a great party in someone's honor (also kudos to Melody for being such a great party host and fruit-design cake decorator!). 

Just some of my random stream-of-consciousness thoughts for tonight. Only two more weeks of school, then I get Mondays and Fridays off all summer! 

Tribute to Ardyce

Memorial Day will really be a memorial day for many of us here in Loma Linda, including myself. On Memorial Day we will celebrate the life of my dear friend Ardyce,* who sadly passed away last Friday after a short, unexpected illness. She had just turned 80. 

A short blog doesn't do justice to Ardyce's life of sharing and kindness that she showed to me and to all of her many (thousands of!) friends and family members. Ardyce was a violinist, teacher, former mayor of Loma Linda, general mover and shaker in the community, chair of the Loma Linda University Church vespers committee, loving wife, and adopted mother of not only a few "official" children but numerous "unofficial" ones. Since I would have no idea where to start with all of that, I'll just briefly share some of the many things she's done for me in the last 7 or so years that I've known her.

First of all, she was the person who got me here to Loma Linda. In 2001, when I was living with my parents in Dayton after finishing grad school, I was teaching violin lessons and playing in the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, but also wondering what was next--I knew that I didn't want to live in Dayton all of my life. Plus, my 2-year contract with the DPO was going to expire. I was contemplating the orchestral studies program at the Manhattan School of Music, which didn't turn out. At that time my family reconnected with Ardyce, whom my dad had been close friends with many, many years ago, through one of her family members who was living in Dayton at the time and went to church at Kettering with us. I met her when she came to visit, had some nice conversation, and later she gave my name to my now-coworkers as a prospective violin teacher here at the Academy. When they called, I decided that Southern California seemed like a great place to try out--nice work environment, mecca of Adventism, chance to meet lots of like-minded SDA young people, nice warm weather, and palm trees.

After I moved here, I stayed with Ardyce for a few days as she helped me find an apartment. Then she proceeded to introduce me to just about everyone I know--she knew a lot of people--including contacts for freelancing and a friend of hers who introduced me to Advent HOPE Sabbath School. So, through that, I could almost say that everyone I know here and everything I do here was thanks to her!

Besides that, her continuing friendship has sustained me during the last 6 years I've lived here. She invited me to be a member of the LLUC vespers committee, has taken me to concerts, and was always willing to have me over for chamber music night or Saturday night popcorn and Mexican Train dominoes, even after her husband passed away. 

Although I'm sad to see her go, I know she had a long, full, and purposeful life, and I'm glad that her final illness was a quick one. Apparently she was mostly asleep for the last few weeks since she went to the hospital, and finally just never woke up. I praise God that we do have hope for the resurrection, that people can fall asleep peacefully because they know that the next thing they'll see is the face of their Creator and Redeemer. 

*Because of excessive googling activity in the WWW, I have stopped publishing my friends' last names. But many of you know who I'm talking about anyway.

Hooded Orioles

Yesterday I had the pleasure of a visit from a couple of beautiful hooded orioles. At first I was wondering why an oversized goldfinch was drinking sugar water from the hummingbird feeder. It wasn't until the male, who is more orange and has a distinctive black mask and beard, arrived that I was able to identify them (the female, I believe it was--unless it was a juvenile--is lighter yellow all over except black patterns on the wings, very much like the smaller goldfinches). 

Here's the guy (this is not my picture, though)

 I hope they continue to come throughout the winter, they're so beautiful!

And in other weird genetic news...

So much for the famous controversial statement "the amalgamation of man and beast."

sadness is...

...taking the get-well card off the kitchen table where it's been sitting in a bag for a couple of weeks, waiting to go to its recipient, and filing it away in a drawer because you never got a chance to give it to her.

Motivation

I haven't been writing many blog posts lately, probably simply due to writer's block. However, to keep Rachel happy, I'll try to be more consistent. 

Lately I've been thinking about motivation. Not just motivation to write in my blog (although that's part of it), but mostly in connection with music and practicing. Our string program has its biannual recital time coming up this weekend--starting with a 7-hour marathon of solo recitals on Sunday (yes, everyone has to play a solo), and the group class concert Monday evening--so I've been trying to prepare my students. They are all playing pieces that they've worked on previously, so they are fortunately not rushing to learn them at the last minute (well, most of them). Some of them, though, still haven't practiced much the last few weeks coming up to the recital, so this just makes me think about day-to-day motivators to practice. 

What motivates a child to practice an instrument? Their parents? Hopefully, at least in the beginning. I love working with parents who are creative and work with their children to help make practicing fun instead of just telling them to "do it" while they're at work. Eventually, though, teenage years set in, and they need a new form of motivation. Prizes and rewards? They really don't have anything to do with the end result--making music. My wish is for my students to be motivated by the music itself: to listen to Wieniawski's second violin concerto or an album of a famous young violinist's showpieces and say, "I want to play that someday, so I'd better go practice." Is this too idealistic? I felt that way when I was growing up, so it must be possible, but it seems to be rare. (Perhaps partly because not too many of my students actually listen to Wieniawski. Those who do seem to do better.)

Another form of motivation comes from peers. I guess this is one of the strongest motivators of teenagers. When I was growing up I had a good friend, Charles, who was so excited about violin that he shared that excitement with the rest of us, and was constantly introducing me to new pieces ("Here, you have to listen to this!"). (Charles, by the way, is now the concertmaster of the Portland [Maine] Symphony.) This kind of thing doesn't work as well coming from adults, even parents and cool violin teachers like me. We don't seem to have any kids like that in our program right now. Most of them will do their bare minimum of practice because they have to, or else. 

Well, these are just a few of my thoughts and dreams for my students. Any great suggestions are appreciated. And, come to think of it, I haven't gotten my violin out of its case yet today, either...time to get to work.