Stephen Foster & Charles Wesley Help Put Children to Bed

Both of the following Foster and Wesley songs tap into a deep longing for my children to be safe and secure. But the reality is that I cannot keep them totally safe and secure. I can do what I am able but ultimately I have to trust that God, who loves and cares for them more than I ever could (which is hard to imagine), will take care of them for their best and His glory.


It's hard for me to say, and it is a teaching moment to me when I say it, but God's greater love and care is why I've been sharing this blessing with them each night: I love you big but Jesus loves you best. 

Songs like these that can be "sung over" our children teach us to love them but hold them open-handedly relying on God as provider and protector. 

Stephen Foster may be the quintessential US American songwriter. Oh Susanna, Camptown Races, Hard Times Come Again No More, Beautiful Dreamer, My Old Kentucky Home... Several years ago a compilation of Foster songs by some excellent Americana artists was released called Beautiful Dreamer and it is terrific. It appears that maybe you can't get it new anymore? That's a tragedy if it's so.

Anyway...Allison Krauss sings Slumber My Darling on Beautiful with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor accompanying. This song is crushingly beautiful. There were many a night when I would rock one of the girls to sleep with this song playing and weep because of the stillness and beauty. This song also appears on the album Appalachian Journey and it's still available. 

Slumber, my darling, thy mother is near,
Guarding thy dreams from all terror and fear,
Sunlight has pass'd and the twilight has gone,
Slumber, my darling, the night's coming on.
Sweet visions attend thy sleep,
Fondest, dearest to me,
While others their revels keep,
I will watch over thee.

Slumber, my darling, the birds are at rest,
The wandering dews by the flow'rs are caressed,
Slumber, my darling, I'll wrap thee up warm,
And pray that the angels will shield thee from harm.

Slumber, my darling, till morn's blushing ray
Brings to the world the glad tidings of day;
Fill the dark void with thy dreamy delight--
Slumber, thy mother will guard thee tonight,
Thy pillow shall sacred be
From all outward alarms;
Thou, thou are the world to me
In thine innocent charms.

Slumber, my darling, the birds are at rest,
The wandering dews by the flow'rs are caressed,
Slumber, my darling, I'll wrap thee up warm,
And pray that the angels will shield thee from harm

Charles Wesley wrote somewhere between 6,000 and 9,000 hymns in his lifetime. He wrote hymns about pretty much every conceivable topic. He wrote over 50 just about his courtship and marriage to Sally Gwynne. He wrote this wonderful lullaby-ish hymn called "For the Evening":

Saviour, Thou hast bestow'd on me
   The blessing of the ligh,
And wilt my kind Preserver be
   Through this approaching night.

Evil from me far off remove,
   That, with Thy favour bless'd
Beneath the shadow of Thy love
   I in Thine arms may rest.

Thy gracious eye which never sleeps
   Is always fix'd on man;
Thy love the slumbering children keeps
   From sorrow, fear, and pain.

Wherefore I safely lay me down,
   And trust myself to Thee,
The Father's well-beloved Son,
   Who ever pray'st for me.