No don't read it. I just want it saved here in case I need to use it again sometime.
I decided to start out my talk with a personal story, ....because I like stories, :)
I was a pretty typical healthy happy child, but when I was about 8 years old. I began to have excruciating pain in both of my legs. My parents took me to dozen’s of doctor’s appointments, but they were unable to find a solution or even a remedy for the pain I was suffering. Pain medicine didn’t help, my prayers didn’t seem to work. Nothing! :(
As a child, who was suffering, with no explanation of WHY and no end in sight, I became very unhappy. I would lay awake for hours at night, unable to sleep because of the pain. My mind became very vulnerable to Satan’s influence of dark and depressing thoughts. It was like an ambush of darkness surrounding me every night!
Satan could tell I was weak, ...and He was there to kick me when I was down!! To put it mildly, I was seriously depressed, I didn’t want to live anymore, and I hated everyone.
Fortunately, one week in primary, an inspired primary leader had us listen to Boyd K Packer’s epic talk on Worthy Music.
In his talk he compares our mind to a stage. He explains: There is always some act being performed on that stage. It may be a comedy, a tragedy, interesting or dull, good or bad; but always there is some act playing on the stage of the mind.
Have you noticed that without any real intent on your part, in the middle of almost any performance, a shady little thought may creep in from the wings and attract your attention? These delinquent thoughts will try to upstage everybody. If you permit them to go on, all thoughts of any virtue will leave the stage. You will be left, because you consented to it, to the influence of unrighteous thoughts.
If you can control your thoughts, he said, you can overcome habits, even degrading personal habits. If you can learn to master them you will have a happy life.
Bingo! Those words of his talk really hit me. Even if I could do nothing to control the pain that I suffered from, I could learn to control my thoughts, and I could be happy again, he gave me hope!
He continued...I’m paraphrasing a bit here.
This is what I would teach you. Choose from among the sacred music of the Church a favorite hymn, one with words that are uplifting and music that is reverent, one that makes you feel something akin to inspiration. “I Am A Child of God” would do. Go over it in your mind carefully. Memorize it. Even if you have had no musical training, you can think through a hymn.
Now, use this hymn as the place for your thoughts to go. Make it your emergency channel.
As the music begins, and as the words form in your thoughts, the unworthy ones will slip away. It will change the whole mood on the stage of your mind. Because it is uplifting and clean, the baser thoughts will disappear. For while virtue, by choice, will not associate with filth, evil cannot tolerate the presence of light!
Elder Packer finished his talk with a quote from William F Gladstone.
“Music, is one of the most forceful instruments for governing the mind and spirit of man.”
As a young child, Packer’s words sunk deep into my heart. It was like someone had turned on a light into my dark dark world. MY mind was a stage, MY stage, and I could control what happened on that stage.
My primary leaders concluded her sharing time by teaching us a new song. Hum your Favorite Hymn…..
Do you remember that one? Hum your favorite Hymn, ….sing out with vigor and vem... and you will find it clears your mind...hum your favorite hymn. :)
I went to bed that night, said my prayers, cleared the stage of my mind, and for hours sang to myself THAT song. Hum your Favorite Hymn… over and over and over again. Tapping my aching legs to the beat, until I was able to fall peacefully asleep. There was no ambush or darkness. IT made a huge difference!
This continued for several days, until I shared with my Mom, my breakthrough!
She was very happy for me, but she kindly suggested that, perhaps, I may want to pick an ACTUAL hymn, or a primary song with special meaning to me…….
I did! In fact, I picked dozens of hymns and primary songs! There was no room on my stage for those dark depressing thoughts anymore. And in the quiet hours of the night, as I lay in my bed humming or singing those inspired songs over and over again, the Spirit bore witness to me, that the messages in those special songs were true.
As a young child I drew strength from the power of their words and over time I developed an unshakable testimony that I did indeed have a Father in Heaven. I came to the knowledge, that I AM a child of God, I was not alone, that I WAS loved, and that Jesus did understand my pain. …...AND through the spirit, that those sacred hymns brought into my room, I was able to open my mind to spiritual inspiration and amazing personal revelation.
In Doctrine and Covenants section 25 verses 11-12 it reads, For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads”
I have no doubt of those words. I have experienced those blessings in my life.
During this experience, my whole outlook on life changed, my nightly prayers, became not some quick rote memorization, but a conversation with someone I knew and loved. When the pain in legs was unbearable, or I felt especially vulnerable in mind. Instead of ending my prayer, I would ask my Father in Heaven if I could just crawl up into his arms and sing to him until I could fall asleep there. ……And in my mind, I would do just that. The peace I felt was all encompassing, the love undeniable.
But Why am I telling YOU all this?!!??
Because the bishop, asked me to speak about the hymns and specifically about
Hymn 129. This hymn since my childhood, has had special meaning to me. I’ll read you the words...
Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace
When other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice,
I draw myself apart,
Searching my soul?
Where, when my aching grows,
Where, when I languish,
Where, in my need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.
He answers privately,
Reaches my reaching
In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind,
Love without end.
In October of 1994, Elder Oaks gave a talk entitled, Worship through Music. He stated.
Sacred music has a unique capacity to communicate our feelings of love for the Lord. This kind of communication is a wonderful aid to our worship. Many have difficulty expressing worshipful feelings in words, but all can join in communicating such feelings through the inspired words of our hymns.
He continues
“Inspirational music is an essential part of our church meetings. The hymns invite the Spirit of the Lord, create a feeling of reverence, unify us as members, and provide a way for us to offer praises to the Lord.
In the hymn book it reads. “Some of the greatest sermons are preached by the singing of hymns. Hymns move us to repentance and good works, build testimony and faith, comfort the weary, console the mourning, and inspire us to endure to the end”
The singing of hymns is one of the best ways to put ourselves in tune with the Spirit of the Lord. I wonder if we are making enough use of this heaven-sent resource in our meetings, in our classes, and in our homes.
In a talk entitled, The Nourishing Power of Hymns, by Elder Jay E Jensen, he talks about the importance of the sacred hymns in his life by sharing a memory...
My testimony and conversion to the restored gospel were strongly influenced by singing the hymns of Zion as a young boy. I grew up in the small town of Mapleton, Utah, and attended meetings in what is known today as the “old white church.” My 95-year-old mother still lives in Mapleton. When I visit her, I drive past the “old white church,” and a flood of sweet memories fills my mind. Among them is the converting power of the hymns we sang in priesthood, Sunday School, and Sacrament meetings. My experiences were similar to that of President Hinckley when, as a deacon, he attended a stake priesthood meeting with his father. They sang “Praise to the Man.” Later he would say, “I had an impression that has never left, that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God.” I believe that many of our Saints experience this again and again. Hymns play an essential role in spirituality, revelation, and conversion.
Hymns Invite the Spirit
Hymns are “an essential part of our church meetings. They invite the Spirit of the Lord.” They often do this quicker than anything else we may do. President J. Reuben Clark Jr. said, “We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.”
Hymns Invite Revelation
Hymns “create a feeling of reverence.” The words reverence and revelation are like twins who like each other’s company. When the Seventy and Presiding Bishopric are invited to meetings with the First Presidency and the Twelve, we are reminded to arrive early and reverently listen to prelude music. Doing so invites revelation and prepares us for the meeting.
President Packer taught that a member who softly plays “prelude music from the hymnbook tempers our feelings and causes us to go over in our minds the lyrics which teach the peaceable things of the kingdom. If we will listen, they are teaching the gospel, for the hymns of the Restoration are, in fact, a course in doctrine!”
And finally…..
Hymns Invite Conversion
The hymns of the Restoration carry with them the spirit of conversion. They came as a result of sacrifice. Hymns like “Praise to the Man,” “Come, Come, Ye Saints,” “Ye Elders of Israel,” “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet,” “Redeemer of Israel,” and many others, reinforce the great truths of the Restoration—such as the divinity of the Father and the Son, the plan of redemption, revelation, latter-day scriptures, the gathering of Israel, the holy priesthood, and ordinances and covenants. These nourishing hymns create an atmosphere that invites the Spirit, which leads us to conversion.
Teaching Children Hymns Begins at Home
Singing hymns and listening to appropriate music begins at home. The First Presidency has reminded us:
“Latter-day Saints should fill their homes with the sound of worthy music.
“… We hope the hymnbook will take a prominent place among the scriptures and other religious books in our homes. The hymns can bring families a spirit of beauty and peace and can inspire love and unity among family members.
I have found this to be true. I often will hear my children singing the words to the songs we have sung in family night, or that, I or Barry, have been practicing on the piano. Yes! I did say Barry was playing the piano! ;) (Jill “The Pill” thought I should include that little tidbit.)
I wanted to share with you a great experience I had just this past week.
As part of my children’s home schooling, we do a devotional each morning. We are currently reading the New Testament. Because my children are young and often the wording is difficult, and attention spans short. ….I fear much of the meaning in those scriptures are lost to them. After reading a chapter in Mark about Jesus sleeping on the boat during a bad storm while the apostles stressed…. I was reminded of a favorite childhood hymn.
I grabbed the hymn book and told the kids that actually, there was a song about this event. I slowly sung them the words of the song.
Master, the tempest is raging...the billows are tossing high, the sky is ore shadowed with blackness, no shelter or help is nigh.
I watched as they quieted down and as their eyes grew wider as they listened and comprehended just what was happening.
Carest Thou not that we perish? How canst Thou lie asleep? When each moment is madly threatening a grave in the angry deep!
I had their attention now, I asked the children if they wanted to hear the rest of the song? I got a YES!!!
The winds and the waves shall obey thy will: Peace, be still.
Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea,
Or demons or men or whatever it be,
No waters can swallow the ship where lies
The Master of ocean and earth and skies.
They all shall sweetly obey thy will:
Peace, be still; peace, be still…….
When I finished the song, there was a short, quiet, pause, then they all clapped and said Again! Again!
:) I can promise you, that wasn’t because of my great singing voice. My kid’s were able to understand the message of the simple words of the songs, and spirit was able to bear testimony to them of their truthfulness.
Elder Dallin H Oaks states: “Our hymns contain matchless doctrinal sermons, surpassed only by the scriptures in their truth and poetic impact.”
Teach your children to love the hymns. Sing them on the Sabbath, in Family Home Evening, during scripture study, at prayer time. Sing as you work, as you play, and as you travel together. Sing hymns as lullabies to build faith and testimony in your children.
I have a testimony of the truthfulness of these statements. I believe in the vital importance of hymns to not only evoke the Spirit, but to invite revelation, and encourage discussion and increase gospel knowledge. The scared hymns do indeed bring with them the spirit of conversion and can soften even the hardest of hearts and bear a powerful witness.
I would like to end my talk with the words of one of my favorite hymns, by Loren C Dunn, entitled Testimony . His words are mine.
The witness of the Holy Ghost,
As borne by those who know,
Has lifted me again to thee,
O Father of my soul.
I know that thou art in the heav'n.
I know the Savior reigns.
I know a prophet speaks to us
For our eternal gain.
My eyes are wet; my heart is full.
The Spirit speaks today.
O Lord, wilt thou my life renew
And in my bosom stay.
As testimony fills my heart,
It dulls the pain of days.
For one brief moment, heaven's view
Appears before my gaze.
In the name of Jesus Christ. AMen.
