Meaningful Musical Memories

Music is such a powerful medium. It evokes emotion, aids in recall and often brings to mind significant memories from the past. I often feel inspired by the often musical "Sabbath Day Inspirations" that my sister Kara shares on her craft/cooking blog so I thought I'd share a few of my own from time to time.
This weekend I was asked to fill in for our children's chorister at church and help teach a beautiful new song by Sally Deford. Our church is a bit atypical because the services last 3 hours, which can be a bit of a challenge for the children. As I listened to the song on repeat throughout the week I enjoyed hearing Emilyl sing along and pondered how I could teach the song in an intriguing way and make the words from the following verse meaningful for the children.

"I feel the Holy Spirit as he teaches truth and right
He comforts me in times of need, he testifies of Christ
He speaks to me in quiet ways that fill my soul with peace
And when I listen with my heart, I hear the Savior's voice."

The lyrics brought to my mind an experience I had several years ago when I was pregnant with our 3rd child, Daniel. I went in for the routine ultrasound mid-pregnancy and was informed by the ultrasound tech that our son had several cysts on his brain which are sometimes link to a serious chromosomal disorder. The tech was unable to get a clear picture of his heart so we scheduled another ultrasound the following week at the hospital where they had more high-tech equipment.
Throughout the week I thought about the many implications of the situation and felt a bit unsettled. Would our son even make it full-term? Would he ever walk or talk? How would this alter the lives of our little family? I reflected on the families I had known who had children or siblings with special needs and realized that despite the challenges we could be facing... it could also be an amazing blessing to have this special child enter our home and help all of us learn to be a bit more sensitive, kind and patient as I had witnessed in these other families. I said many prayers and felt much comfort and peace knowing that no matter what the results of the ultrasound were, the Lord would help us through it all.
Much to our relief, when we went in for the follow-up ultrasound it ended up that the cysts were completely gone and his heart was developing normally. He's now my healthy, energetic, happy, (sometimes stubborn) 6 year old who...

emphatically declared to me this week that he is done practicing the piano for good !
I guess my challenges aren't over yet :)

I am thankful for the chance that learning this song gave me to remember one of the many "tender mercies of the Lord" in my life.

What's Most Important

This was a busy week. AfterParent Teacher Conferences, helping at the book fair, Music Club Meeting, piano preschool, Tee ball games, a ward baptism, piano lessons and choir practice, we had Stake Conference on Saturday & Sunday to rejuvenate. We rushed off to the adult session last night to sing in the choir and I was so sad because I forgot my notebook. Jared was so nice he passed his notebook through the choir over to me so now I can remember all of the inspiration I received a little bit better. He is so thoughtful. (Rebecca -my editor- says "That's why you married him mom!" - and its true.)
Elder Craig Zwick from the Seventy came. I especially loved his wife's talk. Her theme was from Jacob 5:41 - What could I have done more? Although we are usually trying our best in life, there is always more we can do to improve. She related several life experiences where she wished she would have done things differently. I can definitely think of plenty in my own life. Here are a few of my notes - it is a little bit of what she said mixed with what came to my mind while she spoke.
Happiness in daily life comes from making deliberate decisions to do good and carrying them out.
I think I make a lot of decisions to do good- especially at night when all the kids are asleep and I am feeling peace, but it is so much harder to actually carry them out the next day when life becomes a whirlwind.
1- Don't let the world get into your heart. Sister Zwick shared a story about when as newlyweds, her husband "surprised" her by getting them a new (old klunker) car. She had formerly been driving a really nice convertible that was her parents. When she saw her husband pull up excitedly in an old white "klunker" he just bought for them with his hard earned money, her dissappointment was apparent in her face. She wished she could go back and change her reaction now.
This made me think of one of my regrets from high school. I remember a really shy boy calling me the night before Sweethearts to ask me out. I didn't date too much and I said yes although I didn't know what I was going to wear. $ was really tight in our family then, & I thought the "dress" was formal and figured I didn't have anything suitable to wear. I knew we couldn't afford to rent anything and didn't think I could find something to borrow on such short notice. With a little persuasion from my mom, I called the boy back and told him I couldn't go because I didn't have anything to wear. Later when I saw my friends pictures, I discovered my plain church dresses would have been just fine. I have always felt bad that I worried more about how I looked than how another person felt. I was too embarrassed to apologize.
2. Use the scriptures as a guide for your life.
Proverbs 3: 5-6¶ ^aTrust in the Lord with all thine ^bheart; and lean not unto thine ^cown ^dunderstanding.

6 In all thy ways ^aacknowledge him, and he shall ^bdirect thy ^cpaths.
I've always loved this scripture. Sister Zwick shared how this counsel had helped her with the challenges of parenting their first born son who was born with physical and mental delays.
3. Don't let secondary things get in the way of essential things.
The most important yes we can say to our children is "Yes, I have time for you."
I think that was my favorite quote from the whole conference. (Rebecca who is reading beside me disagrees, She says the most important yes is "Yes you can have some candy")
So my house may be a little bit messier, but this week I want to make a few more memories by playing Old Maid with Dan, Cooking with Chef Rebecca, throwing the ball with Jacob and dancing with Emily.
That makes me think of this quote from our prophet,
"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly." - Pres. Thomas Monson

I'm so glad for the Saturday night adult sessions. My inspiration was quite a bit more sparse while we wrestled keeping 4 kids quiet on the bench for 2 !/2 hours.