Day 16 of 365: Tuesday-Songs of the heart

Earlier today, I was moved by the message of a song. This song is about a little angel boy wants to be able to sing for the birth of the Christ child. He goes before the musical tribunal to be judged on his ability to sing. But the sounds that come out are not reflective of musical gift. With a disappointed look, the little angel pleads for another change from the head judge, and says "Oh, if only you could hear the song of my heart."

When the angel boy opens his mouth with a second chance to sing, the song of his heart was revealed to the musical judges- and everyone was in awe of the beauty, which moments before they could not hear--for they only judged him superficially.

I was moved as I considered this concept--especially where I am a singer. Unfortunately, I am not the

most confident of singers. I've spent my life wanting to sing perfectly, or sing with a special style, or sing to be approved of by those listening.

As I listened to this message I was touched and I offered a silent prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for helping me to be able to sing, and for giving me another reminder that the music of my heart and voice has a value that will not always be understood by those listening.

God has long tried to teach me that I should not be so harsh on myself for not fitting in and being accepted. He's tried to teach me that being beautiful, or singing beautifully is not as important as having clean and crystalline corridors of the heart and mind, to allow for the flow of His divine music through purified hearts and hands.

I know that most people want to feel loved, included, accepted, and validated for being good at something. I think that is only natural to want those things. But somewhere along the line, we really have to take a long hard look inside ourselves and ask if the life choices we are making are leading us in the direction that will bring us peace and happiness.

If we can affirm that they are, then we need to keep diligently moving in that direction of righteousness. If we know and feel we are not doing things to bring us peace and happiness, then it's time to make a quick course correction. Life is too short to delay the important things for "someday."

I hope that we will each do our very best before Heavenly Father. I hope we will worry less about what others think of us, and start worrying most about what Heavenly Father wants us to do and become. Life can be sweeter. I know that no matter what difficult circumstances we may find ourselves we can have peace through Christ.

Doctrine and Covenants 25:12

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 hope you will take the necessary steps that will bring you lasting and eternal joy.
Let us sing praises with our hearts in all we do!
Christine

P.S. Here is a talk about not delaying good life choices. I recommend it all! :) But here's an excerpt and a video. https://www.lds.org/ensign/1999/11/do-not-delay.p1?lang=eng

When responsibility is accepted and the urgency to repent is felt, the question may come, “Where do I start?” Each life is unique. But for all, repentance will surely include passing through the portal of humble prayer. Our Father in Heaven can allow us to feel fully the conviction of our sins. He knows the depths of our remorse. He can then direct what we must do to qualify for forgiveness. For serious sin, we will need to confess to a judge in Israel and accept his guidance. Prayer alone will in that case not be enough. But for all of us, whatever the gravity of our sins, prayer will open the door to repentance and forgiveness. Without earnest prayer, repentance and cleansing are not possible. When the door is opened by prayer, there is possibility for peace. 

One of the questions we must ask of our Heavenly Father in private prayer is this: “What have I done today, or not done, which displeases Thee? If I can only know, I will repent with all my heart without delay.” That humble prayer will be answered. And the answers will surely include the assurance that asking today was better than waiting to ask tomorrow. 

I testify that the words of a servant of God, spoken long ago, are true:

“For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. 

“And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. 

“Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world” (Alma 34:30–34).

There is another temptation to be resisted. It is to yield to the despairing thought that it is too hard and too late to repent. I knew a man once who could have thought that and given up. When he was 12 he was ordained a deacon. Some of his friends tempted him to begin to smoke. He began to feel uncomfortable in church. He left his little town, not finishing high school, to begin a life following construction jobs across the United States. He was a heavy-equipment operator. He married. They had children. The marriage ended in a bitter divorce. He lost his children. He lost an eye in an accident. He lived alone in boardinghouses. He lost everything he owned except what he could carry in a trunk. 

One night, as he prepared to move yet again, he decided to lighten the load of that trunk. Beneath the junk of years, he found a book. He never knew how it got there. It was the Book of Mormon. He read it through, and the Spirit told him it was true. He knew then that all those years ago he had walked away from the true Church of Jesus Christ and from the happiness which could have been his. 

Later, he was my more-than-70-year-old district missionary companion. I asked the people we were teaching, as I testified of the power of the Savior’s Atonement, to look at him. He had been washed clean and given a new heart, and I knew they would see that in his face. I told the people that what they saw was evidence that the Atonement of Jesus Christ could wash away all the corrosive effects of sin. 

That was the only time he ever rebuked me. He told me in the darkness outside the trailer where we had been teaching that I should have told the people that while God was able to give him a new heart, He had not been able to give him back his wife and his children and what he might have done for them. But he had not looked back in sorrow and regret for what might have been. He moved forward, lifted by faith, to what yet might be. 

One day he told me that in a dream the night before, the sight in his blind eye was restored. He realized that the dream was a glimpse of a future day, walking among loving people in the light of a glorious resurrection. Tears of joy ran down the deeply lined face of that towering, raw-boned man. He spoke to me quietly, with a radiant smile. I don’t remember what he said he saw, but I remember that his face shone with happy anticipation as he described the view. With the Lord’s help and the miracle of that book in the bottom of a trunk, it had not for him been too late nor the way too hard. 

I testify that God the Father lives. I know that. And He loves us. His Only Begotten Son lives. Because He was resurrected, we too will live again. We will see then those we have loved and who have loved us. We can through faith and obedience have family associations forever. Those in our families who love us, on both sides of the veil, would say as we consider whether to humble our hearts and repent, “Please, do not delay.” That is the Savior’s invitation and His plea. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.