Paisley: Paisley.
Hi everybody, Paisley, imperfect here and today we're going to
talk about music, something that you may not know about me. I
call my friends, my family, my village. I just call them my
people. And it's not that I consider myself their leader or
something ridiculous like that. They're just my people. They're
the people that I choose to surround myself with, and so
they become mine. They're my people.
Anyway, one of my people suggested that I do an episode
on music. So here we are. I have had some very positive
experiences and some very spiritual experiences with
music, and I'm going to share a couple of those today. But
first, I want to tell you about a web page that I found on the
church's website, the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day
Saints on the website.
And I'll make sure that I copy it or that I paste it in a paste
a link in the video description, because I was going to read the
URL, but it's like church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day,
saints slash music, slash resources, slash music, dash
quotes, or something like, I don't know it's kind of long, so
I'll make sure that it's linked so you don't have to write all
of that down.
There are quotes and scriptures listed there all about, all
about music and the importance of music. If you go there, you
can type in the power of music or the importance of music, and
a whole bunch of talks will come up talking about music and how
powerful it is in our lives.
For example, President, Ruben J, Clark Jr. So this, I pulled this
quote, all of the quotes that I'm going to use today, I pulled
from the music quotes page, and this one was President
J Reuben Clark,
or Reuben J Clark Jr.
He said, I'll make sure that it's correct when I post it on
Instagram. But he said, we get nearer to the Lord through music
than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.
If you remember, I remember from my my seminary teaching days,
the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me. It's in the
Doctrine and Covenants, and actually both of those are a
really good opening to my first memorable experience with music
and how it changed my life. So I was a teenager and my family was
falling apart. I am the oldest of four kids, and at the time, I
was the only one of the kids who really had a good idea of what
was what was going on, what was happening. And before I keep
going, I need to be clear about something. As I've gotten older,
I've realized how difficult it is to be a grown up
and a parent. I don't think that that excuses our behavior. And
forgiveness is definitely an active and an ongoing thing for
me, but I tell you that because the story is very personal, both
for me and for my parents, and I'm sharing it without their
permission, not because I don't necessarily think I could get
it, but because it's an important story for me, it's
important for my own life, it helped shaped me and helped me
to become who I am. So all of that being said, it seemed like
my family was falling apart at the time. I was 14 or 15, and I
found out that there was a word of wisdom problem that was
affecting my family. I had been taught since the day I was born.
I was born and raised in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints, and I had been taught since the day I was born
that breaking the word of wisdom was not okay. If you don't know
what the word of wisdom is, you can do a quick search, and
you'll find out pretty quick. I would recommend that you go to
the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints website to do
that search, because there was a lot of misinformation. If you
don't anyway, I had been taught, you know, we don't drink coffee,
we didn't even drink herbal tea, like we were pretty strict word
of wisdom followers. And so to find out that there was a
problem in my home was difficult, something that you've
been taught since the day you were born, and now you're a
teenager in the middle of being a teenager, and you find out
that there's a problem. But there we were, my parents,
marriage was hanging by a thread. Again, 14 or 15, I was
an awkward teenager. We lived kind of far from everybody in
our ward and everybody at school. I don't really know how
to explain that, other than we were living in the middle of a
military base and nobody else lived close by. Everybody else
was off of the. Military Base took us about a half an hour to
get to church every Sunday, which is not that big of a deal,
unless you live in Utah and it's right down the street. Anyway.
We lived far away from everybody, so I didn't really
have any friends. I was very rarely invited to things, and
usually I was only invited because some teenagers parents
encouraged them to invite me. Why don't you invite ABI along
see if she wants to come? It's fine. That's what we're supposed
to do. And so they would invite me along. And plus, well, my
face. We've talked about this too many times, probably, and
I'll probably keep talking about it, but I am blessed with the
resting grump face, and nobody really wants to hang out with
somebody who seems to be grumpy all the time, especially not
when you're a teenager and you're already grumpy enough on
your own, right? So here I was in sacrament meeting one day,
and all of these things came crashing in on me, no friends at
school, no friends at church. My siblings don't know what's going
on at home. My mom and dad are fighting all the time, and as
the oldest, it felt like my responsibility to make sure that
the other three had the things I thought they were missing, which
I now know is not my job, but that's not what this is about.
Plenty of other grownups in my ward knew by now what was going
on between my parents, but none of them were talking to me about
it either. They were encouraging their kids to reach out to me
without any context. So I became the service project. Everything
just felt like a giant mess, and I was crying myself to sleep
every night, almost every night, because it was the only way I
could get to sleep, and I didn't have any other way to release
any of my emotion. So now, at this point in my life, I am
presented with the opportunity to justifiably rebel, if it's
good enough for them, it's good enough for me. I had plenty of
reason and plenty of excuses and the perfect opportunity. So I
did what plenty of other people have done, and I took it to God.
I told him that I needed to know he was there. I told him that I
needed to know that he knew who I was and I was I told him I was
either going to be all in or all out. I felt very much alone, and
I just couldn't do it by myself anymore. So again, here I was in
sacrament meeting, really just going through the motions. I was
there. I was going to go to Sunday school after that, and
young women's after that, and I just, I was just there. But then
we sang the sacrament hymn, and that day it was number 136, I
know that my Redeemer lives the end of the first verse is the
end of the first verse where it says He lives to bless me in
time of need. Plucked a heartstring. It was like
somebody snapped in my face to get my attention. And so I was
kind of like, okay, you've got my attention. And then we get
into the second verse, And the part that says he lives to
comfort me when faint a little bit more than a pluck. He lives
to hear my soul's complaint. I started to cry. I had definitely
been complaining quite a bit. He lives to wipe away my tears had
me sobbing. And by the time we got to He lives to calm my
troubled heart, I knew that my father in heaven and my Savior
were well aware of me. My exact circumstance was known, my lack
of friends and support was known. I was known, and now all
of a sudden, I knew that all of those nights that I had spent
crying myself to sleep, I had not been crying by myself. I had
not been crying alone. I had had somebody there to wipe away my
tears and to silence all my fears.
And that's when I decided and chose to be all in there is
another experience that I'll share, but I wanted to get up
with another quote first. This one is from President David O
McKay in 1945 he said music is truly the universal language,
and what it is excellently expressed how deeply it moves
our souls. Notice that he does not speak specifically to
religious music. He doesn't say the music of the Tabernacle
Choir is the universal language. He doesn't say church music or
LDS hymns or other inspired hymns. He doesn't say that he's.
Says music is truly the universal language, and I'm
using that on purpose because I'm a firm believer that the
Holy Ghost can use anything, anything, all different kinds of
music to reach us. I've shared previously that my husband and I
struggled with infertility for over a decade, and so it should
be no surprise that when I was finally pregnant past eight
weeks, I had had three miscarriages by this time,
right? And so by the time I was pregnant past eight weeks,
everything freaked me out. Everything about the pregnancy
freaked me out. The first time she moved, I was like, Oh my
goodness. What the heck is going on? Everything caused a mini
panic attack. There was one day in particular that I was getting
ready for work and something happened. And I don't remember
exactly what it was that happened, but it was something.
It was enough to get me to panic just a little bit. My husband
was at work already. I and I was, I was getting ready and was
just gonna head off to work. And by this point in my life,
whenever I start to panic, well, by this, this point when I was
pregnant with my daughter, whenever I would start to panic,
I would start to pray and just be like, okay, am I freaking
out, or are you trying to tell me something? And so I was doing
my best to stay calm, because that was my doctor would always
told me, You should stay calm. Everything is fine. You don't
need to worry about anything. Everything is fine. Everybody's
healthy, everybody's safe, it's fine. It didn't matter what
anybody said I would start to panic. I got myself ready for
work, and I got in the car before I turned on the car,
before I started moving, I just quickly closed my eyes and said
another just quick prayer, asking for comfort before I
started to drive, took a deep breath, turned on the car, and
immediately the song that came on was a song called fight song
by Rachel Platten. And instantly I felt that this song was my
girl's song. She was a fighter, and she was going to win.
Everything was going to be okay, better than okay, because this
girl was going to make it. I cried all the way to work, happy
tears. I cried all the way to work, and that song has forever
been her anthem, still to this day, when that song comes on, we
blessed it, and we sing at the top of our lungs. So it doesn't
have to be a hymn. It doesn't have to be perfect music in
someone else's opinion of perfect for it to speak to you,
a couple more quotes about the power of music before I wrap
this up. President George Albert Smith said, I wonder sometimes
if we realize the importance of music. I wonder if we know that
the Lord Himself is concerned about it. He has given us the
information that the song of praise is a prayer unto Him. It
is our privilege, yea, our blessing, to sing, and our songs
should be sung in righteousness. Then from then elder Russell M
Nelson. So before he was President Nelson, he said, it
really matters what you listen to, select music that will
strengthen your spirit. And if I remember correctly, that was in
the 90s when he said that I'll make sure that it gets posted
somewhere. And here's my favorite one today and a little
plug for your ward choir elder Graham w doxey In 1991 said,
When you sing the hymns, ponder the meaning of the words, enjoy
the spirit of the music. Sing with enthusiasm, without regard
to your tones. You will have a good feeling, and your spirit
will be enlivened. Um, don't worry about what you sound like.
God doesn't care. And he's he's really the one we're singing
for, isn't he? So it doesn't matter. And I mean, frankly, not
that many people around you care either. There is a sister in our
ward who is mostly deaf. She doesn't have any words. She does
make sounds, but she doesn't have any words. And she sings,
and she sings at the top of her lungs. She sings without shame,
and I wish I had her courage anyway. Thank you to my people
for the suggestion to talk about music today. I appreciate it. I
don't know where I would be without it, and I hope I never
have to find out. Keep growing, keep learning and keep singing
until next time. Thanks guys. You.