It was an important weekend here in our little corner of the world. ( a vision of Tevya speaking near the beginning of Fiddler on the Roof should be inserted) We had learned earlier in the month that our local Stake President, Richard Page, was being released from his calling along with his two councilors. Elder Paul Koelliker, a General Authority and member of the Quorum of the Seventy was to call the new Stake President at conference this weekend.
I attended the Saturday afternoon session and was listening as Elder Koelliker was warning about how the evil spirit was attempting to invade our homes through any crack or crevice. “Ugly things on television…”, he was explaining that we should avoid stopping on them, even for a moment, as we surfed the channels, “…get even uglier the longer you watch.”
Now, I know he was warning us about demeaning programs that offend the spirit with foul language and pornography; all the same an unrelated thought came to me. I was tempted to tap the fellow to my right to share it as a broad smile crept over me; I resisted the moment, respecting the right of the audience to hear the chosen speaker. I thought to myself, “Wow, he must have watched the Astro’s game this afternoon and seen the 4th inning; that was ugly!” Andy Pettitte had gotten the first man out, walked the next two, given up a double, attempted to throw out a guy at first after a great bunt only to have the ball end up in right field which let him get to second, then let him steal third and score on a wild pitch. It doesn’t get much uglier than that as the Astros choked out a loss.
Our Home Teacher, Bricks Corbin, came by this afternoon with a spiritual message and asked how we were doing as a family. I happened to look down at a piece of chewed plastic that was on the table while we were reviewing the events that took place at conference; a pale orange letter “A”, the kind that we have for our four year old grandson to play with on the refrigerator. We’ve been baby sitting this week and the house looks like a disaster area, in other words, pretty much normal. I guess our 8 month old granddaughter had been teething on it, that or the dog; maybe both.
I held the "edge challenged" letter for a moment and realized that it reminded me of that wax, the kind you get around Halloween. It would come in the shape of a pan flute; but nobody bought it to play music on, it was for chewing. The orange wax had almost an invisible taste that made you chew for hours on end. At some point in time you’d figure out that there wasn’t any taste left at all; but not before your jaw was sore from all that chewing.
Bricks was reminded of the little wax soda bottles that had colored sugar water. They came in green, yellow, orange and red; maybe another color, it’s been a long while. We all thought those were neat to chew on too.
We did find out that Richard Page had been called to serve the Church as some kind of legal council over in Moscow, Russia. That was interesting to hear as Elder Koelliker read the letter from President of the Church and signed by Gordon B. Hinckley and the entire Quorum of the Twelve.
In case I forgot to mention it, we did receive council to continue to pray daily, to continue to read the scriptures, to hold family home evening and to attend the temple. It seems that nothing changes, what was true before is still true.
During the Sunday session the adult choir was joined by a group of children to sing one of my favorite Primary songs, “A Child’s Prayer”. The Spirit is strong when offered up in song. I’ve linked to a simple version of this song via the title bar.
I’ve noticed, and it would appear to be true, that certain hymns and children’s songs that I enjoy the most are the ones that I am unable to sing; my voice leaves me as tears choke off my attempts to utter them. The same happened as we sang the closing hymn, “I need thee every hour”.
I’m reminded of the scene in The Sound of Music as the Captain is on stage attempting to sing, “Edelweiss”. He is only able to get a few lines into the song before his emotions take over, his voice evaporating as the Austria that he loves is also evaporating with the onset of German occupation. Maria and the rest of the audience bolster him by joining in to finish the song.
At one time we had a mother and daughter, Marylyn and Cassidy Dixon, in our Ward who could sing like song birds. Often times they would be unable to finish a song, at least not without some tears in the middle followed by the piano accompanist doing a solo while they recovered. There was always a silent bet in my mind whenever they would start to sing one of those powerfully spiritual hymns; something along the lines of, “When will their emotions make it impossible to continue?”, and wait to see if I was right based on how my own emotions were affected by their music.
When listening to a wonderfully given talk, one that is accompanied by the Spirit, the same emotions take over and I find myself unable to hold back my tears. The words spoken may not be the most important part of the listening process as that portion that is within me recognizes the Spirit and the truths which are given at that time. I have been given opportunities to hear the Spirit this weekend; for that I am grateful.
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