Music

By Kathy Lipscomb

When I was a little girl, singing time was my favorite part of church. I sang my best, and I focused on learning each new song. I learned the hymns as we sang them, trying to pay attention to the words and learn what the notes did. I’m not some fantastic musician by any means, but I love, love, love music.

When my siblings were scared and my mom wasn’t home (we didn’t live with our dads), it was the primary songs that eased them. When my mom went through a manic phase, it was my voice ringing through the house “Love at Home” that calmed her down. When darkness took over my own thoughts, it was again, my favorite primary songs that gave me strength to resist temptations.

So when I heard that my oldest son, my sweet little sunbeam who loves to sing primary songs with me at home, doesn’t sing in primary, my heart broke. And then I paid attention to people in sacrament meeting, and noticed a lot of people don’t sing there either.

Why?

Our voices blend together. No one will hear someone who may not be confident in their singing ability. A new song makes singing difficult but not enough to leave the hymn book closed.

I’m not here to shame anyone. I genuinely wish that everyone would feel the strength from these songs that I do. Music, especially church music, has helped me, even saved me, so many times throughout all different stages of my life. And the music is meant to be a prayer to our Heavenly Father. He doesn’t care how we sing as long as we participate. Music is our plea to God, it is our prayer, and it is also an answer when we least expect it. It is our show of love to God and of God’s love to us.