Dear Reader,
Our Barbershop Choir, the Mountain West Voices, is getting ready for an international competition coming up in January! The song lyrics for today come from one of our contest pieces entitled, "Always." It is a love song directed to a young woman. The words describe how this man will love the girl for always, even after the spring has ended and to the end of time. It is a typical love sentiment, but the lyrics are not so typical.
While listening to this song the other day, a conversation I had with a good friend of mine came to mind. She talked to me about how I should fix a few things in my life. I told her stubbornly that I want to change these things, but I don't know how. As much as I hate to admit it, there are several things that can be done to change my life. Actually, the majority of these changes are things everyone on earth can do to turn their life in the direction they should be heading. The part that I haven't been good about is doing these things consistently. I need to do them, "Always. Not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always."
For some reason this idea is just barely beginning to penetrate my brain. We are told many times that we need to pray every day, that we need to read the scriptures every day. It started becoming clearer in my mind while talking to my friend. I was looking for something in the conversation that would be an all-solving answer. I wanted something she said to ring true with me and cause this life-changing alteration to my mentality. That is not how it works, though. We need to have these life-altering experiences every day. We need lots of reminders before something actually sticks with us as human beings.
In our Choir, the Mountain West Voices, we have several songs that all of us know such as "Blue Skies" or "Goodbye World!" We know these songs so well, yet we have not sung them in months. We know them so well because we sang them over and over again. However, it wasn't that we just sang them over and over again on one day. We sang them hundreds of times over the course of several months. Every day we all have sung those songs just because we wanted to sing. Because of that repetition, we will probably know those songs for the rest of our lives. It works the same way when trying to change our lives. We can't just resolve to change and do the right things for a day or a week or even a month, we need to make these changes permanent.
Every day is a lot. I have lived more than 8000 days. Imagine how amazing I would be at any given skill if I had dedicated just a half-hour to that skill every day. Finally, I understand a little bit more about what Alma said, "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass..." (Alma 37:6-7)
Not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always.
Our Barbershop Choir, the Mountain West Voices, is getting ready for an international competition coming up in January! The song lyrics for today come from one of our contest pieces entitled, "Always." It is a love song directed to a young woman. The words describe how this man will love the girl for always, even after the spring has ended and to the end of time. It is a typical love sentiment, but the lyrics are not so typical.
While listening to this song the other day, a conversation I had with a good friend of mine came to mind. She talked to me about how I should fix a few things in my life. I told her stubbornly that I want to change these things, but I don't know how. As much as I hate to admit it, there are several things that can be done to change my life. Actually, the majority of these changes are things everyone on earth can do to turn their life in the direction they should be heading. The part that I haven't been good about is doing these things consistently. I need to do them, "Always. Not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always."
For some reason this idea is just barely beginning to penetrate my brain. We are told many times that we need to pray every day, that we need to read the scriptures every day. It started becoming clearer in my mind while talking to my friend. I was looking for something in the conversation that would be an all-solving answer. I wanted something she said to ring true with me and cause this life-changing alteration to my mentality. That is not how it works, though. We need to have these life-altering experiences every day. We need lots of reminders before something actually sticks with us as human beings.
In our Choir, the Mountain West Voices, we have several songs that all of us know such as "Blue Skies" or "Goodbye World!" We know these songs so well, yet we have not sung them in months. We know them so well because we sang them over and over again. However, it wasn't that we just sang them over and over again on one day. We sang them hundreds of times over the course of several months. Every day we all have sung those songs just because we wanted to sing. Because of that repetition, we will probably know those songs for the rest of our lives. It works the same way when trying to change our lives. We can't just resolve to change and do the right things for a day or a week or even a month, we need to make these changes permanent.
Every day is a lot. I have lived more than 8000 days. Imagine how amazing I would be at any given skill if I had dedicated just a half-hour to that skill every day. Finally, I understand a little bit more about what Alma said, "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass..." (Alma 37:6-7)
Not for just an hour, not for just a day, not for just a year, but always.
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