Music In My Life

My parents love to sing and play different instruments. My father plays the saw, the bones, the spoons, the scrubbing board, and a few other odds and ends that were once something else in the house besides a musical instrument. (Somewhere I am sure I have a picture of him in his crazy saw hat).  My mother plays the guitar and the banjo, and several other old fashioned instruments as well, all things that she has played and practiced at for years.
That is the real secret. She has played and practiced for years.  She has been working hard at her instruments since she was very young.  She has had lessons, practiced, taught, belonged to music groups, and incorporated music into nearly every part of her life.  When she married my father, she took him along with her and he had to learn to play something.  He likes to play the things that get the most attention and that are the most fun.  My mom often says that she spent years learning to play and people will not even notice what she is playing once my dad gets started with his ordinary non-instruments that have become instruments.  I love the fact that she has found a way to take something she loves and make it part of what she does daily.

How totally amazing is that???  

It is such an example to me, that we can live those things that we love.  It is a part of who I am.  And it is part of the reason that I blog.  I too, love music, and I love quotes and thoughts and writing and scriptures.  So, those are the things that I put in my blog.  I love finding things the Lord has said and making them a part of me.  I love bringing those thoughts and feelings to life through the things I write and the things I do.  I have learned through practice, that if I want to feel the spirit stronger in my day to day living, I have to look for it, find it, and cherish it.  I have learned that in the small, simple, ordinary, everyday things, there is often a message.  Heavenly Father doesn't shout it from the roof tops.  He doesn't speak with a loud voice.  His message is often soft and quiet.  It is sent to heal my heart and clear my mind and brighten my life.  I, like my mom and dad, have learned to find the music of the Lord in the most ordinary places.  

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." -Psalm 119:105

"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." -John 1:5

This song is one of my favorites that my mom and dad sing and perform.  It is a very old song from the 1800's.  I love the message of the words and I love the tune when it is sung. The message that I learn from this is that we each have the responsibility of being a light along the shores of life.  We never know when what we do, or say,  will have an influence upon others around us.  We never know how we might be able to reach out and change someone's life for the better.  We never know how our simple example can influence others and help them on their journey.  

Let the Lower Lights Be Burning
Philip P. Bliss 1838 - 1876

Brightly beams our Father's mercy
From His lighthouse evermore,
But to us He gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

Chorus:  Let the lower lights be burning!
               Send a gleam across the wave!
               Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
               You may rescue, you may save.

Dark the night of sin has settled,
Loud the angry billows roar;
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore

Chorus:  Let the lower lights be burning!
               Send a gleam across the wave!
               Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
               You may rescue, you may save.

Trim your feeble lamp, my brother!
Some poor sailor tempest tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.

Chorus:  Let the lower lights be burning!
               Send a gleam across the wave!
               Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
               You may rescue, you may save.