Having problems with message search?
|
What an incredible story! Thanks for sharing it!
-------Original Message-------
Date: 04/11/04 18:56:35
Subject: [ldssacredmusic] Heartwarming Experience! even musically-related! My wife visit teaches one of the most wonderful women in our ward - she was the pianist the first time I was Primary chorister. She plays the hymns and children's songs more beautiful than anyone I have met and when she sings it is the voice of a loving mother; she has just an incredible spirit about her. But right now she is going through very serious clinical depression that I will not go into as it is quite a terrible level of depression - she has been in and out of the hospital with it. My wife has been a model Visiting Teacher in showing love to this woman and supporting her, etc. Last night (Saturday night), she came over to our house to talk with my wife, and they were hidden away in my wife's study until about 11:00 PM, when my wife came out and said that this sister asked for a blessing and they had called the bishop to come over and she wanted me to assist with the blessing. Well, our bishop is the sort who talks and interviews before giving a blessing so he can be totally in tune with the needs of the person, and so that discussion, with me and the bishop now part of it, went into the wee hours. To make a long story short and to be respectful of her privacy, somewhere near the end of it I felt very inspired to speak up and to suggest something that helped me when I went through my most serious depression about 6 years ago. This sister is very musically-inclined and normally a great lover of hymns and children's songs, like I am... but with the depression she has been turning away from them. I sat and made a list of hymns - I have been studying the history behind the hymns the past few months - and I listed hymns that were written when the text writers were going through severe distress and even depression... as it turns out, many of these hymns are my favorites. I told this sister to go home and to play and sing each of these hymn every day and more often if she needed the spiritual help. Although she prays, she is going though a period that it is hard for her to pray, so I told her to play and sing these hymns when she feels she can't pray. The bishop asked me later for the list of hymns, and to his satisfaction they are all the songs he thought of when I was giving her this challenge. (Breaking News! Bruceman scores points with his bishop!) Today this sister's husband came up to me between meetings and told me that when his wife got home last night (about 1 AM this morning, actually), she went right for the piano and started playing and singing. He says it's the first she has played in "several years". He said when the family woke up this morning she was up before the family and was going through all the same songs again. I told him what I had done last night, and he smiled and thanked me because he'd been trying to get her to do the same thing! When I saw this sister at church today, she was smiling for the first time in a very, very long time. I did not get a chance to talk to her, and I probably won't because I don't want it looking like I am barging in on my wife's visiting teaching. But she looked calm and happy for the first time in a very long time. I wouldn't even pretend that singing hymns cures the level of clinical depression she is suffering through, but I think I saw today the small difference it can make in a heart and soul when some spiritual soothing is needed. And at her level of depression, a small difference is really huge and noticeable! Anyway, I just had to share this with someone because I am so happy for her! She is an incredible spirit and I have prayed for what I could do other than shake her hand and care about her. I hope I have done something that will help her. I am sharing this in hopes that maybe it will help someone else some other time. Oh, here are the songs I gave her to use: Lead, Kindly Light Though Deepening Trials Master the Tempest Is Raging A Child's Prayer (from the Children's Songbook) God Moves in a Mysterious Way It Is Well with My Soul (not in our hymnal, but I have sheet music for it) Cheers! Bruceman ===== Visit the Bruceman's world at: http://users.mstar2.net/brucewrites/ Hymn texts; lyrics; poetry;short stories; editorials; a book!; U.S. Constitution with notes; scripture study notes __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online by April 15th http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html ldssacredmusic: For discussion of the hymns and other sacred music of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and about increasing the availability and quality of recordings and sheet music and other related matters. | |||
|
|
IncrediMail - Email has finally evolved - Click HereBuy Quality Inkjet Cartridges & Refill Kits for your Printer at MyInks.com
Offline 
Send Email