As Utah (primarily) and others throughout the world commemorate the arrival of the Latter-day Saint pioneers to the Salt Lake valley today, I'm tasked with taking some time to truly think about what this day means for me personally. Part of that "thinking about" experience includes recognizing that most of my ancestors from several generations back, were individuals who chose to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and thereby accept everything that went along with that choice. In some cases that included leaving their homes in England to come to where the main body of the Saints were in Ohio or Illinois. For most cases, whether immigrants or not, they faced persecution, endured hardships, made sacrifices, and traveled thousands of miles in harsh conditions to finally get to Utah.
One attribute that I'm positive made all of the difference for them was LOVE. They loved God and their Savior Jesus Christ and their faith in them propelled them forward and made their sacrifices worth it. They loved their fellow brothers and sisters which allowed them to rely on each other when times were tough (and celebrate when times were joyful). And they also loved members of their immediate family--which love was probably the most crucial of all when it came right down to it.
The Choir just performed a concert last weekend that had love as its theme. I wasn't able to be part of that experience, but I watched the concert later and really appreciated its timely message. (If you haven't seen it yet, I'd highly encourage you to take 1 hour and watch/listen to it) Today, instead of Music & the Spoken Word having the theme of "remembering the pioneers" (which is usually the case this time of year), it instead focused on love, again, and specifically love within families. I appreciated this programming decision as there were certainly plenty of listeners out there who connected more with the theme of love in families instead of remembering pioneers. The beauty of all of the songs we sang today, though, was that they simultaneously related to both themes. "Come, Come Ye Saints", and "They the Builders of the Nation" obviously speak to latter-day saints' pioneer heritage. But the lyrics touch on themes that have love at their roots and can be applied to everyone who's trying to move forward with faith. One of my favorite songs today was "Where Love Is"--not necessarily because I love that song from a musicality standpoint--but it was the way we sang it. In fact, I think this was a Music & Spoken Word FIRST. We all walked towards the center of our respective rows while those in the front went down on the small podium, surrounding Bro. Wilberg and the two orchestra players who joined us playing the harp and the flute. It made for a very intimate rendition of this song. We did this sort of thing for one of the numbers at our last Christmas Concert. But I don't ever remember doing it during a weekly broadcast. At any rate, it was a nice experience and it made me feel like we were more of a choir "family".
I hope that all of us, just like the pioneers, can center our lives on love. Whether it's loving God or whatever higher power you believe in, loving our neighbors, or loving our immediate (and I'd add, our extended) family members, I know we'll feel happier and probably feel that beautiful feeling of being loved in return.
And truly, there's no better feeling than to give and receive love.
Until next time, God be with you.
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