Be Still, My Soul

I needed something to occupy my mind during my commute home today on the train; and for whatever reason, I decided I'd listen to some music on my ipod (something I feel like I hadn't done for a few weeks).

The train pulled into my stop. I walked down the stairs from the platform, crossed the street, and then started up the short block to the apartment. As I did, a hymn began playing through my headphones. I quickly skipped ahead in the queue, thinking to myself that I really needed to go back into iTunes and amend the settings on all my church music to keep them from coming up when playing music on shuffle. To my suprise, the next randomly selected song was also a church hymn. I thought to myself, "That's odd," and clicked the skip button once more. When the third song happened to also be a hymn, I decided that I had better take the hint. I'm glad I did.

I've always loved this hymn, but never before has it held so much meaning for me or meant so much in my life. Never has it seemed so beautiful. Every word sung out as a direct message, penned especially for me.

Thank you Heavenly Father, for thinking of me, and for thinking of my family (not that I ever doubted that you were). I needed that.

“Be Still, My Soul,” Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 124

1. Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;
With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev’ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav’nly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

3. Be still, my soul: The hour is hast’ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Text: Katharina von Schlegel, b. 1697; trans. by Jane Borthwick, 1813–1897

Music: Jean Sibelius, 1865–1957. © 1900 Breitkopf & Härtel. Arr. copyright, 1933, by the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education; renewed, 1961; from The Hymnal. Used by permission of The Westminister John Knox Press, Philadelphia, PA. Making copies without written permission of the copyright owner is prohibited.

Psalm 37:3–9

Doctrine and Covenants 101:14–16, 35–38

...the acquisition of spiritual qualities

There was a CES Fireside Broadcast tonight, and President Thomas S. Monson was the speaker. One of the many quotes he shared during his address to the young adults was the following from a conference talk by David O. McKay. It caught my attention, and I wanted to share:

Keep in mind that man's earthly existence is but a test as to whether he will concentrate his efforts, his mind, his soul upon things which contribute to the comfort and gratification of his physical nature, or whether he will make as his life's purpose the acquisition of spiritual qualities. [David O. McKay, CR, October 1969, p. 8]

Jared says it better

Everyone should read this post.
I'm serious. It is good.

Mr. Dungbeetle (take two)

I saw Mr. Dungbeetle for the second time on Saturday. There were a number of people that I know there to see it as well which made me really happy for several reasons:
-It just made me happy to see their faces
-I was glad they had the opportunity to experience the film

I remembered really loving the film, and having quite a moving experience the first time I saw it...but I had forgotten just how amazing this film is. It has and will be for quite some time, if not all time, one of my favorite movies. Tom (and company), once again...thank you.

General Conference

I just wanted to say how amazing General Conference was. I hope everyone was able to watch at least some of it. Over the past couple days, I've had the opportunity to talk with a number of people about some of the things that jumped out to them, or that they found interesting, etc.

I would love it if you took a moment to post a comment about an insight that you recieved during general conference.