Cleave

"The Garden [does] for Easter what The Forgotten Carols has done for Christmas..."

To understand that statement (from an item description of The Garden soundtrack), I will briefly explain what the Forgotten Carols are for those of you who do not know:

The Forgotten Carols is a musical written and composed by Michael McClean.  It's about a nurse who has nothing better to do on Christmas so she takes care of an old man (assisted living or whatever).  This old man is perceived as going crazy as he ages, and he tells her stories about ornaments on his Christmas tree, each of them representing "forgotten" moments and characters in the story of Christmas.  There's a song about an infertile woman who gets the chance to hold Mary's baby.  A song about Joseph, saying that he could never consider himself a father of the Christ child because he learned more from the child than he could ever hope to teach as a father.  There's a song about a wise man left behind because he was sleeping, one who is left to imagine what it would've been like to see the Baby in a manger.  There's a song pleading everyone to let Christ into their Inns.  It's amazing.

So, what The Forgotten Carols is to Christmas, The Garden is to Easter.  The Garden is a musical by the same artist and it is simply amazing.  I've listened to it since I was a child.  I would duet with my mothers and sisters.  I was listening to it today and one of my dear roommates looked at me a little funny because she has never heard of it.

I wholeheartedly recommend this musical, and The Forgotten Carols, to anyone who is in the least bit interested in a good natured album of music.  It has helped me learn things about the Atonement, about myself, and about my relationship with Heavenly Father, Christ, and the Prophets.  I could never write anything beautiful enough to explain just how wonderful it is.

Choose to Cleave.
*Read my first post, "Preface," for more information about Cleaving

I was reading through my notes from institute today, and I found the scratch paper that I used to prepare for visiting teaching last month.  The lesson was about our responsibility to the rising generation, and I remember thinking a lot about how the world is becoming so much more of a difficult place to raise a decent person than it has been in the past (or so I hear/assume).

But I couldn't help thinking that's why God has preserved this generation for this time.  They can handle it.  And I took it a step further.  That also why God preserved us for this time--we can handle raising children in the world today.  We can handle the responsibility to teach them right from wrong, to raise them in the gospel, and to help them maintain the inherent goodness that each of them is born with.  It will be hard, but if God trusts me enough to bring me to Earth now and to give me the children that will be mine someday, I trust myself to know how to be the mother that those children need.

On that scratch paper, I also found an acronym I made to remind us to raise our children inside the gospel to help them develop good traits and characteristics.  The hymn is number 307, "In Our Lovely Deseret," and you can click here to read it.  It give some good, basic guidelines as to what we should strive to teach our children.  The acronym I made was based on the line "They must listen and obey the gospel's sound."  When I read that line, I realized how critical it was.  We can't just teach our children the gospel.  We have to teach them how to hear it, and not only how to hear it, but also how to obey it, even when it is hard.

So my acronym was LOGS: Listen and Obey the Gospel Sound.  I made bookmarks for the girls I visit teach with this acronym and a tagline that read "Build the youth of Zion with LOGS."  It seemed a simple way to remember that if we raise our children with LOGS and Hymn #307  in mind, we'll do alright.

Choose to Cleave.
*Read my first post, "Preface," for more information about Cleaving

Sometimes I read hymns instead of the more traditional scriptures.  Today I was reading through the lyrics of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," and I again thought of how strange it was that this song isn't in the hymn book.

Naturally, this thought let me to Google, and after performing some rather frustrating searches, I found absolutely no given reason as to why this particular song was taken out of the hymn book.  The best information I found was that the Church was adding and removing songs from the hymn book to make it more applicable internationally, and even when they took out the songs about Utah mountains and such, they still didn't have enough room for all of the hymns.  (Thank you to various sites, including the wonderful and "always correct" Wikipedia.)

So if anyone hears anything more explanatory and credible about this hymn (and yes, I still consider it a hymn though it isn't in the book--the Church said that there wasn't enough room for all of the hymns, not that there could only be a specific number of songs that could be called hymns), let me know.

Moving on, I remember my mother asking me about the meaning of some of the words/lines in this hymn.  In high school, I had an institute choir director come in one day.  He taught us about a few songs, but the one I remember most is this song.  I'll share a few pieces of random information I learned about this song (but don't worry, I won't tell you everything I know about it).

"Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come;"

What's an Ebenezer?  If you look it up in the dictionary, it's a "stone of help," and in terms of the gospel, the dictionary is not very far off.  The word Ebenezer comes from two Hebrew words meaning "help" and "stone." What the dictionary fails to mention (unless you have dictionary that discusses the history of words--I would love that dictionary if you have one, by the way) is the biblical use of this word.  Samuel once raised a stone at Mizpeh, the site where God's people were victorious over the Philistines.  He called this stone Ebenezer, a stone meant to remind the people of God's help in their victory in battle, and as such, their success in reclaiming the Arc of the Covenant.

If you read 1 Samuel, you'll realize that the Israelites actually lost many battles to the Philistines before they were able to reclaim the Arc of the Covenant.  So it is with our lives, and so it signifies in this hymn.  We raise our Ebenezer after we've won.  This line talks about the end of our mortal life, when we raise our commemorative Help Stone and acknowledge that we've come as far as we have with the Lord's help.  It's a powerful line.  So is the rest of this hymn.

One more line and question for my mom:

"Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee."

What's a fetter?  This is an easier answer.  You know those shackles people put on prisoners' feet?  Those shackles are fetters.  Doesn't sound like something you'd ask someone to put on you, right?  But if you love the Lord enough, you'd want to bind your heart to him, especially if it wandered a lot.  I don't remember much about what the Choir Director told me about this part of the song, but I can't help thinking that the Lord wouldn't shackle us to him, even if we begged.  Referring to doctrine about the Premortal Life and the Plan of Salvation, shackles would've been a tactic Satan used.  I don't even think the Lord would put us on a leash.  He eventually needs to depend on us and count on our decisions.  It's a beautiful expression, to say that you fear wandering so much that you are willing to wear shackles so He can keep you better, but He needs us to make our own decisions, to choose to cleave to Him even when we feel ourselves wandering.  Otherwise, His plan means nothing.  So instead of giving him permission to force you to stay with him,

Choose to Cleave.