Singin again

"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." - D&C 25:12

"There is music in my soul today,
A carol to my King,
And Jesus listening can hear
The songs I cannot sing." - There is Sunshine in my Soul Today

When I attended BYU-Idaho, one of my favorite activities was to gather under the stadium seats near the football field on Sunday nights. It didn't matter the temperature - it could be in the negative numbers or the triple digits - I could count on others meeting me there and having a musical prayer with our Heavenly Father. Even though the event is referred to as Stadium Singing, as we know from D&C, it really is stadium praying.

Each Sunday people gathered in groups with flashlights and head lamps or even some just using the lights from their cell phones, and with one voice they sang out of the hymn books. There were some favorites among the groups, but it was all request and sometimes there was a new song to be heard. Sometimes there would be a primary song or a song from a church youth program called EFY - and at those times, I simply stood there and listened. I have a few special hymns (two more: 1, 2) in my life and every now and then I was blessed with a tender mercy to hear them.

I often don't feel well, and so on nights when that happened, I would open the windows of my apartment and hear the joyful noises serenade me. I miss having this every Sunday in my life.

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I have had a cold for the last 6 weeks. For the most part it has been mild. I had 7 days where it was very intense, but the other 5 weeks I had at least a cough and usually a runny nose. (I made a comment to a co-worker that my nose had been running for so long it should be slimmer, toned and ready to run a marathon.) One of the downsides to this cold has been a cough that prevented singing. Worse than that, this no singing cough came at my most favorite time of the year - Christmas. I wasn't able to participate at church in the celebration of Christ's birth or in other miracles. Every time I would start to sing, I would start to cough, and I would continue to cough and eventually have to leave the chapel in search of water or cough drops.

Now I'm not a fantastic singer. When they ask for people to join the ward choir, occasionally some one will point out that they aren't asking for me in particular to join the ward choir. I'm good at backstage theatre which involves a incredible amount of not singing. However, I love to sing. I sing in my truck all the time (Usually to country those this song has been getting a lot of time in my mouth.). I have very much missed singing in church these last 6 weeks.
Today in church I was finally able to sing. It was so great. I sang with the congregation in my family ward and my singles ward. I sang in Sunday School and priesthood. I sang at the fireside tonight. I sang where ever I could sing praises unto my King.

At the end of Sacrament today, a window in heaven was open and I was given a tender mercy. After the closing prayer the postlude was played. I always sit and listen, mainly as a way to sustain the musicians in their calling. Today though I was blessed. As I sat there I thought to myself, "It is a shame we could not sing 'There is Sunshine in my Soul today.'" And as I thought it and my Heavenly Father heard it, over the pipes it came, filling my soul with love, happiness and joy. Unlike the other songs she was organing (?), our organist didn't stop after one verse. She played the notes to all four which allowed me to sing to my self verse two "There is music in my soul today," and to smile as I did so.