Now, he'll be the first to tell you that he won't be making CD's of his musical talents to sell to his fans... but that's part of what makes his musical talents so endearing! They may not be professional-level offerings, but he offers them anyway -- and blesses the world, or his little corner of it, in ways that only he can.
I think there's a lesson in that for those of us who worry that we have to shine like the top of the Chrysler-building before we can share our light... but, alas, that is not the lesson I was going to give for this post, so let me stop digressing and get back to the original purpose!
Recently, my music-man was asked to play the piano at church for when the men meet together. He agreed, under the condition that he would get to practice far in advance! So the person making the arrangements convinced another fellow to play every other week, giving my husband, Ted, two weeks to practice the assigned hymn.
As a family, we are encouraging his success by singing the hymn during our daily devotionals so he can squeeze his practicing in.
At one point during today's practice, Ted stopped playing between verses so he could apologize for the mistakes he had made. A couple of the kids responded that they hadn't noticed the missed notes, because they were too busy singing.
So there's the lesson I intended to get across originally!! If we are each too busy singing our own parts, we won't have the wherewithal to pay undue attention to the mistakes of our accompanists.
Now, it is an important part of the metaphor to note that our accompanists are supposed to lead us: our leaders aren't always perfect and need us to just keep singing even when they've messed up!!!
I sure appreciate my husband's willingness to lead our family -- in many ways beyond just our daily hymns -- even though he knows he's not perfect. And I pledge to keep singing and not take time to notice his mistakes, and trust that he's not too worried about when I get off-tune!
In spite of these errors, and maybe because of how we deal with them, we'll be making beautiful music together!
It's so true. I was ward organist in Florida and I'm not a great player. I practiced for hours and hours. I was always worried most about the sacrament hymn because I didn't want my mistakes to distract from the spirit of preparing for the sacrament. One time I messed up so many times and I was trying so hard not to cry. I mentioned this to one of the members, about how badly I botched the song and she said she hadn't even noticed. I felt blessed for my efforts, that they were too busy singing to notice my failings. After that I paid more attention to their singing, and less attention to my mistakes, and I took strength from the voices of the ward members as they sang. Their contributions helped me improve. I realized that they were supporting me in my calling by singing. That simple realization filled me with such love for my fellow brothers and sisters. Interesting how The Lord can use any calling to help us learn love and the joy of service.
ReplyDeleteOh, Jenni, it's always so good to hear from you! Thanks for sharing your personal experience... that's awesome! I hope things are happy in Idaho!
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