The Influence of Good Music

Today I read Exodus 15 where the majority of the chapter is the Israelites singing praises to God for their deliverance.  Music is so interesting.  We hear all the time that music can harm and that the wrong music can drive away the Spirit, and it can, it most definitely can.  But what we often forget, is that the right music will bring the Spirit and cause it to dwell with us.  It is very like the Word of Wisdom in that regard.  We are very quick to remember what we are supposed to avoid when it comes to the Word of Wisdom, but there are plenty of things that the Word of Wisdom tells us we are supposed to eat in order to be healthy.  We as Latter-day Saints, at least in America, tend to forget that and not focus on the positives.  We like the negatives, what are we supposed to avoid and that kind of thing.  But music can be a wonderful thing and can keep the Spirit in our home.  And as evidenced in this chapter, can be used to praise the Lord.

This should be nothing new to Latter-day Saints.  After all, when the church was young, the Lord told Emma Smith, Joseph Smith's wife, to prepare a hymnal of sacred music because it was a prayer unto Him.  I have always used hymns and uplifting music to calm my daughter since she was born.  My favorite hymn to sing when she is at her wits end it "I am a Child of God".  There is something about that song that speaks to our Spirits and conveys peace and happiness.  I have many memories as a child of singing that song and being overwhelmed by the Spirit.  It is a beautiful song with perhaps the most important message for children. 

The other part of this chapter that I found intriguing was the bitter waters being healed by a tree.  Now, I went to college and I remember studying about osmosis where salt and other nutrients will naturally travel to sources of other nutrients, or something along those lines.  So I have to wonder, what in the world was in that tree that made all the salt and other molecules making that water bitter immediately go to that tree so that the water was healed and became sweet and safe to drink?  I know that someday I will find out how it all works, but sometimes, when God's miracles use items and things and processes that we are familiar with, it almost makes me wonder about them more.  When it is something so miraculous, like parting the Red Sea, that I have no hope of understanding it, I am fine with accepting it as miraculous.  But when it is a miracle like this one where it seems like I should be able to understand it and it is a brain teaser, it's almost worse with me trying to figure it out.  We'll know someday.  For now, it is enough to have my testimony of the Lord and that He took care of the Israelites and that He likewise will take care of me and my family.  And that is perhaps the most comforting thought of all.  Until tomorrow.