Meaningful Musical Memories

Music is such a powerful medium. It evokes emotion, aids in recall and often brings to mind significant memories from the past. I often feel inspired by the often musical "Sabbath Day Inspirations" that my sister Kara shares on her craft/cooking blog so I thought I'd share a few of my own from time to time.
This weekend I was asked to fill in for our children's chorister at church and help teach a beautiful new song by Sally Deford. Our church is a bit atypical because the services last 3 hours, which can be a bit of a challenge for the children. As I listened to the song on repeat throughout the week I enjoyed hearing my little girl sing along and pondered how I could teach the song in an intriguing way and make the words from the following verse meaningful for the children.

"I feel the Holy Spirit as he teaches truth and right
He comforts me in times of need, he testifies of Christ
He speaks to me in quiet ways that fill my soul with peace
And when I listen with my heart, I hear the Savior's voice."

The lyrics brought to my mind an experience I had several years ago when I was pregnant with our 3rd child. I went in for the routine ultrasound mid-pregnancy and was informed by the ultrasound tech that our son had several cysts on his brain which are sometimes link to a serious chromosomal disorder. The tech was unable to get a clear picture of his heart so we scheduled another ultrasound the following week at the hospital where they had more high-tech equipment.
Throughout the week I thought about the many implications of the situation and felt a bit unsettled. Would our son even make it full-term? Would he ever walk or talk? How would this alter the lives of our little family? I reflected on the families I had known who had children or siblings with special needs and realized that despite the challenges we could be facing... it could also be an amazing blessing to have this special child enter our home and help all of us learn to be a bit more sensitive, kind and patient as I had witnessed in these other families. I said many prayers and felt much comfort and peace knowing that no matter what the results of the ultrasound were, the Lord would help us through it all.
Much to our relief, when we went in for the follow-up ultrasound it ended up that the cysts were completely gone and his heart was developing normally. He's now my healthy, energetic, happy, (sometimes stubborn) 6 year old who...

emphatically declared to me this week that he is done practicing the piano for good !
I guess my challenges aren't over yet :)

I am thankful for the chance that learning this song gave me to remember one of the many "tender mercies of the Lord" in my life.