Hymns

My favorite part of worship services has always been singing hymns. For me, the music in church seems to speak to my soul and touches me in ways that sermons and lessons seldom do. Hymns frequently tap an emotional and spiritual reservoir within my heart. I like how I feel when singing church hymns.

So I was surprised today to find that I was not able to sing the hymns in our meetings. Why? Because the recent memories of Laura singing with me were too much. I was overcome and simply couldn't sing.

I hope my inability to compose myself enough to sing hymns at church is a temporary condition.

Today I copied the words of two hymns which seem particularly meaningful to me right now.

The first is Where Can I Turn for Peace? by Emma Lou Thayne.

Where can I turn for peace?
Where is my solace when other sources cease to make me whole?
When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice, I draw myself apart,
searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows, where, when I languish, where, in my
need to know, where can I run?
Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?
Who, who can understand?
He, only One.

He answers privately, reaching my reaching in my Gethsemane,
Savior and Friend.
Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.
Constant he is and kind, love without end.


The second is Be Still, My Soul by Katharina von Schlegel (translated by Jane Borthwick).

Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side; With patience bear
thy cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide; In ev'ry change he
faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend thru thorny ways
leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake to guide the future
as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake; All now mysterious
shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know His voice who
ruled them while he dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: The hour is hast'ning on when we shall be forever
with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's
purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past, all safe and blessed
we shall meet at last.

Hymns are a type of prayer, it seems to me. I have such a fond memory of our family singing How Great Thou Art in sacrament meeting a few years ago. That felt like a prayer. And the hymns in my heart feel like a prayer now.