A Tale of Three Hymns

As you may remember, I'm the primary music leader in my ward (for those not familiar with my religious vernacular, I teach music to the children at church) (my qualifications for this job are: none). The Come Follow Me - for Primary manual suggested singing "How Great Thou Art" as part of the lesson this week, so today for singing time, I taught it to the kids.

They LOVED it!

They were rowdy as heck, but when they sang that song, they sounded better than... well... pretty much any other time I've had them sing. I even had one kid raise his hand and ask if he could sing the chorus as a solo (I'm still trying to decide whether he was serious). It kind of makes me hope that some of them will someday say, "I love the song 'How Great Thou Art.' I learned it in primary!"

We'll see...

Anyway, I, for one, have always loved "How Great Thou Art," which got me thinking about some of the other hymns that I really like. I don't have a "favorite" hymn, but I have a few contenders. Here are a few hymns that are dear to me, and some of the reasons why.

The first is "I Need Thee Every Hour." 

I really started to develop a love for the hymns when I was in seminary. My first year of seminary, I had a teacher who was a musical prodigy. He was the first person I ever saw play a piano like this:

Jon Schmidt - not my seminary teacher

(but I wouldn't have complained if he had been)

Since my teacher played the piano so well, we always had superb accompaniment for all the hymns we sang in class (we also had some pretty amazing improvised musical numbers based on popular songs, such as "I Want You Baptized"-  an impromptu parody of "I Want You Back" by NSYNC. OUr teacher could sit down at the piano and play anything. Oh to have that gift!) 

After that year, all of my seminary teachers were non-musical and depended on the students to play the piano. Most of the piano players in my classes stuck to the simplest hymns, and that put "I Need Thee Every Hour" in the regular rotation. At first it was just any old song to me, but as I sang it more often and started memorizing it through repetition, the words started to mean more to me. Then as I grew into adulthood and started facing new adversities and learning more about the Atonement, I began to better understand the sentiment of needing the Savior every hour. 

Favorite lines:

I need the every hour, stay thou nearby. 

Temptations lose their pow'r when thou art nigh.

"In Humility Our Savior" is my favorite sacrament hymn. I don't have an experience or story to go along with this one. It just grew on me over time. I’ve always liked the harmony in this hymn. When we sing it in sacrament meeting, I'm all...

Favorite lines:

Fill our hearts with sweet forgiving;

Teach us tolerance and love.

Let our prayers find access to thee

In thy holy courts above.

I also really like “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” which is where the melody for “In Humility Our Savior” comes from. I once had the opportunity to sing it in a choir for stake conference.

Another hymn I love is "Abide with Me; 'Tis Eventide." 

The first time I heard this song, I was at my grandparents' house during General Conference. Several members of my extended family were there watching. My grandpa kept nodding off and snoring pretty loud, which gave everyone a good chuckle. Then the Tabernacle Choir began singing, "Abide with Me; 'Tis Eventide," and my grandpa began singing along with them in his sleep but eventually roused enough to think he'd been awake the whole time and finished the performance. 

I confess, my first time hearing the song, I thought, "Wow, this is nice and boring," but I could tell from my grandpa's singing that he really loved that hymn. From that point on, I thought of it as my grandpa's hymn.

Then when I was in my twenties, I had a difficult experience with my employment, and I was considering quitting my job. It was a really hard choice to make, and I struggled with it for weeks. Finally, one night, I was on my knees trying to pray about it, but I had no words. I didn't know what to ask for. So I just stayed on my knees crying and sang, "Abide with Me; 'Tis Eventide" in my head because that's what came to it. It was all I could do. 

It's been a very tender and special hymn to me ever since. 

(The next morning I walked into work and quit my job. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Three months later, I started a new job that was an absolute joy and blessing to me, and I believe the hand of the Lord was very present in getting me that position). 

Favorite lines:

Abide with me, 'tis eventide. 

Thy walk today with me 

Has made my heart within me burn 

As I communed with thee.

There are many more hymns I love, but these are some of my tops. I'm always excited when I get to church, and there's a song I love on the program.

Music... it is good.