30 Dollars Later

This weekend I attended a wedding shower for a young lady who was actually one of my Beehives when I first served in that calling 6 years ago. She was one of my favorites who I had a lot of hope for. Unfortunately, choices were made along her path that took her a slightly different direction. Details aren't important and I don't really know any anyway, but between choosing the wrong sorts of associations and what not, she has chosen a different life from the one the gospel teaches.
It made me quite sad when I got the wedding shower invitation (she had eloped, so this was an 'after the fact' shower), but I went regardless. The boy (although not there) seems nice enough and I really do hope they have a good life together. But I couldn't help but reflect on what a sad choice this was.
Jim and I have talked quite a bit since receiving the invitation about the scary world we are raising our children in and the importance of the choices they make, the friends they choose, etc. Before attending the wedding shower, Jim and I talked more about it and we were kind of wondering why neither of us really had a desire to be rebellious youth. Anyway, we kind of left it at that.
But then as I was on my way to take a shower and get dressed, a song suddenly popped into my head. It was one I probably hadn't heard since I was a youth, but one I remember loving. "Have You Received His Image In Your Countenance" (by Janice Kapp Perry). The words kept coming to me as I showered and dressed and brought tears to my eyes, and I suddenly had a strong impression that I needed to be surrounding my children with uplifting and spiritual music. I felt very strongly that one of the reasons I desired to do good as a youth was because I constantly had good thoughts and music flowing in my mind. I remembered my mom and dad setting strict guidelines on the type of music that was allowed in our home. We never really listened to "pop" music. It was generally either the soft music stations, or church music (not the hymns... but music done by LDS artists). I think The Beach Boys and The Monkeys were about as "pop" as we got. :)

So before I could let this prompting slide, I quickly jumped onto iTunes and looked up the music I had listened to as a youth. Three albums and $30 later, I was sitting with a small library of wonderful and uplifting music that I am excited to introduce to my children. All three albums were from Janice Kapp Perry: The Light Within, I Walk By Faith, and I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus. (The first two are more for youth ages--although we will definitely be listening to them anyway!-- and I got the last one to be more appropriate to our kids' ages right now.) {Funny aside: As I was sitting at the computer doing this, Jim came in and I told him I had just bought three albums, and he kinda looked at me wide-eyed and said "So... like you just spent $30 on music?" I said, "Yes. But just think of it as an investment in our children's spiritual future." He was on board. :) I love that man! :)} I burned the last one to CD and we listened to it yesterday after church as we were playing games as a family and having family rest time. And as the music was playing, my heart relished in the feelings of the Spirit and the peacefulness that came into our home... knowing our children were receiving gospel messages even while listening to fun and happy music.

It's funny because, every day I pray for guidance to know how I should raise my children and the things I should be doing to help their testimonies grow, etc. and this is the first time I have felt like I have actually been guided in a major step in the right direction. I know that's not really the case, but perhaps it's just the first time I've really paid attention.