Brothers and sisters, thank you for that beautiful music.
Years ago I listened to a radio interview of a young doctor who
worked in the hospital on the Navajo Indian reservation
in Arizona.
He told of an experience he had one night
when an old Native American man with long braided hair
came into the emergency room.
The young doctor took his clipboard, approached the man,
and said, "How can I help you?"
The old man looked straight ahead and said nothing.
The doctor, feeling somewhat impatient, tried again.
"I cannot help you if you don't speak to me," he said.
"Tell me why you've come to the hospital."
The old man looked at him and said, "Do you dance?"
As the young doctor pondered the strange question,
it occurred to him that perhaps his patient
was a tribal medicine man who, according
to ancient tribal customs, sought
to heal the sick through song and dance
rather than through prescribing medication.
"No," said the doctor, "I don't dance.
Do you dance?"
The old man nodded yes.
Then the doctor asked, "Could you teach me to dance?"
The old man's response has for many years
caused me much reflection.
"I can teach you to dance," he said,
"but you have to hear the music."
Sometimes in our homes, we successfully
teach the dance steps but are not
as successful in helping our family
members to hear the music.
And as the old medicine man well knew,
it is hard to dance without music.
Dancing without music is awkward and unfulfilling,
even embarrassing.
Have you ever tried it?
In section 8 of the Doctrine and Covenants,
the Lord taught Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, "Yea, behold,
I will tell you in your mind and in your heart,
by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you
and which shall dwell in your heart."
We learn the dance steps with our minds,
but we hear the music with our hearts.
The dance steps of the gospel are the things we do;
the music of the gospel is the joyful spiritual feeling
that comes from the Holy Ghost.
It brings a change of heart and is the source
of all righteous desires.
The dance steps require discipline,
but the joy of the dance will only
be experienced when we come to hear the music.
There are those who ridicule members
of the Church for the things that we do.
That is understandable.
Those who dance often appear strange or awkward or, to use
a scriptural term, peculiar to those who cannot hear
the music.
Have you ever stopped your car at a stoplight next to a car
where the driver is dancing and singing
at the top of his lungs, but you can't
hear a sound because your windows are rolled up?
Didn't he look a little peculiar?
If our children learn the dance steps
without learning to hear and to feel
the beautiful music of the gospel,
they will over time become uncomfortable with the dance
and will either quit dancing or, almost as bad,
will keep dancing only because of the pressure
they feel from others who are dancing around them.
The challenge for all of us who seek to teach the gospel
is to expand the curriculum beyond just the dance steps.
Our children's happiness depends on their ability
to hear and love the beautiful music of the gospel.
How do we do it?
First, we must keep our own lives
attuned to the correct spiritual frequency.
Back in the olden days before the digital age,
we found our favorite radio station
by carefully turning the radio dial
until it lined up perfectly with the station's frequency.
As we approached the number, we could hear only static.
But when we finally made the precise alignment,
our favorite music could be heard clearly.
In our lives, we have to align with the correct frequency
in order to hear the music of the Spirit.
When we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism,
we are filled with the heavenly music
that accompanies conversion.
Our hearts are changed, and "we have no more disposition
to do evil, but to do good continually."
But the Spirit will not endure unkindness or pride or envy.
If we lose that delicate balance in our lives,
the rich harmonies of the gospel can quickly become dissonant
and can ultimately be silenced.
Alma asked the poignant question,
"If ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love,
I would ask, can ye feel so now?"
Parents, if our lives are out of tune
with the music of the gospel, we need to tune them up.
As President Monson taught us last October,
we must ponder the path of our feet.
We know how to do it.
We must walk the same path that we
walked when we first heard the heavenly strains of gospel
music.
We exercise faith in Christ, repent,
and take the sacrament--we feel more strongly the influence
of the Holy Ghost.
And the music of the gospel begins
to play again in our lives.
Second, when we can hear the music ourselves,
we must try our best to perform it in our homes.
It is not something that can be forced or compelled.
"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained
by virtue of the priesthood" or by virtue of being the dad
or the mom or the biggest or the loudest, "only by persuasion,
by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, ...
by love unfeigned; [and] by kindness."
Why would these attributes lead to increasing
power and influence in a home?
Because they are the attributes that
invite the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.
They are the attributes that tune our hearts
to the music of the gospel.
When they are present, the dance steps
will be performed more naturally and joyfully by all
of the dancers in the family, without the need for threats
or intimidation or compulsion.
When our children are little, we can sing them
the lullaby of love unfeigned.
And when they are obstinate and refuse to go to sleep at night,
we might need to sing the lullaby of long-suffering.
When they are teenagers, we can tune out
the cacophony of arguments and threats
and instead perform the beautiful music of persuasion
and perhaps sing the second verse of the lullaby
of long-suffering.
Parents can perform in perfect harmony
the tandem attributes of gentleness and meekness.
We can invite our children to sing along with us in unison
as we practice kindness toward a neighbor who is in need.
It won't come all at once.
As every accomplished musician knows,
it takes diligent practice to perform beautiful music.
If early efforts at making music seem dissonant and discordant,
remember that dissonance cannot be corrected by criticism.
Dissonance in the home is like darkness in a room.
It does little good to scold the darkness.
We can only displace the darkness by introducing light.
So if the basses in your family choir
are too loud and overbearing, or if the string
section in your family orchestra is a little
too shrill or a little bit sharp,
or if those impetuous piccolos are out of tune or out
of control, be patient.
If you're not hearing the music of the gospel in your home,
please remember these two words: keep practicing.
With God's help, the day will come
when the music of the gospel will fill
your home with unspeakable joy.
Even when performed well, the music
will not solve all of our problems.
There will still be crescendos and decrescendos in our lives,
staccatos and legatos.
Such is the nature of life on planet earth.
But when we add music to the dance steps,
the sometimes complicated rhythms
of marriage and family life tend to move
toward a harmonious balance.
Even our most difficult challenges
will add rich, plaintive tones and moving motifs.
The doctrines of the priesthood will
begin to "distil upon [our] soul as the dews from heaven.
The Holy Ghost [will] be [our] constant companion,
and [our] scepter," a clear reference to power
and influence, will be "an unchanging scepter
of righteousness and truth; and [our] dominion
[will] be an everlasting dominion,
and without compulsory means it [will] flow unto [us]
forever and ever."
May it be so in each of our lives and in each of our homes
is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.