Women at the Well

For our Relief Society Birthday Social this year, a friend in our ward wanted to put on a musical presentation depicting the women who Christ had contact with throughout his life. It is a beautiful program that shares many of the miracles he performed and was a nice change from the typical "history of Relief Society" presentation. I don't know, maybe I am the only one who feels this way, but after 21 years of hearing about the history of RS once a year, I welcomed the change! Unfortunately, what I didn't know at the time was that this friend of mine would be recruiting me to sing one of the songs in the presentation! Those who know me know that I am NOT a singer. As a matter of fact, pretty much the only people in our family who do sing are Joshua and Shelby. The rest of us attempt (well, Caleb won't even attempt) to hold a tune and we do best in a choir setting. My friend eased my mind by telling me that I would be part of a small group and the others in the group were more accomplished singers, so it would be fine. At our first practice, we discovered that none of us felt comfortable!

As we learned our song, Heidi, Erin and I started to feel more comfortable. We even thought we sounded pretty darn good with the acoustics in Heidi's kitchen as we stood around singing along to the dvd player! However, our first official practice with the group didn't go so well.....we forgot the words several times and we were told we looked scared to death! (Why wouldn't we? We WERE scared to death!) Through it all though, I felt the words of the music testify to my heart of my purpose as a woman and mother. I was strengthened as I brought the beautiful qualities I was singing about home to my family.

The night of the program came and due to sick kids and schedules, we hadn't practiced together for over a week. We met at the church a few minutes early and were a little nervous as we practiced. We never did get all the way through our song without a mistake during practice. However, once the program started, we were able to pull it off without a hitch! The music was beautiful, the spirit was strong, and I was so glad to have had the opportunity to participate. Thank you Darla, for bringing the spirit of Christ into my home over the past few weeks and for helping me to stretch myself just a little bit! And thank you to Erin and Heidi who suffered right along with me as we stretched! It has been an incredible experience.