these times

every once in awhile Mike and i check out the free song of the week that iTunes is offering (probably Mike more than myself) to see if it's worth downloading. i'm pretty sure that prior to this month i had only ever found one that i thought i would ever want to listen to again because all the other ones i'd heard were eww....i mean i couldn't properly appreciate them ;) anyhow that has since changed because we stumbled upon one last week that really turned out to be AMAZING!

i had first heard of the group SafetySuit through my dad - he has a song that they released a few years ago called "Annie" which i once heard playing on his computer and thought it was awesome (and i would suggest looking it up to listen to sometime if you haven't heard it before). i got that song and have been listening to it for a couple years. i played it for Mike at some point and he liked it too, so when he saw that the free song for the week was from SafetySuit we were both interested to hear it. and boy is it a winner!!! here, why don't you give it a listen:

wow!! when i listened to this song for the first time i remember thinking that it was so awesome to hear a pop/rock band that was giving a positive message through their music! (although since "Annie" was their first song that i heard i wasn't surprised that their music in particular would be positive) not that there aren't other bands who do the same, it just seems to me that the prevalent messages of the popular music industry tend to lean more towards either blatantly negative things, or just dumb things that don't really matter. as i've listened to this song more and more since then i have picked up on some gospel truths or thoughts that have popped into my mind when i'm listening to it. i think it is insightful how the singer mentions wanting to know why he is going through the trial, but realizes that, even though he knows there is a purpose for it, he might not get that answer right now. i also think that the message about hard times trying to define him is right on - satan would love for us to define ourselves by what is hard for us or the negative feelings we feel in life instead of focusing on our talents and skills, and the joy that love, service, and the gospel bring into our hearts and lives. going through a tough situation IS hard, but if you do start giving into despair and letting go of hope it is very difficult to change your way of thinking because despair really does have a one-track mind. and of course we know that there are always out there who are having a worse time than ourselves. 

i had a particularly tough time sunday evening and monday morning because i was feeling really stressed out about work and some changes in expectations and things that have come down from the bigwigs of the company. that resulted in my not sleeping very well in addition to having lots of worries and doubts about my abilities running through my mind. i woke Mike up before i went to work and asked him to give me a blessing which he gallantly did :) it helped me a lot by bringing the Spirit into my heart to pierce through the negative feelings. on the way to work i rocked out to this song on repeat to help me remember that it would be okay and things would get better. it also helped me to think of all the people who don't even have a job right now and how much worse they might feel not being able to provide for their families or take care of themselves among other things. the power of the Priesthood, and this song coupled with my power song ("Life in Technicolor" by Coldplay) got me ready to go and make it a great day by the time i got to work that day. things have been going great with work since as i've been doing my best and just focusing on that :) isn't it amazing the power that music can have?

one more experience i'd like to share with this song comes from watching the video. i wanted you to be able to hear the song first before watching the official video because i know that when Mike showed me they video last night, i had a hard time focusing on the lyrics and the music because i was so focused on the people in the video.

i hope you felt as touched as i did when i watched it. i admit that i cried through pretty much the whole thing and the first time through as i watched it i felt so sad to see that there are so many people going through a hard time. but the second time i was touched more by the fact that all of these people know that it will pass. i also was really touched by the how the lyrics mention holding your head up high despite what's going on around or inside of you. i think the gospel and the light of Christ that every person has within them are things that help us to have hope and to have the ability to still try to hold our head up high when times are hard. this video makes me want to always have hope with me so that i can try to give some to others whenever i come upon someone who is having a hard time - which we know that pretty much everyone is experiencing some sort of a trial at any given time whether of a lesser degree or a greater. i hope this song did something similar for you or at the very least helped you to know that whatever trial you're experiencing right now will pass and you'll make it okay :)

i am so grateful for the gospel which helps me to know that there is purpose in our trials and that even though these times are hard, they will pass and the future that we have to look forward to is more glorious than we could ever imagine :)