Just yesterday afternoon I sat in my music studio looking out my bay window as a stiff fall wind blew thousands of golden leaves from my neighbor’s huge trees all at once. A feeling of anticipation swept over me as I pondered all the family coming home soon for a grand Thanksgiving feasta favorite time of the year for me. Now, only one day later, I am gazing out the same window as our first full-blown snowfall nearly obscures my view of my neighbor’s home! Christmas thoughts take over my mind and I decide to call my daughter to try to get the family Christmas party on the calendar.
My thoughts are a bit scrambled this year because underlying all the happy plans for the holidays is a melancholy, a sense of loss, following the 2012 elections. I don’t remember having had this feeling in any previous election. I’ve always had a favorite candidate and voted my conscience, but if my candidate didn’t win I knew my duty was then to unite behind the winner and pray for his and our country’s success. I even felt that way in 2008 though I had definite reservations about our new president’s lack of experience. My husband and I respected him for the office he held and prayed that he would do what was right for our country. But we have been greatly disappointed.
During this election year, we dared to hope for more. We longed for past days when the country’s values and vision seemed basically to be in synch no matter which candidate prevailed. Mitt Romney’s life experience, education, and preparation made us feel that he was uniquely qualified to guide our country through perilous times. Moreover, his faith and values drew us to him with a very real hope that he could restore so much that seems to have been lost in recent times.We truly believed that he could lead America to a better place. Half of the electorate believed with us, but it was not to be.
As we watched election results, our hearts were broken. It was more than just the disappointment we had felt in some previous elections. As I posted on Facebook: “I have never cared so much about an election or felt so devastated and sad following one. I cannot stop the tears.” I felt sad for the Romney family who had sacrificed so much, but I felt even worse for what I felt our country had lost, and that we would never know what might have been.
Many people who felt as I did, blogged, posted and emailedeither searching for comfort or offering it. Some wrote upbeat, cheery platitudes immediately following the election but they came too soon for me. I needed time to mourn and to honestly acknowledge the loss I was feeling. The words of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reminded me of the only appropriate course of action there is for us now that the election is over, but the hurt lingers.
“After a long campaign, this is now the time for Americans to come together.It is a long tradition among Latter-day Saints to pray for our national leadersin our personal prayers and in our congregations. We invite Americans everywhere, whatever their political persuasion, to pray for the President, for hisadministration and the new Congress as they lead us through difficult andturbulent times. May our national leaders reflect the best in wisdom andjudgment as they fulfill the great trust afforded them by the American people.“
Years ago I co-wrote a song with Senator Orrin Hatch which might be meaningful to some (like me) who have felt such deep disappointment since the election.
Click to listen “Heal Our Land”
Heal Our Land ( 1997)
Words Orrin G. Hatch / Music Janice Kapp Perry
Soloist Pastor Wintley Phipps
Heal our land, please grant us peace today
And strengthen all who lack the faith to call on thee each day
Heal our land, and keep us safe and free
Watch over all who understand the need for liberty
Chorus:
Heal our land, heal our land and guide us with thy hand
Keep us ever on the path of liberty
Heal our land, heal our land and help us understand
That we must put our trust in thee if we would be free
Heal our land, please help us find our way
For in thy word we find our strength if we look up each day
Heal our land, and fill us with thy love
Keep us upon the path of truth that leads to heav’n above
Repeat chorus
Protect us by the power of thy rod
And keep us as one nation under God
Repeat chorus
One of my Facebook responders gently took me to task for feeling so sad and said that every family should just concentrate on teaching their own children the gospel and in that way “God’s work would get done.” I agree with him completely. President Gordon B. Hinckley has said:
As we train a new generation, so will the world be in a few years. If we are
worried about the future, then we must look today at the upbringing of children.
The evils of the world will continue to escalate unless there is an underlying
acknowledgment, even a strong and fervent conviction, that the family is an
instrument of the Almighty. It is His creation. It is also the most fundamental
and basic unit of society. And it deservesno, it demandsour combined
focus and attention. (1)
One way to help ourselves through our disappointment right now is to focus on the things we can do to make our country better and one of those fundamental things is to make our families stronger. Young children will take their cue from their parents and it is our duty to go forward in faith knowing (and teaching them) that the ultimate victor will be the Lord. All is well.
Click to listen to “God Bless Our Homes and Families”
God Bless Our Homes and Families ( 1999)
Words Orrin G. Hatch / Music Janice Kapp Perry
Soloist JohanneFrechette Perry w/choir
Where does the love of freedom begin?
Where does the love of liberty start?
How can we hope to kindle the flame
That burns in a patriot’s heart?
How will our children learn to have faith?
How will they see that virtue is strength?
How will they know this glorious land
Is blessed by the pow’r of God’s hand?
From the cradle to the grave
We hear sweet freedom’s song
In our homes and families
We learn to sing along
Chorus:
God bless our homes and families
Help them to boldly stand
For love and light and liberty
In this our chosen land
God bless the parents
To always honor freedom’s creed
God bless the children
To follow where they lead
God bless our homes and families
Where does the love of country begin?
Where are respect and loyalty learned?
How will we keep the passion for peace
That brave men of honor have earned?
How will we pass our story along?
How can we share democracy’s song?
How will we keep the vision alive
That freedom may ever burn bright?
If we honor in our homes
Those who, for freedom, died
We’ll preserve a legacy
Of hope that will survive
Repeat chorus:
God bless our homes and families
Another day has passed since I began writing this article and I’m still trying to sort out my unsettled feelings, unsure what season this is, both weather-wise and for our country.
We were dumped on overnight by a heavy wet snowstorm that snapped branches and tree limbs and eventually our power lines. As our power went out in the middle of an exciting Jazz game I was pretty unhappy. At least until I thought of our fellow Americans on the eastern seaboard who have been without powerand even without homesfor so long from the force of Hurricane Sandy. I said a heartfelt prayer for all of them and wished I could do more. All I could do was go to bed in the dark. There’s not much one can do without power.
Maybe that is what Mitt Romney is feeling too. He gave so much for so many years in an effort to lead our country in a better direction. I believe he could have done it, and I am still mourning the fact that he will not have a chance to do so. If I could write a letter that would reach him I would thank him and his beautiful family for representing our country, our church, and good people everywhere with dignity and grace. We (half the country) wanted you to win, and in so many important ways, you did.
President Gordon B. Hinckley has said,
We are involved in an intense battle. It is a battle between right and wrong,
between truth and error, between the design of the Almighty on the one hand
and that of Lucifer on the other. For that reason we desperately need men and
women who, in their individual spheres of influence, will stand for truth in a world
of sophistry. . . . We need moral men and women, people who stand on principle,
to be involved in the political process. Otherwise, we abdicate power to those
whose designs are almost entirely selfish. (2)
As I look out my bay window now, I see the sun shining on the snow-covered landscape.
I know the sun will come up inside of me again soon too. There is so much to love and cherish about our great country, and that hasn’t changed. I go back to these words of Paul:
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:9)
Click to listen to “It Will Always Be America for Me”
It Will Always Be America For Me ( 1999)
Words Orrin G. Hatch / Music – Janice Kapp Perry
Soloist James Wright
I may sail across the ocean
To far off foreign shores
And thrill to see the wonders of the world
But I know when I return, my heart and soul will burn
When once again I see our flag unfurled
For I love this fairest country of the free
It will always be America for me
When I think of all the bold ones
Who forged our liberty
And all the ones who died for freedom’s cause
I’ll remember ev’ry day the price that has been paid
To keep this land one nation under God
He will guide us to our highest destiny
It will always be America for me
I have learned the song of freedom
It plays within my soul
It will resonate within me evermore
May its melody roll on
Til every heart responds
In harmony that spreads from shore to shore
I will raise my voice in love and loyalty
It will always be America for me
I love this land of promise
Of highest hopes and dreams
Where virtue is alive and well
And freedom’s anthem rings
I have learned the song of freedom
It plays within my soul
It will resonate within me evermore
May its melody roll on
Tilev’ry heart responds
In harmony that spreads from shore to shore
I will raise my voice in love and loyalty
It will always be America for me
It will always be America for me
The songs from this article can be found on the album HEAL OUR LAND.
You can purchase this and all other titles by Janice Kapp Perry for HALF PRICE now through Christmas at www.JaniceKappPerry.com. Just be sure to enter the word Christmas in the ‘promo code’ box when ordering to get your 50% discount. All titles on the site are on sale with the exception of a few produced by other companies which have an asterisk (*) in their title.
Janice Kapp Perry: Composer, author lecturer
(1) Gordon B. Hinckley, Standing for Something, Times Book, 2000, p. 145
(2) Ibid, p. 170
