Music

Introduction

I’m writing about this subject because I am working on it in my own life. At the beginning of each year I write a list of personal goals and I noticed this morning that “give service regularly” had worked its way up to #2 this year. Looking back on my lifetime of experiences I’m feeling that it should always have been #1, and I hope that in the coming years I can bring it to its rightful place at the top of my list and in my heart. President Thomas S. Monson has counseled, “The needs of others are ever present, and each of us can do something to help someone. . . . . Unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives.” (1)

I have felt the joy that comes from giving service and it is very sweet and desirable. Many people who have helped us at critical times in our lives must surely have felt this joy also. I still remember their acts of kindness-deeds that were sometimes large and heroic, but often just simple acts of kindness and caring at critical times.

The Apricot Jam Crisis

Doug and I spent our first full year of marriage in Pacific Grove, California, two blocks from the ocean. We rented a small cottage behind a larger home and spent an idyllic year there while Doug studied Russian at the Army Language School. One weekend he decided to make some apricot jam. He purchased the fruit and spent all afternoon at the task. Finally the twelve pints of jam were lined up on the table on proud display. As he finished pouring the hot paraffin wax into each jar to seal it, he briefly leaned on the drop-leaf table on which they were sitting causing the table to fall and all the bottles to crash and break, and the fruit to splash everywhere-floor, walls, appliances, cupboards and even the ceiling! Truly it was a disaster. I heard a yell and a big thud as Doug slipped on the fruit and fell hard on his backside in the mess. I came quickly but Doug yelled for me to stop. I was six or seven months pregnant and he was afraid I would fall too.

Soon Doug was up and sitting on a chair and I inched my way carefully to sit on his lap where we both laughed and cried and felt grateful he wasn’t hurt worse. But when I got up from the chair I could see a large pool of blood under the chair and more was steadily dripping-he had cut a large gash in his backside and we knew we needed to get him to the hospital at Ft. Ord. We stuffed a towel in his pants to put pressure on the bleeding and I drove to the hospital. As I watched the doctor clean the wound and stitch it, I was thinking about the mess in our kitchen and wondering how I would ever be able to safely clean everything up.

Two hours later we returned home to face the mess. I knew Doug couldn’t help me and wondered how I would manage. But when we opened the door to our kitchen we saw no sign of the mess at all! Our kitchen was sparkling clean. We wondered how this could be, as we had told no one. We went to bed with most grateful hearts having no idea who our benefactors were-we just knew they were angels to us!

The next morning a young couple from the big house, Bruce and Flo Decker, came by and asked if we were okay. They had heard Doug yell as he fell, then saw us leave quickly in our car, and had gotten the master key and looked in our apartment to see broken glass, fruit stuck everywhere and blood on the floor. They went to work cleaning up and disposing of any evidence of our calamity. We thanked them profusely and their response was simple but very significant: “We were so happy we could do something to help!” Whoever wrote the Primary song “When We’re Helping We’re Happy” knew what they were talking about.

There really is nothing quite like the joy we feel from serving others. Children learn this concept very early in Primary, but it usually takes a lifetime of practice to internalize the concept. Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin spoke of the power of this principle when he said, “Kindness is the essence of greatness. . . . [It] is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends. It softens hearts and molds relationships that can last lifetimes.” (2)

On our mission to Chile I wrote a children’s song on the subject of serving others that was later published in the Friend magazine and recorded on one of our albums.

Stream audio for “I’m learning the ways of Jesus”

 

I’m Learning the Ways of Jesus
(from the album “As a Child of God“)
Words & Music by Janice Kapp Perry
Soloist: Natalie Farnsworth

I’m learning each day to be caring and kind
I think of good deeds in my heart and my mind
I try every day to give love away
I’m learning the ways of Jesus

So if I see someone who’s lost or afraid
I’ll offer to help, that’s a choice I have made
Or if I see someone who just needs a friend
I’ll speak to them kindly and spend time with them
I try every day to give love away
I’m learning the ways of Jesus

I’m learning each day to be friendly and fair
I try to help others, I willingly share
I try every day to give love away
I’m learning the ways of Jesus

So if I see someone who can’t walk or run
I’ll think of some ways I can help them have fun
Or if I see someone who can’t see or hear
I’ll tell them that I’ll be their eyes or their ears
I try every day to give love away          

I’m learning the ways of Jesus

Our Twenty-four Hour Miracle

Eleven years and five-children later a whole new set of friends helped us in an unforgettable way. We had lived in Bloomington, Indiana, for six years while Doug was in graduate school but had been thinking of moving back to Utah as my father was terminally ill with cancer.

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  Suddenly his condition became critical and we knew we would have to act quickly if we were to get there before his passing. Dear friends (who had so kindly supported us when our fifth child had died shortly after his birth two years earlier), once again organized to give whatever help we needed. An army of angels, disguised as ward members, showed up the following day to help us pack all our belongs, load them into a moving truck, clean the home we were renting completely and send us on our way with prayers and love and food in a short twenty-four hour span.

We began our long trek with tears of gratitude in our eyes, praying that we would arrive in Utah in time to see my father one last time. We arrived in Orem, Utah, on a Wednesday and drove straight to my parents’ home where I was able to spend three days with my family and express my love and gratitude to my wonderful father before he passed away on Saturday. Our friends’ service also allowed me to remain in Utah and help my mother adjust to life without my dad, while we were getting settled in Logan, Utah.

How does one ever repay such kindnesses? The only answer is to pay it forward when we have the chance to help others in need. That is the way of the church, we have built-in friends wherever we may live-friends that help us move in, move out, and even move on in faith when tragedies come into our lives.

Paying it Forward

One of our chances to “pay it forward” happened during our mission to Santiago Chile when we were able to devote full-time to helping others for eighteen months. What a great blessing it was to be focused so completely on serving others; waking up each morning praying for opportunities and then going out into the community to follow the promptings that came. It was only at the end of our mission that we came to know how much the little things we had done had helped. I wanted to remember this principle so as soon as we returned home I wrote a song about three specific incidents where simple acts of service had truly made a difference.

Stream audio for “By Small and Simple Means”

By Small & Simple Means
(from the album “By Small & Simple Means“)
Words & Music by Janice Kapp Perry
Soloist: Dave Tinney

It was only a smile for a lonely child
Just an impulse from my heart
It was over and done in a moment it seemed
Nothing special on my part
But I saw in her eyes she was truly surprised
By the feeling we had shared
And it opened the door to so much more
When she knew that someone cared

Tho’ it was only a smile, it helped for a while
We give the best we have
And by small and simple means
Great things can come to pass

It was only a hug for a hurting soul
Who was wand’ring from the fold
It was only a touch but it meant so much
To a heart that had grown cold
It was something so small but it helped him recall
Tender truths he once had known
And he fell to his knees saying “help me please”
I can’t make it on my own

Tho’ it was only a hug, it counted enough
We give the best we have
And by small and simple means
Great things can come to pass

It was only a song for a dying friend
Just a simple hymn of praise
But it soothed his mind hearing one more time
Every sweet familiar phrase
He was squeezing my hand hoping I’d understand
Though he could not speak the words
Then he peacefully slept with no fear of death
In the song God’s voice was heard

     Tho’ it was only a song, the message was strong
     We give the best we have
     And by small and simple means
     Great things can come to pass

Weekly, Worldwide Service

There is a significant, ongoing kind of service that takes place weekly in the church as families gather, usually on Saturday, to clean the chapels from stem to stern before Sunday services. When Doug and I took our first turn in our current ward, five or six families were expected on our crew, but only two other people showed up. When we looked at the chart of all that must be accomplished, it seemed daunting! But as we divided up and got into the work we realized that there is a special feeling that comes from cleaning the house where we worship the Lord. Instead of tiring, we seemed to gain added strength and the four of us were able to complete the task in three hours. The next day in church we took special notice of the finely polished piano and organ, the vacuumed pews with hymnbooks neatly arranged, the new rolls of paper towels and TP and the shiny clean toilets in the restrooms, and on and on. We felt a glow of satisfaction that we had helped provide a fitting place of worship where the Lord’s spirit could attend our services. We felt sad for those who had missed the opportunity to share in the work.

But cleaning the physical facilities is only a small part of the service that takes place in our church continually. I have often thought about the millions of hours of service given so willing throughout the world each week in church callings, so I was very interested in something our daughter, Lynne Christofferson, expressed in her weekly family letter-an epiphany she experienced one Sunday morning as she arrived early to practice the organ before her block of meetings began:

“I had a rather unique experience this morning. I left the house at 8:20 so I’d have plenty of time to get set up on the organ, and as I walked into the church parking lot next door I could see a handful of cars parked down toward the Bishop’s office. I knew that if I walked to the other side of the building I’d see a handful of cars parked down toward the stake offices. As I thought of all the faithful priesthood holders who were already in meetings for the day, I felt like a vision’ opened up in my mind. It’s difficult to explain, but I could suddenly picture all that goes on in a church building on a Sunday.

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“As I entered the glass doors I thought of the people who had gathered the day before to clean the building.  As I walked through the small lobby by the bishop’s office I saw the executive secretary chatting with a man and woman who were waiting for their appointments with the Bishop. Behind the doors of the bishop’s office, the bishopric was finishing up their meeting, while a couple of clerks sat in their office across the hall working on ward business.

“Entering the chapel, I looked up to see two men-each of whom had brought a son with them-beginning to set up chairs in the overflow area and into the cultural hall. As I walked up onto the stand by the organ, I was greeted by a smiling man whose arms were full of linens for the sacrament table. Just then, his son walked past me carrying several loaves of bread to the sacrament preparation area. As I opened the organ and turned it on I glanced out toward the chapel noticing that now there was a whole army of men and boys setting up chairs. I sat on the bench arranging my music and pushing the preset buttons, then playing through a hymn to warm up. A bishopric member came up on the stand, turned on the sound system and made sure there was a box of tissues on the podium. One of the greeters walked up to the stand then, placing a ward bulletin on the armrests where each bishopric member would be sitting.

“I envisioned the two librarians just down the hall handing out teaching supplies and making last minute photocopies for the many teachers who had prepared lessons for Primary, Sunday School, Priesthood Meeting, Relief Society and the Young Men and Young Women. I knew the nursery leader had made certain there were treats stocked in the nursery cupboard, and tiny paper cups for the little ones who would have snack time in there. And I knew that late in the evening, after all three wards were finished for the day, and choir practices were over, someone would come to make certain every door and window was shut and locked up tight for the night.

“I wish I had a USB port behind one of my ears. I would plug in a cord and download the vision in my head and email it to you. What I felt about it was this: We are part of an amazing organization-a well-oiled machine. There is a part for everyone to play, however small. Above all, I saw that there is a great purpose in the way our church is organized and the callings we each receive to help things run smoothly. I felt this in a stronger way than ever before. The jobs we are given make us grow and can even help to sanctify us when we do them in the right spirit.” (3)

Conclusion

“Every minute of Christ’s ministry here on earth was spent in the service of His fellow human beings. . . . It may be overwhelming to try to live up to Christ’s perfect example of service, but we can remember that even our smallest actions show our determination to be like him. When we visit the sick or the lonely, we are being like Jesus. When we help our neighbors fix their roof, when we serve a meal to someone who needs it, when we donate to disaster relief, when we forgive those who offend us, we are serving as He would serve. Serving like Jesus Christ has a cleansing effect on us. It helps us understand the idea that our time, talents and possessions are not just our own.” (4)

Janice Kapp Perry: Composer, author, lecturer

(1) Thomas S. Monson, “What Have I Done for Someone Today,” Ensign, 11-09, ’85.

(2) Joseph B. Wirthlin, “The Virtue of Kindness,” Ensign, May 2005, p. 26.

(3) Lynne Perry Christofferson, Family Records, January 5, 2014.

(4) Mormon.org, Author Unlisted, 2014.