As Latter-day Saints, we have been told that “the song of the righteous is a prayer” unto God (D&C 25:12). The scriptures themselves are littered with songs – from the Song of Solomon and the Psalms in the Old Testament to ‘the psalm of Nephi’ which, though not a song, certainly sings to the soul. At the same time, many of us spend our lives surrounded with ‘regular’ music. Whether we listen to the radio in the car, or to tapes (does anyone still listen to those?) or CDs at home, or just sing along with our kids, music is a part of most people’s lives. But we need to be careful about the types of music we put into our heads and into our minds.
I once heard our brains compared to VCRs by a speaker at church. The things we put into our minds, I remember hearing, can be retrieved and watched like a film. Music, then, would be the soundtrack of that film. In my life, I have found this to be quite true. Scenes from movies that I watched before I joined the church – and my mom allowed me to watch R-rated movies (scary movies; she limited the ‘sex’ ones) when I was six or seven – easily pop into my head, particularly the movies I loved to watch over and over again. Thus, if something happens that triggers a memory of, say, a scene in Aliens, I can easily visualize the actors over and over again. At the same time, I remember dancing to songs while cleaning the house with my mom. Sometimes we listened to Snow White and sometimes to Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, but both of the soundtracks remain fixed in my head, despite the fact that I have heard neither of them for well over ten years.
I worry sometimes that we are more discriminating when it comes to movies and television than we are with music. With the visual media, we have a rating system in place, and though it is not always reliable (I’ve seen many PG-13 movies that made me cringe), it gives us a fair indication. When it comes to music, however, I wonder if we hear the words and think about them, or if we repeat them mindlessly.
Three specific instances come to mind. The first one involved a discussion between myself and a nonmember friend as we drove home from a high school party. One of our favorite country songs came on the radio – “I’d Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)”, by Doug Stone – and we sang along. Midway through, I told him that, after thinking about the words, it sounded to me like the singer was considering a murder/suicide scenario to me. My friend listened more closely, and then sighed and said he thought I was right. “Now I can never listen to it again,” he griped. For the first time, he had really listened to the words and thought about their meanings.
The second instance actually restored my faith in the youth of the church. My husband and I babysat his cousins right after we were married. The popular song at that time was called “Californication”, and the twelve year old priesthood holder spent much of the night singing the refrain at the top of his lungs. At one point, I asked him if he knew what ‘fornication’ was. He told me he did not, and so I pulled out a dictionary and suggested he look it up. The definition shocked him, and he vowed not to listen to the song again. In this case, the problem wasn’t that he didn’t listen, only that he didn’t understand.
The third instance is just all about my husband, poor guy. Like most of the workforce, he listens to the popular radio stations while he drives to his job. On more than one occasion, I have had to point out that songs that he enjoys are not appropriate for our kids to hear, and especially for them to hear their father sing! In most cases, the overall message of the song is not obvious but subtle. In all cases, he got so caught up in the music that he missed the message of the song.
Teachers have known for years that music can be a fantastic teaching tool. If you think it is impossible to learn a song without understanding it, listen to a two year old sing the ABCs. In fact, listen to a three or four year old sing pretty much any song; the mistakes they make are very telling. I don’t propose that we listen only to spiritual songs, but I do suggest that we take a few minutes to listen to the songs we hear and especially the ones we sing. While we don’t necessarily have to focus every second of every day on bringing the Spirit into our lives, we want to make sure we are not actively driving it out. The soundtrack to your life may be one of the Book of Mormon songs or it may be the theme to Gone With the Wind (an R-rated movie, by the way), or it may well be a combination of both. Whatever it is, make sure you take a hand in its selection.
Related Articles:
Creating a Positive Home Environment
Music Sets the Mood
Gospel Centered Homes