The Dawning Of A Beautiful Day

I left my home this morning shortly after 4:00 a.m. like I normally do on Wednesdays, but my dreaded commute to the Los Angles LDS Temple actually turned out to be inspiring and motivating instead of boring and mundane. First of all, I was caught by surprise when I left the house. A very untypical thunder & lightening storm was taking place and it was raining hard...so hard that I had to switch my windshield wipers to its fastest setting. Though I don't normally enjoy driving in the rain, this storm was welcomed with open arms. You see, California has been in a bad drought for over three years and we are currently under strict water restrictions. We can only water our lawns three days per week and only between the hours of midnight and 10:00 a.m., plus we have to cut back 30% on our water usage or we could be cited. Because of this, our lawns and plants are very thirsty. 

Normally, I car pool with other sisters to the temple, but this morning I was alone. I planned to listen to "The Mormon Channel" programming on my phone app while driving, but for some reason (I think because of the lightening), the channel wouldn't come through so I decided to listen to music instead.  I am very glad that I made that decision.  My phone was set for my songs to be played randomly so I didn't know what songs to expect. The first song I listened to was "Amazing Grace", a classic and very well-known song. As I was listening to the lyrics, I marveled at how amazing God really is and how through His amazing grace He was blessing our thirsty desert with much needed moisture.

Another song came on. It was "How Great Thou Art" by Carrie Underwood. During this song, I got to ponder on the beauties of the earth and how great God is for providing us with this beautiful world we live in. Sure, there is some ugliness in the world because of the choices of men, but God created a beautiful world for us and we can enjoy those beauties daily if we but choose to partake.

 The first verse says this:

O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

I couldn't see the stars, but I could definitely hear the rolling thunder as I was driving.  The power of the thunder and lightening I was experiencing reminded me of how powerful God is and how little I am in comparison. I am dependent upon God for everything in my life.

As if those two songs weren't inspiring enough, the next song that came on really made me start to think that God, through His tender mercy, was speaking to me through music. The title of the song is "Behold, My Joy is Full". By this time, my joy really was full. I felt like my cup was running over with the grace and goodness of God. I silently thanked him in prayer for gifting me with such a beautiful experience while on my way to serve Him in the temple. I couldn't have asked for a better gift.

Since it was my turn to conduct our Preparation Meeting, I wanted to sing "How Great Thou Art" for the opening hymn so I asked the sisters who would be doing the music if it would be okay. The chorister looked at me and asked "what made you think of that song? That is the song that I was going to choose." All I could do was smile and tell her she would find out soon, knowing full well that she was in tune with the spirit and that God had inspired her. As I conducted the meeting, I was able to briefly share this beautiful experience with the other sisters on our shift. By singing this hymn, it helped to reinforce what I had experienced that morning, and there was a great feeling in the room. I KNOW we were supposed to sing that song. It felt AMAZING! 
BEHOLD, MY JOY WAS FULL!