Distractions

 Do these boys look happy to be dressed as Vienna Choir boys?  They are cracking me up!  And if that boy on the right isn't a Dorius!  Love him!  Freestone loved being in this choir.  Sister Gillis was wonderful with the children!

Freestone was a choir member on Sunday night at the Stake Evening of Music.  Waiting for it to start, my dad leaned over to me and said, "Why is Freestone in this?  He doesn't sing!"  I said, "They were chosen by their Primary music leaders."  Dad said, "Why was he chosen?"  I said, "Because the music leader is his mom and she wanted him to be in it!"  Dad laughed.  I think my dad would rather Freestone be punching kids on the playground than singing in a choir with a red satin ribbon around his neck, but Free just hasn't had any good role models in the playground bully department.  What can ya do?

Every year, this Night of Music is just amazing.  The part that wasn't amazing this year was that the people behind us were so disruptive!  My dad finally turned around and asked them to be quiet, after which they were, bless their hearts.  When it was all over, we smoothed things out with the rowdies, and we all left friends.  Honestly, it's hard to go to a concert these days without sitting by someone who is noisy.  When I was a kid at the opera, we were not allowed to even move our eyeballs very far, let alone actually whisper!  Difficult as it may be, we have to respect others and also expect the best from ourselves.  We have to discipline ourselves to be able to really listen so that we can not only feel what the music is telling us, but feel the Spirit through the music.

After the music, and before a rousing audience rendition of Hallelujah Chorus, President Beard gave a great message.  He asked us to imagine changing the word "Christmas" to the word "Christ" as we go through the holiday season.  Parts of his talk really resonated with me.  Then there were parts of it that I found humorous.  I found myself chuckling, "Well, you're obviously not a woman!"  President Beard asked us, "If Jesus Christ was coming to your home for Christmas, would you need to have every decoration perfect, every little thing just right?"  The answer he was going for was "No," but I - and probably every other woman in the room - was thinking, "Well, YEAH!  Of course I'd want every little detail to be perfect if JESUS CHRIST was coming to my home for Christmas!  Heck, I want it to be perfect if a neighbor is going to drop off some Chex mix!"

I understand the point, though.  It's easy to get caught up in things that are ancillary to our purposes.  It's easy to get distracted by the ambient noise at a concert, just as it's easy to get distracted by voices pulling us all different directions, so that we miss the beautiful things.  President Beard challenged us to choose one thing this holiday season that is pulling us down and distracting from the Spirit, and eliminate it.  My dad chose the people behind us at the concert, whereby making new friends out of them.  Me, I'd dropping so many balls, my house would burn down like Ruby's gingerbread shack if I eliminated anything more.  Our outside lights are falling down, my only decoration is a poinsettia, I lost my to-do list a week ago, and my kids took Hickory Farms summer sausage, Wheat Thins and candy cane bark in their lunches today.

So I rest assured that I'm not distracted by anything nonessential, and I listen and watch and wait...