Be Thou Humble

Being a part of Mercy River has BY FAR been the most humbling experience.

Ever.

Let me explain our latest adventure. (Because it's always an adventure with the three of us!)

Soni, Whitney and I have been working non stop on rehearsing and performing. Whit has arranged some amazing new harmonies for some of our songs, so we've also been learning and trying to perfect those. We had an opportunity this last week to perform with our friend and mentor Jenny Phillips-it was for the Seminary classes at Springville High School. We would be performing for each class, for 2 days straight. We were excited about this-sure, we all have brand new babies, (which makes EVERYTHING a little hard!) Sure, it's all day long-for two days straight and we have a handful of kids, no biggie! Sure, it's ridiculously early, we'll be fine! Sure, I was recovering from a wicked cold, I'll get over it! We couldn't wait to perform with our well-rehearsed skills, show off our new harmonies, and WOW the crowd. Hmmmm...

The night before our first day, we were doing sound check, when I noticed my voice slowly quitting. By the end of the night, my voice was gone. Completely. We decided to go to bed, and see how it was the next morning. I did everything-gurgled salt water, chewed on some Bayer, sucked on an entire bag of cough drops-to no avail. I sounded worse the next day.

What to do? With a third of Mercy River out of commission, the only option was to sing the songs with two gals, and cut all our fancy three part harmonies out.

So what did we learn from all of this?

This isn't about us. It's about Him. That's why we do this. To spread His gospel, to invite others to feel of His Spirit. This opportunity is a gift from Heavenly Father, and we owe it to Him to use it to benefit His kingdom. And even though we know this, and try to always keep this in our minds, sometimes we all need a reminder. And it's always humbling.

We likened this to the story in the scriptures of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who were about to be burned for not following the king's orders to worship a false idol. When the king asked if they were really ready to be killed for such a "small" matter, they responded in a way that shows their true faith;

"If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

(Daniel 3:17-18 Emphasis added)

So whether or not things turned out the way they would like, they would not lose their faith. They would continue to do the work they were sent to do.

It would've been nice to have a great performance, with all three of us in perfect health. But it didn't work out that way. We still need to do our best to deliver His message, and bring His spirit. And with faith, He'll make it work. We just have to do our part. And that's the lesson we learned. It's something we will definitely remember, and use it in not only our Mercy River world, but in our everyday lives.

Whew! Long post. I'll leave you with a picture of Mercy Babies-in birth order. They were born to be BFF's! This picture shows these babies in their true form-Chase is ALWAYS chewing on something, Zach is ALWAYS smiling, and Gemma is ALWAYS looking dainty and innocent. It's been so fun to have them so close together.Remember to check our website for our upcoming firesides and events, and we'd love to come to your next Enrichment Night or YW/Youth Fireside!

XOXO
Brooke