The Worth of a Soul

Today I want to go into the background behind May’s song – “As I Ponder My Eternal Value”, why I wrote it and the message I was trying to portray in the creation of it.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (Many people know us by the nickname “Mormon”). The church is re-organizing our hymn book this year and has invited anyone to submit hymns to be considered for the new book. The Children’s songbook is also being re-organized, so they are accepting submissions for that as well.

I am not an experienced composer of hymns or church arrangements, but I wanted to give it a try. So I decided to write a hymn and submit it to the Church by the July 1st deadline. I don’t anticipate that my hymn will be selected because of my lack of experience, but I still wanted to try for multiple reasons.

1. Composing the hymn has given me an opportunity to try something new and therefore grow as a composer.
2. Writing “As I Ponder My Eternal Value” helped deepen my understanding of the principles I wrote about.
3. It was fun! It can’t hurt to try.
4. Writing and arranging Church music is something I’d like to do more of.

Verse One

The first verse is about trying to recognize and appreciate our own value, worth and potential. I think that before we can truly value other people as individuals, we need to value ourselves. We can each recognize that our souls are divine because we are children of God. We can’t earn that. It just is. We are innately valuable. I’ve heard the metaphor before of the $20 bill….but I like to make it a $100 bill.

We are all like a $100 bill, worth the same amount. Some $100 bills might be crumpled up and some might be crisp and new, but they all have the same value, 100 dollars. Each person is like a $100 bill…..equally valuable.

We are each born with the light of Christ, so we all have that light within us. Because we are children of God and Jesus Christ has died and been resurrected for us, we all have the same potential to return to live with God in an exalted state.

Verse Two

I feel that once we begin to grasp how important and valued we are, then we can start to see others that same way. In the second verse I talk about how we view other people. I think it’s important to try to learn to control our thoughts and judgments about others. It’s not always easy to do, but it’s a worthy goal.

We can redirect thoughts of criticism or instant judgment to thoughts like “I wonder what their story is? I bet they have experienced love, loss, heartache, excitement and all the same emotions I have.” or “My spirit is equal with theirs. We are both equally valuable, therefore they deserve my respect.”

Having a correct understanding that all people are special, valued and worth more than we can comprehend, creates a foundation for love and compassion…which leads me to the next verse.

Verse Three

The last verse is about being open to serving as the Spirit leads us. It’s about praying for an expanded perspective so that we can more fully comprehend the awesomeness in others and minister to those around us. It’s about being filled with charity and love through the grace of God and promising to do our best to listen to His promptings. I wanted the third verse to encourage the application of the principles taught in the first two verses.

As we love and value ourselves, we can more fully love and value all of God’s children. This naturally leads to a more Christ-like nature and desire to serve anyone we come in contact with.

What a cool experience this was for me. Thanks for reading! I’ll be posting the sheet music for this hymn next week. Marilee

Sources and scriptures

Mark 12: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God

President Boyd K. Packer’s words are plain and precious: “You are a child of God. He is the father of your spirit. Spiritually you are of noble birth, the offspring of the King of Heaven. Fix that truth in your mind and hold to it. However many generations in your mortal ancestry, no matter what race or people you represent, the pedigree of your spirit can be written on a single line. You are a child of God!”

President Brigham Young taught: “The least, the most inferior spirit now upon the earth … is worth worlds.” General Conference Talk By Joy D. Jones “Value Beyond Measure

Doctrine and Covenants 121:45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. 46 The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.

Moroni 7:45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.