Music.....and the Spoken Word

I am the Young Women's president in our ward and this weekend I had the opportunity to attend Stake Youth Conference. As part of the weekend, we talked a lot about music and the effect that certain types of music have on our actions and attitudes. As a demonstration, they played a portion of popular song that many of us have listened to ("YoungWildFree"). Everyone was kind of laughing and rocking out to it for a minute. The lyrics are not great ("So what, we get drunk, so what we smoke weed".... you get the idea!). They then started to play a video of a college choir singing "Come Though Fount of Every Blessing" that was so powerful, it really brought everyone to silence. I think we all felt the spirit in recognizing the difference between good music and questionable songs that don't invite the spirit. As a conclusion to the weekend, we took all of the young men and young women in our stake to Music and the Spoken Word in the Tabernacle at Temple Square. What an amazing experience to see the Choir perform live with an orchestra! At the fast and testimony meeting that was held after Music and the Spoken Word, it was amazing to hear how many of the young men and young women talked about these two experiences with music, how they felt, and what an impact music has in their lives.