Music & the Spoken Word broadcast with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. October 4, 2015 Broadcast Number 4490. Click here for this episode in over 50 languages.

Music

“Come, Ye Children of the Lord”
Composer: Spanish Melody
Lyrics: James H. Wallis
Arrangement: Ryan Murphy

“Children of Our Heavenly Father”
Composer: Traditional
Lyrics: Caroline V. Sandell-Berg 
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“How Firm a Foundation” (organ solo)
Composer: Attributed to J. Ellis
Arrangement: Richard Elliott

“He, Watching over Israel,” from Elijah
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn

“Teach Me to Walk in the Light”¹
Composer: Clara W. McMaster
Lyrics: Clara W. McMaster 
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“From All That Dwell below the Skies”
Composer: John Hatton
Lyrics: Isaac Watts
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

1. On the album Teach Me to Walk in the Light.

Spoken Word

A Light unto My Path

Many decades ago, on quiet mornings before school and work, a sleepy young family gathered for a few minutes in the living room of their modest home to pray together and talk about eternal things. Today the children, now well into middle age, vividly remember how their father would pull out a large, flattened cardboard box on which he had written some inspirational words from holy writ. During those early mornings, from this makeshift poster, the family would read and reflect on such life-changing truths as these:

“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18).

“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).

“Ponder the path of thy feet” (Proverbs 4:26).

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).

And who doesn’t need such light for their path in this ever-darkening, confusing world? What more valuable gift can parents give their children than those simple moments when timeless truths become part of the family’s everyday life? In words like these, families find a guide for moral living that stands the test of time. 

Of course, sometimes the most important teaching moments happen after the books are closed and the children watch their parents meet the challenges of life with character and conviction. It is then that the precious words written on paper or poster are written also on the tablets of the heart (see Proverbs 3:3). 

Such moments are a modern application of the counsel given through Moses long ago: “And thou shalt teach [these words] diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 6:7). 

Thousands of years after these words were spoken, wise parents still gather their children around them to reflect on what matters most. First thing in the morning, during a family meal, or just before bedtime—whenever it happens, inspiring words of eternal truth can become, for parents and children alike, a light for the path of life’s daily journey.