This Is My Jam and I Am His Daughter

This is my jam and we're not talking the strawberry or raspberry variety.  In urban kid-speak, it translates to "this is my theme song/favorite song/go-to empowering song."  Listen to it, pay attention to the words, and then let's talk about it. (For those of you unable to see this on your smartphones, it's the song "I Am His Daughter" from the 2010 EFY.  Look it up through the link; it's beautiful.)

So, what did you think?  Awesome, right?  That piano melody chokes me up every time that I hear it and boy, I've heard this song at least 200+ times in the past year.  

It's my go-to song when I'm about to do something hard, when I'm needing a little extra pep in my step, or when I'm about to walk into a challenging situation and need to feel like a super hero.  This song does all of that for me every single time.  We all need a song like that, don't you think?

I had a bittersweet experience yesterday as I walked down the hall with a few of the young women that I've been teaching at church and had to part ways to go and teach the adult Sunday School class that I've been asked to lead.  I LOVE those girls and I have LOVED teaching that group for the past two years.  There's no place that I'd rather be church calling-wise than with the youth.  Their optimism, sweetness, and eagerness to learn is renewing.

If I could give them one parting gift, it would be this song and the power that those words and music have provided to me.  I want them to come to know what real beauty is and what it's not.  I see it in them when I see them share with courage the thoughts and uncertainties in their hearts.  I see beauty when they discover for themselves that their Father in Heaven knows them and loves them and how eager they are to share that knowledge with others.  I recognize it in them when they feel the joy that comes from making others feel loved and included.  

This is beauty and I don't want them for one second to be confused by the world's shallow standards. 

Just a few of the lovelies.

I had the opportunity to sit at a high profile political dinner over the weekend courtesy of my new and unexpected dive into state politics.  The room was filled with those eager to see and be seen, those who felt powerful and those who craved a greater portion of it.  It was a room filled with people who were mostly good and yet looking for someone strong to lead them. 

What I was left feeling was how, despite the big and important names and ideas filling the room, it all paled in comparison to how filled we become, how self-assured we can be when we come to see ourselves in even just the tiniest way that our Father in Heaven sees us.  I have witnessed infinitely more power in a small church class room filled with growing testimonies of the Savior and would take that any day over rubbing shoulders with the Politicos.

I played this song on the way home after that dinner.  It was the reminder that I was grateful for, that my ability to love, to nurture, to lead, and to teach has changed lives for the better even without the title and kudos that the world tells me that I need in order to do the most good.

It's all possible because I am His daughter.

Until next time...off on another adventure!

~Arianna