THE TROUBLE WITH TUNE COOTIES

I thought I would go online this week and add a song to my music collection. One of my favorite artists just released a new single, and I was excited to buy it. I’d seen the song performed on television, and this artist is a really talented performer; so I decided it was worth spending the money to add the song to my collection.

I bought it, started listening, and was dancing along in my car when I thought I heard a lyric that was questionable. I dismissed it, thinking that the artist couldn’t really be singing those words…

But, when the lyric came around again, I realized I was right the first time. Ugh. There they were. Those words. Words I don’t want to be singing along with. Words I really don’t want my kids to hear as we are driving around in the car. Catchy, fun tune notwithstanding, I couldn’t have those words blaring from my speakers. It was so disappointing as I deleted the song from my collection within an hour of buying it - knowing I just couldn’t listen to it anymore.

The real trouble was - even though I’d removed the song from my collection, it was still stuck in my head. I couldn’t get it out. (I have a friend that calls those songs “tune cooties” or “brain grout” – you just can’t get rid of them.) Even a couple hours later, it was still there. Thankfully, I had my “Seek the Good” playlist to turn to. After a few minutes, I had great music in my head, and I was starting to feel the Spirit again.

I’ve been pondering over that experience, and it has troubled me how easily the song with the questionable lyrics took over my brain. If I hadn’t been focusing on my music and media intake over the past couple of weeks, might that song have slipped past my radar? And what then? If nothing else, this portion of my project has reaffirmed that I need to be so diligent about the things I choose to surround myself with. Temptation doesn’t come my way with big things, but with small things that add up over time. Those flaxen cords that Nephi teaches about in 2 Nephi 26:22.That point was really driven home by something I heard John Bytheway say this past weekend at the Salt Lake TOFW (wasn’t that live stream awesome?!):

“Regardless of your original intention, you will eventually become what you surround yourself with.”

If that’s the case – and I believe that it is – I need to keep doing what is necessary to surround myself with great things.

And now, it’s time for a new “Seek the Good” project phase. Over the past couple days I’ve had a difficult time deciding what I should focus on next. I’ve made an effort to seek and record the hand of the Lord in my life; I’ve focused on surrounding myself with good music and media.  It seemed time to turn my focus outward, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to accomplish that. A service project?

I turned to the Internet for ideas, and came across this quote:
I’ve been correcting my children a lot lately. I’ve struggled to work with my daughter as she learns to communicate. I’ve struggled with my son as he is at school most of the day and is picking up on some habits that I don’t love. But as I watched the two of them wrestle and play with my husband this evening and thought of this quote, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for them and remembered that I do already have two great kids. And instead of correcting them all the time, I need to seek the good in them.  So for my project this week, I’m going to focus on and write down the good moments as they occur each day. I want them to have a written record of how good they are and how much I love them. The letters I have from my mom are the most precious things in the world to me – especially the ones that talk about how proud she was of me. I want that for my kids too. And I’m also going to make sure to tell both of them the things I’m noticing and writing down. I can’t wait to return and report next week.

Is there a relationship in your life that would be helped if you took a step back and looked for the good? If you took the time to write and share those good things with the person? If so, I hope you’ll join me this week.