My family loves music. We enjoy singing. And fortunately, not everyone in the family sings the way I do. Some of them actually have talent. Years of experience have taught me the awesome power of music to touch the soul for both good and bad.

It wasn’t long ago that my family traveled to Grandpa and Grandma’s house for a Sunday dinner. After a wonderful evening, we loaded up to come home, and had no sooner gotten underway than an argument started among the children over some licorice. Well, that spread like a wildfire, and before long it drew in almost everyone in the family. The mood in the vehicle became tense and strained.

Then, all of a sudden, kind of out of the blue, my oldest daughter suggested that we sing a song. Well, I can tell you that none of us felt too much like singing. But somewhat timidly, we began. Oh, and we got better! The more we sang, the louder we got. For 30 miles going down the freeway, we sang song after song after song. When we pulled up in our driveway, no one got out of the van – not until we’d finished the last verse of the hymn we were singing. Oh, and the feeling we had. It – it’s hard to describe. No one was angry anymore. Instead, we had a feeling of peace and of joy – we loved each other more.

We came inside, got ready for bed, and before we had family prayer, we sang some more. And I’m here to tell you, we went to bed filled with the spirit.

Now, that was the experience of my family, and the power of music. May I share another family’s experience?

Mom had worked hard to get the family packed for their annual family camping trip. But Dad, a doctor, as usual was late getting home from the hospital, causing a little frustration. When he finally did arrive, they got underway. However, before they even were out of town, anger and argument erupted in the car, causing Mom to just lose it; ah, she lost her cool.

After her tirade, she angrily flipped in a cassette tape of religious children’s music and sat back in her seat to smolder in silence. But the songs – the songs were contagious. One by one, each family member broke into singing along with the tape. Oh, the mood changed radically as they traveled down the freeway.

Suddenly, as they finished a song, Dad said, “We need to turn around.”

“What for?” Mom asked. “What did I forget?”

“Nothing. I just have this crazy compelling feeling that we need to turn around.”

Just as the family launched into the next song, the same feeling hit all of them. Quickly, they turned around and started back the way they had come. They hadn’t gone far when they saw a man on the side of the freeway frantically attempting to flag them down. As they rolled to a stop, he pointed off to the side of the road toward a mangled motorcycle, and explained that there had been an accident, and that the young woman was dying.

Quickly, Dad grabbed his first aid kit and ran to her side. She was unconscious and not breathing; she was dying. As the family huddled in the car and prayed fervently, Dad worked desperately. Soon an ambulance arrived and the woman was loaded in. Dad got in with her and went with her still fighting to save her life.

Well, to make a long story short, the young woman lived. But I wonder, is it possible that that was the case because a faithful family chose to sing rather than fight? They chose to sing and open themselves up to the spirit of God rather than to contend.

It’s the Sabbath; go sing something sacred.