Piano

Piano is a fairly big part of my life.  Everyone in our family was given the opportunity to start a sport and start playing a musical instrument at the age of eight.  I chose to play soccer and play the piano.  I saw my older brothers playing the piano and couldn't wait for my turn to start lessons. 

When I first started as an eight-year-old I was excited to be able to play.  I wanted to play the fun songs and not have to go through all of the boring basics.  I became discouraged every time I heard my older brothers playing the cool songs and I was still in book one learning hand positions and chords. 

Practice became very important to my progress as a young pianist.  I could really tell the difference that practice made when I would go to my lessons every week.  If I diligently practiced throughout the week I could pass off a song every week and move closer to the fun songs.  If I didn't practice regularly my improvement suffered, and I would stay on that song until I did practice.

The same is very true with learning and living the gospel.  At first, we need to understand the basics and work at them.  In 1 Corinthians 3:2 it reads: "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able."  As babies, we could only digest milk before we could ever handle meat or other foods.  We need to have faith before we can repent and we need to do something right before we can be blessed. 

We also need to 'practice' and work at living the gospel.  If we're not improving ourselves, we're stuck on the same song and not progressing.  In a sense, if we're staying the same we're actually going backwards.   Over the summer if I never touched the piano I would have to actually go back a couple of songs and re-learn some things.  Only when we diligently learn and live the gospel can be enjoy the symphony of blessings that attend our efforts.