Hello and welcome to the Pointing Toward Hope Podcast/blog! If this is your first time here, I hope you will find something that helps you to gain hope and healing in whatever you may be experiencing at this time in your life. I encourage you to let the spirit be your guide. I know because of my own experiences, that the Lord will embrace and love you as you come to Him with your deepest and most heartfelt concerns.
In this episode I hope to put anxious minds to rest concerning trials and hardships that you may be facing. And help you to realize that God’s timing is not our timing. But his timing is perfect! Though it’s difficult to be in a waiting period, I know that if we put our trust in Him we can find peace.
I wanted to start out with the scripture from Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
It will be 10 years this September since I was originally diagnosed with Bipolar II disorder. And boy has it ever been a journey of ups and downs, and ins and outs! Looking back, I honestly can’t believe how far I have come and how much I have learned. Not just about mental health and well being. But, more importantly about the atonement and the plan of salvation. My testimony of our Savior and His gospel has grown so much. I kind of feel like it’s been similar to Jack’s beanstalk at times. Growing so quickly that I couldn’t keep up.
And then at other times, I felt distant from my Savior and His love. Sometimes for many days or even months at a time. And I know I’m not alone in those feelings. Because I’ve heard from many of you about the hardships and hearbreaks that come sometimes when we are striving and striving to live the gospel and things are just HARD.
I wanted to share one such story that started a chain of events that took years to come to fruition.
As you know I started my blog way back in 2017. Can you believe it? I sure can’t. One thing is for sure, time just keeps rolling along no matter what is happening in our lives. I have been consistent at times and very inconsistent at others, as you know if you have followed me for any length of time.
I can honestly tell you that the times when I am most consistent, are the times when I feel the strongest spiritually. And when I feel strong spiritually, I tend to feel strong physically as well. Funny how those two things seem to go hand in hand.
So recently, my husband and I have been doing a joint project that has been a long time in the making. And it all started way back when I was finding my way back to the church and he was finding his way to the Savior and his gospel.
So my husband grew up playing the guitar and had several bands that he was a part of. He even opened for Paula Abdul one year! His claim to fame before his band broke up. He struggled for lots of years to build his dream of song writing and making music for others to enjoy. And then he had kids. And as you may know, having a family just changes things.
Of course that was an amazing time for him, I tell him all the time what a good dad he is, and that’s the truth. There are not many like him. So obviously, his music took a back seat for a lot of years.
I remember driving in the car with him one day and having the distinct impression that his songwriting days were not over. And that God had plans for him to share his music and his new found love of the Savior with many. Well, that impression happened probably around 9 years ago. But it has never left me.
So when he came to me last year after one of my trips to Utah and told me that he’d written a chorus to a song while I was gone, I was delighted. and when he played it, I cried. It is so beautiful and perfect! He told me that he had been wanting to write again and that he wanted me to help.
Well other than playing the piano, I know nothing about writing music. But I was more than happy to encourage him in any way that he needed. But he insisted that he needed my help. He said, and I kid you not, “You’ve got to have some good stuff in all the journaling you do!”
Haha, He’s not wrong…. I do have good stuff in my journals and lots of spiritual experiences. But I don’t write poems or lyrics so I didn’t quite know what he wanted. But I started to go through some journals looking for something that might be of help to him.
And the song that he was working on just kind of sat for a while with just a chorus that was amazing.
SOOOO, back to my story about the chain of events that led to our first song together. Which incidentally, is NOT the song that just had a chorus! God had other plans. As He always does.
Years ago when I first started to write my blog. I was into probably 6 months or a year. I had a woman contact me by phone out of the blue one day. I remember it distinctly, because she had a pleading in her voice that I recognized as my own during some difficult times.
She said she’d been reading my blog and felt impressed to get in touch with me. She was struggling with some pretty difficult mental health challenges and so she related with some of what I had written.
Well one thing led to another and we actually became wonderful friends! We would walk and talk. And learned so much about each other. One day she shared with me a scripture that I’d like to share with you. It comes from Alma chapter 42:30. This is a chapter that specifically talks about repentance and the atonement. And it reads:
O my son, I desire that ye should deny the justice of God no more. Do not endeavor to excuse yourself in the least point because of your sins, by denying the justice of God; but do you let the justice of God, and his mercy and his long suffering have full sway in your heart; and let it bring you down to the dust in humility.”
My friend explained that she felt like she was not giving the Lord “full sway” in her life and that she needed to be better at doing that. We talked it over and I remember thinking what a cool perspective that was. And then we went on with our lives and I didn’t think about that scripture again.
That is, until I came across it a few years later in my personal studies. I remembered our talk about it and made note of it in my scriptures and in my study journal. I remember that I wrote “FULL SWAY” in big letters and squared it and highlighted it. Because this time I wanted to do that same thing. I wanted to give the Lord Full sway and let his mercy and long suffering have more of an impact in my life. Well that was back in 2021!
Now back to talking about the Lord being right on time.
Last year, so 2024, was when Joe and I first began talking about writing together and he mentioned my journals. So I was going through them and finding literally nothing (bascially because I didn’t know what I was looking for). I left them out on the counter one day open to the specific page that had “FULL SWAY” written on it. Well he saw it, unbeknown to be. And thought that’s it! That would be a great song.
He mentioned it to me and asked about the story surrounding it. So we talked about it and he told me that he thought it would be a great song. I said, yes but we need to get the other one done first, lol! Again that Lord had other plans.
So at this point it had been nearly 8 years since I originally heard the scripture about full sway. And one day we were working on the lyrics for the other song that had just a chorus. We wrote a verse. Joe would play and then I would write something, and then he would improve upon it and that’s kind of how it went.
We were making good progress, and then right then and there Joe started strumming out a melody. Apparently, he had been thinking about full sway over and over again. It just wouldn’t leave his mind. So he is strumming this melody and I said, “Let me record that, it’s so beautiful.” And he said, “we have to write this song now!” This song really wants to be written. Well looking back I think the correct phrasing is that “God really wanted that song to be written”. It was the right time! In fact it was such the right time that we had to turn the page on the other song and begin writing right then and there. So we wrote and wrote and It was amazing how quickly it seemed to come together. We got most of it done, but something was just missing and we couldn’t figure out what. We had a “bridge”, but it just didn’t feel right.
One night about a week or so later, I was asked by the siste missionaries for our church, to visit a family that was learning about the gospel. They asked both of us to go, but for some reason Joe was unable to go that night. So I went and when we got there it was just crazy town. Kids running everywhere and dad was not home yet to help. I think I told this story in a recent podcast about how when truth is being shared, Satan works the hardest to intervene. Anyway, it was an excellent experience and the spirit was so strong. We met up with dad on the way out and ended up talking for another half an hour.
About that time, I received a text from Joe. “I got the bridge done!” Turns out he just needed some alone time with the Lord. The bridge of this song is my most favoirtie part. I am going to play the song at the end of this podcast and you will see why. A bridge is a section of a song that transitions between two parts, often with a new perspective or sound. Bridges can add variety, tension, or a new dimension to a song’s narrative. And this one does just that! It creates a whole new dimension to the song. He played it for me when I got home, and I cried again.
Even though we had now finished the song. The hard part had just begun. Joe had this huge vision of what he wanted the song to be like. Strings, choir, guitars, drums. So now he had to go about producing all of this with different software programs and finding singers. And that took probably another 4 months or so.
When we finally got it finished and uploaded to all of the platforms, Full Sway ended up coming out on Christmas Day 2024! I couldn’t think of a more fitting and perfect time for this particular song to be released. On the day that we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, His atoning sacrifice for us and all that it means to us. It was God’s perfect timing.
Since then we have had thousands of streams and many have added our song to playlists and favorites. We still have high hopes that others will want to “cover” the song and make it even more impactful!
We have since finished another song called Holy King of Kings. Both can be found wherever you listen to music. And we do have a youtube channel called Angels roud about us. But we haven’t really promoted that yet because we only have one song up there so far.
So funny little side note, we still have not finished the first song,lol. I guess it’s just not the right time yet. We’ve got all of the lyrics, though something just feels missing. I’m sure the Lord will let us know what that is when He’s ready.
This scripture, Alma 42:30 has had a large impact in my friend’s life, in our lives, and now I’m sure in the lives of many others. But it was years in the making! And sometimes that is how the Lord works. His ways are not our ways. But his timing is always right on time.
Thanks for listening/reading! Please like and share the podcast, and our songs, specifically on Spotify if you can. It really helps the algorithm reach more people. We know this is a song that needs to be heard. We hope you like it!
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