O Lord, My Redeemer

This year my mother-in-law offered to watch the kids for me once a week for just a couple of hours. It sounded like a heavenly idea. The first week we were all sick, and the second week, I had to take my baby to the doctor. When she called this week, I had totally forgotten that she was going to take the kids, and I didn’t even have any plans for the day!
I dropped off the kids and came home not really knowing what I was going to do with my time. After a nice relaxing shower, the phone rang. It was one of the sisters from the ward, wanting to make sure I was still planning on singing in Relief Society that Sunday. To be completely honest, I really hadn’t given it much thought. I remembered this sister had asked me about “figuring out” a musical number that could be done for Relief Society, but I had told her I couldn’t really think about that until I had the musical number for the choir under control. That was several weeks ago, and after preparing the arrangement of “Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer”, and having the one and only rehearsal we were going to get to prepare for it, I had completely forgotten about the other.
So- I called my friend Teri. She was gracious enough to come over right then, and help me figure out a song we could do. We picked Jeff Goodrich’s song, “O Lord, My Redeemer”. I only wanted to sing the first 2 verses, so Teri and I made up a couple of adjustments to the words to make it work. I also changed some of the melody, so it wouldn’t be so high (I think it was mostly meant for a male to sing). I left messages with several other people hoping they could sing it with me as a duet, but it just didn’t work out.
On Sunday, I sang. It reminded me of my childhood, singing for Sacrament Meetings and Relief Society meetings. By the 2nd measure, (the Relief Society president told me later) there were sniffles and tears being shed. I managed to keep control of my emotions through the first 2 verses (which was only done because I had my high heel pressed firmly into the toe of my other foot—ouch!) But by the 3rd chorus, I was in tears as well.
As I was practicing the song, I had the thought of how pleased Heavenly Father must have been with the Savior’s atonement. There was only one that could atone for all of our sins, and while I will be eternally grateful for his atonement on behalf, the Father must have also been grateful. Christ was doing HIS will. It WAS what the Father wanted Him to do. As I sang the chorus, I couldn’t help but think of those words coming not only from me, but from the Father as well,
“O Lord, my Redeemer. Thou has done so much for me. O Lord, my Redeemer. All my love I give to Thee. “