Talk About Your Easy Fixes

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A proper missionary sendoff, in my ward, includes the performance of a certain EFY medley you’ve probably heard once or twice. This is fairly conventional stuff. Back in my day (aka the 80’s) the Young Women invariably sang In the Hollow of Thy Hand to whichever boy was leaving for the MTC on the other side of the country. Its chorus was equal parts sweet and cringe-worthy. To wit:

In the hollow of thy hand as he grows from boy to man

Help his understanding deepen and increase

In the hollow of thy hand as he grows from boy to man

Let him know the special blessing of thy peace

The lyrics were/are vintage Janice Kapp Perry. We sang them very sincerely, secure in our belief that a better, manlier version of our departing brother would be returned to us in two years. And, wonderfully, this was very often the case. By the way, there was no analogous song for the Young Men to sing to outgoing girls. (Nor would we have particularly cared to listen to the boys warbling about us growing from “girls to women”—er, no thank you.)

In any case, the youth + leaders in my ward will sing a different number tomorrow: the As Sisters In Zion/We’ll Bring the World His Truth medley (music by Janice Kapp Perry, natch). Initially, I found this custom tedious in a ward that launches an extremely robust number of missionaries every year. But it has deep meaning for the young men and women who leave us, and those are often very good customs to keep. I’ve actually come to like it. Now I wouldn’t change it for all the herbal tea in China.

I should say that I wouldn’t change most of it. I’m all for keeping the song, but I’d tweak the lyrics ever so slightly. It’s strange to have the boys sing about being born “as Nephi of old to goodly parents who love the Lord” but have the girls sing about being daughters of “our Heavenly Father who loves us, and we love Him”. So much dissonance right there for people who believe in the divine reality of heavenly parents as much the importance of earthly counterparts! Where is Heavenly Mother? What’s the point of excluding Her?

Anyway, it’s a super easy fix. We could simply swap out “Heavenly Father” for “Heavenly parents” and “we love Him” for “we love Them.” And then we could repeat the process a thousand, thousand, thousand times for all the hymns and Primary songs and lessons in which Father is referenced without Mother. How easy is that?