Make My Life a Bethlehem

No matter what I do, it seems like the last quarter of each year is busycrazyhecticstressful. Throw a Primary sacrament meeting program and other Primary president responsibilities into the the normal mix, and this year is no different. I keep telling myself that I am going to plan ahead and be better prepared and better able to enjoy the spirit of the holidays. Let's just say that so far I am an expert at wishful thinking. But there is one thing that saves me from complete Grinchiness. I am a sucker for beautiful Christmas music.

This evening my friend and visiting teacher, Alexis, called and invited me to Christmas in the Grove, an annual Christmas concert performed by members of the Grove Creek Stake (I think I got that right). It was wonderful! The director, Kathryn Laycock Little, was amazing and energetic and has fantastic taste in Christmas carols. Some people are talented. She is. Some people are able to pull talent out of others. She does. No average children's choir, youth choir, and adult choir from an average LDS stake could sing so beautifully without someone like her teaching and inspiring them to do so. Their performance was filled with the Spirit of Christ. I told Alexis that I couldn't have enjoyed the concert more unless I had been singing in it.

The final song in particular spoke to my heart. I wasn't familiar with it, but it's one of my new favorites:

Make My Life a Bethlehem
Lyrics by Pamela Martin, Music by Craig Courtney

Make my life a Bethlehem, a manger of my heart.
Let me hear the angels sing and let the music start,
May I fall in simple faith and wonder to my knees,
In the manger of my heart let Christ be born in me.

In my life there is a place that's scattered with the straw
Of every disappointment, each regret and every flaw.
In this dark and dismal place my beasts of burden lie.
Weary from the heavy load they long to lay aside.

Make my life a Bethlehem, a manger of my heart.
Let me hear the angels sing and let the music start,
May I fall in simple faith and wonder to my knees,
In the manger of my heart let Christ be born in me.

Come and sweep this stable clean and swaddle it with light,
And let the Child be born in me upon a starlit night.
For though He’s born a thousand times in far off Bethlehem,
Until the Savior’s born in me I cannot worship Him.

Make my life a Bethlehem, a manger of my heart.
Let me hear the angels sing and let the music start,
May I fall in simple faith and wonder to my knees,
In the manger of my heart let Christ be born in me.

I found a fairly decent video of it on YouTube, but it's with two other Christmas songs, so skip to 4:38 if you don't want to take the time to listen to the other two:



My goal for the next two weeks is to try to better make my life a Bethlehem and my heart a manger for Christ--and send the Grinch packing!