Have you ever heard of the song "Book of Days" by Enya. I have the CD and brought it to class along with a print out of the words for each girl. I played the song and the girls followed along by reading the words.   The song goes:

One day, one night, one moment
My dreams could be tomorrow
One step, one fall, one falter
East or West,
Over earth or by ocean
One way to be my journey
This way could be be my
Book of Days

No day, no night, no moment
Can hold me back from trying
One flag, one fall, one falter
I'll find my day maybe
Far and Away
Far and Away

One day, one night, one moment
With a dream to be leaving
One step, one fall, one falter
Find a new world across a wide ocean
This way became my journey
This day brings together
Far and Away

This day brings together
Far and Away
Far and Away.

The girls love this song! You can also apply it to "Journal Writing" "Genealogy" and the scriptures pertaining to the "Book of Life".

I've also talked about Beethoven and "Ode to Joy". I had a tape about his life and it talked about how he lost his hearing and everyone made fun of him. He was considered a has-been. He didn't get invited to parties anymore and the people who once had been his friends deserted him. The children on the streets made fun of him because his hair was all awry and his looked unkempt. I talked about how if anyone deserved to feel sorry for himself, he did. He could have just quit and everyone would have understood. But he kept hearing a melody in his head and he kept going.

I told the girls that when we hear "Ode to Joy" we think of it as a classic. But that back then, it was new. When he hired the musicians to play the music and the opera stars to sing their parts, it was so new and different that they had a hard time playing it and singing it. (The tape talked about how the musicians and singers actually had to relearn how to play their instruments and use their voices because this was such a difficult piece to play) Then I played "Ode to Joy" with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Because of Beethoven's willingness not to give up, to continue on over seemingly insurmountable obstacles we have this wonderful piece of music.

by Patrick Kavanaugh

For many decades, if you asked musicians to name the world's greatest symphony, most would have answered, "the Ninth!"  They would be referring, of course, the Ludwig van Beethoven's last -- his Symphony no. 9 in D Minor.  Every movement is a masterpiece, and its novel finale adds a large chorus
to the immense orchestra. Audiences and performers alike revere the Ninth. Hundreds of orchestras have recorded it, and thousands of students have scrutinized its magnificent pages. The work exudes such ecstasy and joy that the last movement's principal theme is sung in many churches as a hymn of praise to God Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.

Ironically, Beethoven wrote this composition in one of the saddest periods of his life. His hearing loss was dramatic. He could no longer perform as a virtuoso pianist. Although he was known as a great symphonist, it would be ten long years, (1814-1824), between the premieres of his Eighth Symphony and his Ninth.

In this decade, several of his closest friends and patrons died, including Prince Kinsky, Prince Carl Lichnowsky, and Prince Lobowitz. This left Beethoven with few benefactors and a reduced income. Lamentably, another close friendship, with Stephen Breuning, was dissolved after a heated argument.

Yet another friend, Johann Nepomuck Maelzel, stole Battle Piece, celebrating Wellington's Waterloo victory over Napoleon. This resulted in painful lawsuits. Finally, Beethoven's brother died, leaving the bachelor composer feeling a misguided obligation to take care of his eight-year-old nephew, Carl -- to the misery of everyone involved.

The midst of these misfortunes, Beethoven's diary revealed that he turned more and more to God to find inner joy. The wretched composer cried out, "God, help me! Thou seest me deserted by all mankind. I do not want to do wrong -- hear my prayer to be with my Carol for the future for which there seems to be no possibility now."

Another diary entry reads, "O God, give me the strength to overcome myself; nothing must hold me to this life."

He wrote to a friend in 1821, "God, who knows my innermost soul, and knows how sacredly I have fulfilled all the duties put upon me by humanity, God, and nature, will surely someday relieve me from these afflictions."  At long last, the Ninth Symphony was finished. He'd heard the chords and
chorus only in his mind. How would the world respond? Would this piece be discounted as the work of an old, crazed man? At the final note of the premiere, the audience exploded with thunderous applause. But the composer, standing next to the conductor with his back to the crowd, looked straight ahead, hearing nothing.Fortunately, the solo contralto noticed Beethoven's disorientation, and turned him around so he could see and take a bow before the cheering crowd. Joy!

You could also use the scripture Ether 12:27 (weak things become strong) or optimism seems to have a lot to do with attitude, you could use the  following saying:

"It's only the view from where you sit
That makes you feel defeat.
Life is so full of many aisles,
So why don't you change your seat!"

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