More Holiness Give Me (Verse 2)

More gratitude give me, more trust in the lord,
More pride in his glory, more hope in his word,
More tears for his sorrows, more pain at his grief,
More meekness in trial, more praise for relief.

The second verse to Hymn 131 speaks to me about the atonement of Christ.
As we continue to think of this as a prayer: here we pray for gratitude for things He's done, and Trust that all will be made right through him. This is echoed in the second line as we pray for the courage to proudly commit to being a disciple of Christ through a hope in this Gospel.
The prayer then turns into a plea for empathy. We pray for the soberness to grasp how much our savior has given us, and that it wasn't easy for him. which ties into the request for meekness, or patients through our trial, and the praise of gratitude when relief is given to us through the Atonement of Christ.
Ultimately this shows us that as we pray we are aligning our will to our Heavenly Father's. We aren't asking for "Things" we are acknowledging our weaknesses and asking for the ability to rely on Him. I encourage you to take a moment and think about each phrase and the qualities found there and evaluate where you are.
In an address to the World an apostle of the Lord stated
"Perhaps focusing on what we are grateful for is the wrong approach. It is difficult to develop a spirit of gratitude if our thankfulness is only proportional to the number of blessings we can count. "
-President Uchtdorf (Read the full talk Here)

What he is suggesting is that as we Pray for Christlike qualities we will find in ourselves a deeper understanding of who we are, and how we can be happy.
From this Hymn what can you learn about prayer and happiness?

Extra resources: Watch or Read "Grateful in our Circumstances" by President Uchtdorf
Curious to learn more?  find it all at LDS.org

More Holiness Give Me (Verse 1)

This post is written to shed some light to the Title of this Blog and My purpose in writing it.
More Holiness Give Me is a Hymn found in the LDS hymnbook. Here are the lyrics of the first verse.


More Holiness give me, more strivings within,

More patience in suff'ring, more sorrow for sin,

More faith in my Savior, more sense of his care,

More joy in his service, more purpose in prayer.




This Hymn is meant to be sung "Prayerfully"
Every time I sing this beautiful hymn I take the words to heart and sing this prayer to our Father in Heaven.


Holiness is defined as: a state of being holy; total devotion to God.
Striving is a verb meaning to make great efforts to achieve something.


Here we pray that we will be given the motivation or desire to put forth great effort towards total devotion to God. He doesn't expect us to get there immediately which is why we pray for "Patience in suffering" and sorrow for sin.


We all sin, and the first step to repentance is sorrow for our sins. In order to repent we must also have faith in our Savior. As we develop a sense of His care we truly come to understand His atonement which draws us closer to Him.


We need to enjoy keeping the commandments He's given us, and when we pray we should always have a purpose. I know that having more purpose in prayer will change your life. When you pray about specific things then you get specific answers in return.


I know there are some people who don't have a particular love for the Hymns, but I promise that there is power in singing, or at least understanding the Hymns that we sing. As you listen to, or sing Hymns I challenge you to ponder the words and see how you can apply the message into your life.


Extra Resources: Want to listen to more hymns? Find them here!
Need some songs for Kids? Try the Children's Song Book!
Also check out some uplifting music for Youth and Young Adults Here