Don't Worry - Hymn Number 111 - Go Figure

A few months ago, I found this old hymnal at a second hand store. I have been looking for an old hymnal to go with my antique pump organ that I posted about yesterday. It isn't always easy to find the exact book you are looking for so I was thrilled when I found it. I don't remember what I paid for it but I felt the price was reasonable or I wouldn't have gotten the book.

I was cleaning it up and sorting through the old music books I had collected to put in the little cubby that you saw in yesterday's post as I wanted music that was authentic to the age of the organ. I had a few things like a children's hymnal and yesterday, I found a teen or young adult hymnal with some of the old school songs we used to sing, basically nursery rhymes in song. 

When I opened the hymnal, you won't believe what hymn it opened to.... Yes, Hymn number 111. What was even a bigger shock to me was the title of hymn number 111!!!! 

"DON'T WORRY" was the title of the hymn number 111. I loved the words of the hymn. I have never heard the hymn and I'm not sure how it flows as some of the words seem a bit rough around the edges but I LOVE the message of the hymn. It is so true and speaks to me. It goes right along with my 111 posts for the past few years. How wonderful that my Heavenly Father once again reminds me through 111 to "not worry" about things as I need to "Trust for guidance each day."  If you don't read my blog regularly, you will want to read this post about 111 to understand the significance and relevance to this post. Click here for that.  

I then flipped through a few hymns and was surprised to see "Rock a Bye Baby" as a hymn. I thought that was interesting. There were many hymns I recognized and many that I didn't. Some are in or church's hymnal today and many aren't. I then flipped to hymn number 163. "Don't Kill the Birds." 

I couldn't believe someone wrote a hymn called that but it had meaning to me and really made me think hard. I had some birds build a nest on top of my big square picture window. They did it in the past and I always thought it was "cute" having a nest up there. I had someone come spay for grubs on my grass and he saw the nest and was a gruff man and told me I should knock the nest down as they bring bugs. 

I had no idea what he was talking about and didn't take the nest down. I thought perhaps he was talking about their droppings or something. Flash forward a few years. The birds are still building nests on the window. I get biting bird mites and I think for months that we have bed bugs and spray and spray and nothing is killing them. Finally, we get a live one and take it to be analyzed and it is a biting bird mite. Very hard to kill. We actually moved out for two months after battling them for a full year. I didn't bring my clothes back into the house until a year later knowing they were gone. Of course by then, none of the kids clothes fit them anymore but we learned to live with less. Here is a post where I talk about them some.

Having had that experience, I decided to knock down the nests from then on. I did it up front the next year and we haven't had any for years now. So, imagine my surprise when I saw two birds up there a few weeks ago. I thought I need to knock that down so we don't get mites again. I NEVER want to go through that again. 

It was a busy time and I finally got out there to knock it down and took a broom when neither bird was around. I didn't want to touch the nest as I didn't want mites getting on me so I grabbed a few sticks and pushed it through the nest I knocked down and there was a squeak! To my horror, there were three little babies. Before I knocked it down, I waved the broom above thinking if there were chicks, they would squawk. Even after I knocked it down and the nest was in pieces they didn't make any noise. 

Also, I thought if both parents were gone, there wouldn't be any babies in the nest. I felt so bad about that. By that point, there wasn't anything I could do as the nest was destroyed and the babies had trauma. I had planned on polishing that window as well so I didn't want the nest up there as I am going to teak oil it. Click here for a post about that. 

I felt so sad and stressed about killing them for days and then I open and find this song and read the words and felt horrible. I am going to find a way to keep the birds off that window. Perhaps putting crushed glass up there will keep them off it. Maybe double sided sticky tape and crushed glass on top of that will keep them from building nests up there as I don't ever want to "Kill the Birds" again. 

I noticed one that was a "March from Lohengrin" I had no idea what Lohengrin was but thought it funny that people back then would know. Lohengrin is a character in German literature. Wagner the composer wrote an Opera with the same name in 1850 and the song is one we all know. It is the wedding march, "Here comes the Bride" song. I was shocked I didn't know that. It is such a well known song, one would think we would know where it came from. Now, looking at the music notes, that is exactly what it is. Interesting. I learned something today. 


I actually got tears in my eyes between the 111 "Don't Worry" song and the "Don't Kill the Birds" songs after reading the words. I really loved the final words in verse three:

"In love let us treat one another, and help up the soul that is down. Let us lighten the load of each other, then we will lighten our own."   

If you read this regularly then you will remember a post about how we like to go do service to others when we feel "down" to help bring ourselves up. Here is one post where I wrote about going to serve others that way. It was my entry letter to the Panasonic prize package I won. Click here to read that post.

I am taking the advice of Hymn number 111 from the 1909 hymn book and I am going to do service and "Not Worry!" I hope you take the same advice!