Digital Only: Latter-day Saint Voices
Tuning Our Hearts
Recently, I had our family piano tuned. When the piano tuner arrived, he began to slowly work his way around the keyboard. He tapped each key again and again and adjusted the tightness of the strings until each pitch was correct. It seemed like such a tedious job.
The piano tuner played and adjusted each note individually. He checked and rechecked, adjusted and readjusted. At times he played in octaves to make sure the pitches blended together and vibrated the way they should. Other times he played two or three different pitches together.
Finally, when every string had been tuned, he played a beautiful song. His fingers moved masterfully up and down the keyboard.
As I listened to the piano tuner work on my piano, I thought of the Savior’s command to “be ye therefore perfect” (Matthew 5:48). No matter how expensive a piano is, or how meticulously it is cared for, it will always need to be tuned from time to time. This in no way makes the piano a failure. Yet, how often do I get down on myself because of the things that are out of tune in my life?
Just as a piano will fall out of tune and need to be adjusted, there will be parts, or “keys,” of my life that will need to be tuned, not just once or twice but dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of times. It is through regular repentance that I can realign and tune my life to play in harmony with our Savior, Jesus Christ.
It also struck me that the piano tuner did not sit down and work on a dozen notes all at once. Pianos typically have multiple strings for each key. Each individual string that makes up a particular note must be adjusted to eliminate the dissonant sound of an out-of-tune piano. This work can take a long time.
We don’t need to worry that we cannot change everything at once. Our Heavenly Father fully expects us to “tune” ourselves through repentance one string at a time throughout our lives. There is no need to get discouraged. Each note, each step, even each half-step matters.
If we are patient with ourselves, as the piano tuner is with each note, and work consistently to be in harmony with our Savior, how beautiful our song will become one day!