I Am His

by Alan Sanderson

download: vocal mp3 | instrumental mp3 | music score (pdf)

I Am His

words and music by Melanie Griffiths © 2022

When I’m confused and feel alone
When I struggle to believe I can go on
When my heart is broken and all seems lost
I seek for shelter from the storm
I pray for strength, I pray so He can heal me
I pray for support, I pray for forgiveness
Then a simple light within me says:

I am His
I am a daughter of a King who will not move by the world
For my God is with me, and He goes before me
I do not fear
He is my rock
I am His

When my heart’s full, and filled with hope
I want to share his light and thank Him for his love
When I need his blessings to lift those I love
I feel connected to His light
I pray for peace, I pray for His protection
I pray for His light, I pray for His guidance
Then a simple light within me says:

I am His
I am a daughter of a King who will not move by the world
For my God is with me, and He goes before me
I do not fear
He is my rock
I am His

Melanie Griffiths and the Youth Camp Leaders: vocals
Tonya Stoor: piano
David Jordan: piano arrangement
Alan Sanderson: string arrangement, guitar, recording, mixing, mastering

Melanie’s Notes

When I was called to be the Stake young women’s camp director, the first task that was asked of me was to choose a theme and a song. That same day the theme came to me as soon as I prayed for it.

“I Am His”

I was ecstatic to know that the Lord wanted the girls to know this foundational principle. As I searched for the right song I kept hitting roadblocks. Music is a love of mine and so I started to feel more and more defeated when I would find a song and the answer was “No”. I decided to ask my committee and the Youth Camp Leaders (YCLs) to help me find a song. With their wonderful suggestions, still the answer was “no”. As I pondered what to do, I said another quiet prayer. As I sat and waited, the words impressed upon my heart saying “remember when you received this calling, I told you that you were going to write the song.” I recalled that meeting with the Stake Presidency and realized that I couldn’t deny that prompting. I knew it was what I was supposed to do, but that seemed absolutely crazy! I have never written a song in my life! I love to sing but I had only started piano lessons a few years prior, and my capacity is very limited. I decided to rely on the Lord. I needed a miracle. I made a bargain with Him that he needs to help me because my time is very limited. I am a mother of 4 children and am currently in school full time. I asked the Lord “how could I have the creative space and time to do such a task? Writing a song is more ambitious than I feel capable of. Please make the time that I have ENOUGH “. I had no idea at that point that I would be able to be a part of 3 miracles.

The first miracle I needed was to write the song. The tune began to come to my mind here and there, especially during the early morning hours. I would hum the tune and record it to my phone. Then the lyrics started to fall into place. Once the chorus was done, the inspiration stopped. So, I prayed. A quiet suggestion came to “ask the girls to answer the question, ‘what do you pray for?’” At our next meeting I brought index cards and pens and I asked my committee and the YCLs to answer the prompt. As I read their words, my heart leapt and inspiration came! The tune of the verses came to my heart and mind as I sat at the piano. It was as if someone else was playing the song! I was able to add the lyrics into the tune that came to my mind almost effortlessly. After playing and singing and practice, practice, practice, my children began singing along with me. This brought the spirit so immensely to hear my own children sing this song! I was in tears!

Now that I have this song, how can I teach it to the young women?

I needed a second miracle. I was led to ask our Stake music director David Jordan if he could help. I came to find out that he is the high school band teacher. He was so supportive, willing to help, and he had software to put the music to paper. I played the song and sang it for him because that’s all I could do! The song was in my voice and my fingertips. Brother Jordan did a wonderful job taking my recording and not only making sheet music, but also creating a more fitting accompaniment. It was beautiful! I quickly ran to my friend Tonya Stoor and asked her to play it on her piano! She played, I sang. I was humbled and filled with joy to see that my friend could also play this beautiful song! From there we practiced at our camp meetings so everyone on the committee could learn it, especially the YCLs. What a miracle it was to hear this song with a choir of voices! I hoped that our voices would be enough to teach the entire Stake at camp. Then miracle three happened.

Our recording of the committee singing this song in the primary room was less than perfect but it’s all we had. One of the Ward’s camp directors reached out and asked if she could play the song at their yw/parent camp meeting. She wanted to play it so she could share the theme with the ward that they might get excited about camp. A number of parents reached out to me thanking me for the beautiful song. Among them was brother Alan Sanderson, He reached out to me offering to give this song a more decent recording by using his recording equipment! We set up a time and invited the YCLs to join Tonya Stoor (pianist and camp assistant) and Heather Petersen (camp assistant and right hand gal) to sing it with us. It was such a neat experience to be part of. Brother Sanderson spent so much of his time and talent putting the recordings together and making it sound AMAZING through his software and also adding guitar! Being able to play this wonderful recording for camp brings peace and a big exhale to my heart.

When it came time to present the song at camp, I prayerfully considered how to do this. I followed what I felt was how the Lord wanted me to do it and it was immensely effective! The Lord infused His love and spirit as my Camp committee and YCLs shared this song at stake camp!

Words cannot express the deep heartfelt gratitude I have experienced to be part of such miracles. This has built my faith in more ways than I knew possible. I know that with my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ, the impossible can become possible when I begin in prayer and choose to follow the promptings that I receive. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Alan’s Notes

For most of these young women it was their first time standing in front of a microphone to be recorded. Some of them were very nervous, and I was proud of them for being so brave. I used at least one phrase from each of them in the final edit.

This production featured a first for me: recording a grand piano. I spent about an hour adjusting the microphones to get the sound as nice as I could, and I was very pleased with the result. The large diaphragm condenser was placed 1-2 feet from the side edge of the piano pointed toward the center of the strings, and the dynamic mic was placed at the far end of the piano just inside the case about a foot above the bass strings, pointed again towards the center of the instrument. The dynamic mic was panned hard left and the condenser hard right, and that gave the piano a really satisfying and rich stereo presence through its frequency range.

Overall I am quite happy with how this recording turned out, and I hope it is effective at touching the hearts of the young women at camp this summer. I am so proud of Melanie for writing such a lovely song, and I hope that it will be the first of many songs for her.

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Alan Sanderson

writing: https://medicineandfaith.com music: https://sanderson.band

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