If The Savior Stood Beside Me

(( I TOTALLY posted this yesterday, September 17th. I remember clicking the "Publish" button. I don't know why this wasn't put up on my blog yesterday. But in any case, here it is now. ))

Many of my favorite hymns aren't actually in the hymnal, they're in the Children's Songbook. But the hymn I'm thinking of at the moment isn't actually in either, though it did appear in the Friend in October 1993 and in the New Era in August 2007. I'm referring to Sally Deford's thought-provoking hymn If The Savior Stood Beside Me.

If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example? Would I live more righteously
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me? 

If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind if He were never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel? Would I speak more rev’rently
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me? 

If the Savior stood beside me, would my thoughts be clean and pure?
Would His presence give me strength and hope and courage to endure?
Would His counsel guide my actions? Would I choose more worthily
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me? 

He is always near me, though I do not see Him there,
And because He loves me dearly, I am in His watchful care,
So I’ll be the kind of person that I know I’d like to be
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me.

In April of 2010, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave a powerful talk against sin, especially sexual sin and pornography. In that talk, he shared a thought that tends to comes to my mind when I think of this song. 

Most people in trouble end up crying, “What was I thinking?” Well, whatever they were thinking, they weren’t thinking of Christ. Yet, as members of His Church, we pledge every Sunday of our lives to take upon ourselves His name and promise to “always remember him.”

This song and this quote can remind us that Jesus Christ, our loving savior and perfect example, is always watching over us, and wants us to do good. We are often tempted by unseen forces, namely Satan and the natural man, but we can also be strengthened and guided by other unseen forces, namely Christ and the Holy Ghost. Knowing that they are with us and on our side can, as the third verse says,  "give [us] strength and hope and courage to endure" the temptations that face us, and to resist them.