Mildred Tanner Pettit

Tonight, we went to a reunion for the descendants of William Alfred and Mildred Tanner Pettit--they are my dad's grandparents, so my great-grandparents. For part of the evening, the "grandkids"--my dad's cousins and siblings--told stories about their grandparents.

The story that I most loved hearing was about Grandma Mildred. Most of you do not recognize her name, but she wrote the music to "I am a Child of God," as well as the music for several other songs in the Primary Children's Hymnbook. It was really neat to listen to the inspiration process that she went through as she wrote the music for "I am a Child of God." They told about how Naomi Randall, (the sister who wrote the words), and Grandma Mildred were able to collaborate and separately come up with the exact same ideas for that song. The first time the song was sung was at a Primary Leadership Conference, and Grandma Mildred was in the hospital. When someone visited her in the hospital and commented that she hadn't been there for the presentation of the song, Grandma commented that it was OK because the Lord knew what she had done.

What a great example Grandma Mildred is for me! I hope that I can develop such humility in me own life--so that I will know that the only person my actions really matter to is my Heavenly Father.