By Alan on Jun 15 in Blog tagged alan, Alan and Suzanne osmond, army lead, as He did, barrack, challenges, church, dedication died, education, eight boys, eternal, example, Family, family life, forever, George, George and Olive Osmond, good meals, help others, impacted, Jesus Christ, knowledge, lare family, Like Father, Like son, live again, love, love at home, loving home, married, memories, nurtured, order, organization, Osmonds, osmonds second generation, parallel, passed away, point the way, prayer, regimentation, respect, righteous, role model, same way, showed me, Sons, spirit, spirit world, Suzanne Pinegar, tender, The Family, traditions, truth, watched him, worked hard | 2 Comments

Father’s Day – “Like Father, Like Son”

“Having been born of goodly parents”, I was blessed to be the third member of a family of eight sons and one daughter of George and Olive Osmond.  We grew up in the town of Ogden, Utah with fond memories of a wonderful family life.

My Mother, Olive, was so kind and tender as she nurtured us children.  She love to cook and taught us music in a most wonderful and loving home.  Her parents were both educators and my mother would have been too, but she fulfilled her first priority and married my father and had a large family.  Because she loved education, she asked my father to build a schoolroom in the attic of our home where she used her skills as a teacher and theologian to teach us children many truths.

My Father was my hero and my role model.  We called him “Father” out of respect and I wanted to be like him when I grew up.  I was by his side when he built, plumbed, wired, and remodeled homes as a great carpenter. I watched him and was by his side when he milked cows, hauled hay, irrigated the orchard and fields, or as we stamped and packaged postal items at the post office that he had.  Father also loved to sing.  I sat behind him while he was driving the car and as we sang together, he would sing in harmony with Mother.   That was how I learned to sing harmony.  Learning that skill truly impacted my life.   Father taught me how to fish, to hoe sugar beets and how to drive the tractor and haul hay.  He always involved my brothers and me in his work projects and led by example.  He always stood by us when the going got tough or was challenging.  You see, Father had been an army sergeant and knew how to lead men.  Several evidences of that training showed up in how he raised our sister Marie and us eight boys.

One example of that was when we got older and our home needed more bedrooms.  Father decided to build on to the back of our house and built what he called, a dormitory.  Yes, you are right, it was like an army barrack with seven military  metal framed army cots and blankets, foot lockers at the end of the beds, and open closets where our clothes needed to be neatly hung and arranged as there where regular inspections that occurred.  He knew how to lead and train military men in the army so like them, Father taught us in many of the same ways and how to have order.  Some neighbors had asked him if the way he was raising his kids wasn’t ‘regimentation’.  He would just smile and respond back saying; “I look at it as organization.”

I remember many times when he helped friends by serving them.  My Father and Mother were always doing things to help others.  They started the Osmond Foundation to raise money for deaf children, two of which were my older brothers.  This was a pattern of my father and I wanted to be like him,  “Like Father, Like Son.”  He was a hard worker and organizer and gave freely of his time in headed up several fundraising projects within the church and the community.

Like my father, I too, found and married the most wonderful girl in the world, Suzanne Pinegar, and she is my eternal partner.  Suzanne has blessed me with eight wonderful
sons.  As a father, I tried to raise them the best I knew.

I can look back and see a parallel in many of the same ways and traditions that I learned from my father.  Those patterns and traditions of life now exist among us as a family with our sons and their families.  Yes, they honor me and call me Father and they have learned to work hard and to never give up.  Yes, they also love

music and have excelled in it masterfully.  I told them to get “real jobs” and they did get good educations with a love to learn.  Yes, they love the out of doors like I did as a son and are all Eagle Scouts.  Seven of them so far have served full time missions and have returned and married.  Yes, they grew up in a home with respect, order, good cooking, love, and with religious convictions that honors our Lord Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.  We learn from Jesus’s example that even what He did, was as His Father has done; “Like Father, like Son”.

This Father’s Day, I reflect back on my father’s life and how much he showed me by example the way to be and to become.  He taught us to be positive and to never give up when we were challenged and would say, “You can do it”.  He also taught us that “You can be what you want to become, if you become what you want to be.”  He was hard working yet a righteous man with a tender “marshmallow” heart”, as my mother would say, as he blessed his family and took us all to church.  He served in the bishopric and held several other church callings in which he blessed others.  We never had a meal together without first having a word of prayer and giving thanks and blessing the food.  We always had family prayer at night and even before every show that my family and I did later when we became entertainers.  When major decisions were made, we would counsel with the Lord together in kneeling family prayer seeking inspiration and giving thanks.  This was the way we grew up because it was the way he did.

 I remember the day my mother passed away and which was a hard thing and then not long after that when my father died.  It is not easy to see them go but it is those times when the knowledge of that they had taught us gave us the understanding that we would live again and be with them.  When my Father died, I was the first one to be by his side.  I saw him lying cold and still on his bed.  His body was there but my Father’s spirit wasn’t.  I shed some tears and held his hand as I offered a prayer of gratitude to my Heavenly Father.  I thanked Him for giving me the greatest earthly father I could ever have and for the good man that he was.  It was then that I honestly started to smile as I knew he was now once again with my Mother in the Spirit world.  I looked at him and said, “Father, save me a place, up there.”

Some day, I too, will graduate and do as my Father, my Savior, and my God have done, and live on eternally.  ”Like Father, Like Son”.

Alan Osmond
For The Family

By Alan on Mar 17 in Blog tagged a picture is worth a thousand words, bless mommy and daddy, love at home, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, seeing is believing, that they'll be happy, The Family | 2 Comments

“A Song Is A Prayer Unto Me”

“There is beauty all around
When there’s love at home.
There is joy in every sound
When there’s love at home.
Peace and plenty here abide
Smiling sweet on every side
Time doth softly sweetly glide
When there’s love at home.
Love at Home, Love at Home
Time doth softly sweetly glide
When there’s love at home.

Kindly heaven smiles above
When there’s love at home.
All the world is filled with love
When there’s love at home.
Sweeter sings the brooklet by
Brighter beams the azure sky.
There is One who smiles on high
When there’s love at home.
Love at Home, Love at Home
There is One who smiles on high
When there’s love at home.”

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

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For The Family

By Alan on Jul 17 in Blog tagged career, church leaders, encourage, enjoy, Family, good music, hobby, love at home, music, parents, perform, risky, talent, teacher, we encourage Music in the home, work hard | 3 Comments

The Osmond Boys First Television Show

(Because they love music.)

Many a young individual and families have come to me and my family, seeking advice as to whether they should pursue their musical talents towards a career.  We get tapes and CD’s of new songs with the request: “Let me know what you think.”  Some parents think that entertaining together is a good way to keep their family united and  intact.  A typical question from a caring parent would be, “My daughter or son, is very talented and wants to get into the entertainment business.  What would you recommend?”

(Osmond Brothers with Father George. (1962) with (L) Jerry McPhie (NBC-TV) and (R) Val HIcks (Arranger)

After 50 years of performing, I probably would agree with my Grandfather Davis and recommend to that parent that you Don’t!  My Grandfather saw us perform one night on the early Andy William’s TV Shows and said, “It looks to me like this is an easy way to make a hard living!  And, it is.

I don’t want to discourage those who are gifted in the arts because the Lord loves music and dance.  Our Church leaders like Elder Packer said, “We encourage parents to include musical training in the lives of their children.” He also said, “The Spirit of the Lord influences or is influenced by the art[s].”

Joseph F. Smith said,  ”Everywhere we go among our people, we find sweet voices and talent for music. I believe that this is a manifestation to us of the purpose of the Lord in this direction toward our people, that they will excel in these things, as they should in every good thing.”

D&C 25:12   “My soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yeah, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.”

There are they who add a lot of joy in others lives because of sharing their talents.  But, should they do it as a living?

Donny, Jimmy and Marie Osmond early days.

Seriously, don’t let your daughter or son go after the entertainment industry until you have prayed about it and you feel good about answering the following questions:

“What do you want to do with your talents?”

• To be a teacher and share with others?

• To just do it for the enjoyment and love of music? A Hobby?

• To develop and launch a career?

• To influence others with your talent and music messages?

Make sure of the reasons why you want to be an entertainer.  Are you in it for the Money?  Fame?  Influence?  To share your Talents?  Feed Your ego?

Once that has been decided, it will be easier to make a recommendation.  I would ask you to consider the risks that you will be taking as a family and the sacrifices that will be made in your  family life.  Are you willing to pay a price to achieve that success.  What will you give up?  What are the risks?

• To Teach others -  Music is a wonderful art.  It is a “medium” that helps carry a message to the heart.  It Inspires, enlightens the mind, heals infirmities, brings peace, and reminds the spirit self of sweet values, hope and courage.  It builds confidence, opens up one’s creativity, It can enhance one’s I.Q., entertains others, is self fulfilling.  Teaching others these crafts as a teacher can be an enjoyable effort and a fun job.

• For The Enjoyment -  As a Hobby? Yes, I love music.  It is fun to do.   Our Mother, Olive, taught us to read and play music and our Father taught us to sing.
  There are few things that feel as good hearing someone else sing a song that you wrote.  My brother Merrill & I remember how we felt when we were at a disco in Japan many years ago and we heard a Japanese group sing our song we wrote: “Down by the Lazy River”.  We were even more excited to know that it was being done in a foreign language . . . They sang it a little differently though . . . They sang it as:  “Down by the Razy Liver”!!!    It was a great feeling to hear though!

If you want to perform music, do the best kind.  I feel good when I perform the RIGHT kind of music.  Notice I said right?  The Wrong music can make one feel lousy.

Although much is said in the scriptures about praising the Lord with music, there must be discernment, since not all music is praiseworthy or suitable for worship. Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael and their wives “began to make themselves merry, . . . to dance, and to sing, and to speak with much rudeness . . . ‘ (1 Nephi 18:9. )

And in the Old Testament Amos warned Israel that because of their wickedness the Lord did not want ‘the noise of thy songs,’ nor ‘the melody of thy viols.’ (Amos 5:23. See also Amos 6:1-6; Amos 8:3.).”

There are many references in the scriptures, both ancient and modern, that attest to the influence of righteous music. The Lord, Himself, was prepared for His greatest test through its influence, for the scripture records in Mark 14:26:   ‘And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.’

Our Apostle, Elder Packer said: “Parents ought to foster good music in the home.”

The First Presidency of our Church has said, “Music has boundless powers for moving families toward greater spirituality and devotion to the gospel. Latter-day Saints should fill their homes with the sound of worthy music.”

YES, Music is enjoyable and fulfilling.  It has opened up opportunities for our family with memories that few get and that will never be forgotten.  From this video that you watched, you can see that if you start your children at a young age, music will continue to be in their lives.  They will find their voices and learn pitch and to be in tune.  They will develop and become better mentally as music is very much mathematical.

Musical Note:  ”Music is a lot like being spiritual.  One has to really “listen” in order to be “in tune” and “in harmony” with one another musically, just as it is with the Lord and in listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit. “

Alan Osmond
For The Family

By Alan on Jun 19 in Blog tagged alex osmond, digital media, Eagle Scout, eternity, Heavenly Father, love at home, missionary, sensitive, serve others, smart, Suzanne, The Family, theFamily, what I hear | 1 Comment

MUSIC!

Suzanne and I are so blessed to have eight sons who love music and have a great outlook on life and a great sense of humor.

Today, I wish to feature here at TheFamily.com, our son Alex Osmond who is our seventh son. It has been a pleasure to see him grow up to become a fine young man. He, like all of his brothers, was an Eagle Scout, served as a two year full time missionary, and is one of The Osmonds Second Generation, singing group.

Alex has really grown up and is finishing his college schooling at Utah Valley University and plans on graduating from there in December, 2011 with a major in Digial Media and an emphasis in Internet Technologies.  He says, “I am loving my classes and I am excited for this next semester coming up. I’ll be enhancing my knowledge of XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and many other languages, software, and skills.”

He is moving out on his own and we will miss all of the great sounds that usually come out of his basement apartment!

Oh, what fun he has been with his interest in music and his screaming guitar solos, astronomy, deejay-ing live events, digital media and computers, and he is always the one that others call for help as he is so willing to serve others.

He is very smart and always has a quick sense of humor.  Here he is a funny video he made when he was younger:

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Alex with his great love and talent with music plays the guitar and is forever learning new songs.  He has a tender, spiritual side to him with a loving personality and has been the Sunday School President at his LDS Singles Branch in Church leadership this year.  We often hear him playing great hymns and classic songs like “Danny Boy” on his guitar.

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Yes, families are forever!  Suzanne and I are so blessed to know that our eight (8) sons are on course and on The Way towards their eternal happiness.  What peace we have knowing that we will be together, forever!

I can better understand and get a small glimpse of how our Heavenly Father must feel about all of us, His children, by having such a wonderful family of my own with my wife Suzanne, our eight sons, six daughter-in-laws, and 20 grandchildren.  That’s what we call Love at Home.

Alan Osmond
 

For The Family

Come and visit us and learn ways to “Strengthen Families at TheFamily.com.

 

 

By Alan on Jun 17 in Blog tagged every day is father's day, Father, Father in heaven, father's day, Grandfather, love at home, The Family, theFamily | 1 Comment

Father’s Day is usually celebrated one day every June, but there can be other father’s days too. Fathers never stop being fathers, even when the holiday is over.

Besides your earthly father, who is the father of your earthly body, you pray to Heavenly Father, who is the Father of your spirit body. And there are other fathers who are concerned about your happiness and success—your grandfather; your bishop, who is often called the father of the ward; or perhaps you have a stepfather.

Countries, too, have wise and brave leaders who are looked upon as fathers by those who live there. George Washington is known as the “Father of His Country” because of his valiant leadership and deep devotion to the welfare of his countrymen in North America, who wanted to live as a free people. Simon Bolivar was called El Libertador (The Liberator) or the “George Washington of South America” because of his ability to help several South American countries gain their independence from the Spanish conquistadors. Leaders in other lands are thought of as fathers of their countries because of their loyalty and love for their people.

To show that you remember your fathers on the other 364 days of the year, here are some ways to make them happy:

By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families.

The Alan Osmond Family
(Four More Since Then)
For The Family