The Lundberg Company

THE VALUE OF VIRTUE, a song for the Young Women’s value of virtue
Lyrics by Joy Saunders Lundberg, music by Janice Kapp Perry

Here’s the story behind writing this song, in Joy’s words:

When I heard Sister Elaine Dalton’s talk at the October 2008 General Conference, “A Return to Virtue”, I was touched and thrilled, hoping all my grandchildren were listening. However, writing a song on the subject did not occur to me until I received a call from a stake Young Women’s president in Georgia. She was familiar with the album of songs based on the Young Women seven values that Janice Perry and I wrote years ago, “I Walk by Faith” (words and music of the title song, by Janice). She said they continue to use these songs in her stake. She said, “Now there is a new value added, the value of virtue, and you need to write a song for that one, too.”

It sounded like a good idea, so I called Janice and she liked the idea. So I began to do the praying and research that for me has to come before any words worth using emerge. I reread Sister Dalton’s conference talk and sought more information on lds.org regarding this new value. Then my husband and I went to the temple and as I was there praying about writing this song an idea for the first verse came to me. After the session I immediately wrote it down to take home and refine into a singable lyric. I called Janice and read the verse to her and she was excited about it and urged me to go forth and finish the song as quickly as I could.

I needed more help and inspiration to know what the rest of the song should say. The next day the New Era magazine arrived and I immediately began pouring through it and came to Sister Dalton’s article “Cherish Virtue”. Hooray! All the information a searching lyricist could want was right before my eyes. As I read her words I was filled with the message that needed to be in the song. All I needed to do now was to write them into verses and a chorus that Janice could put to music. I thought, prayed, wrote and rewrote and finally came up with what I hoped would work. Janice liked it and she went to work, doing her magic with the music as only she can do.

So now we have the song, “The Value of Virtue”. I’m sure you see the double meaning in the title for not only is it a new Young Women value, but having virtue is of great value. Now it is our hope that it will fill a need. We would love for the young women of the Church to be singing these ideas that their president Sister Elaine Dalton, so beautifully taught through her talk and the article. If it meets that need then we will be grateful for any contribution it can make to help these young women and others live a more virtuous life.

We would love to hear from you and find out what you think of the song and how you will be using it. You may email us at joy@lundbergcompany.com.
Click here to download the sheet music. It’s free to use for all Church and family purposes.
(For commercial use, copyrights must be respected, and royalties paid.)