Joyfully Bound
#1052 Hymns—For Home and ChurchLyrics
The Story Behind “Joyfully Bound”
Health crises, a shuttered business, a husband's accident — and a hymn about joy, written in a pew as a one-legged bishop bore testimony of the Lord he loved.
Joy That Ignores Circumstances
Anna M. Molgard knows the difference between joy and easy circumstances. Serious health challenges, a business closed by the COVID-19 economy, her husband's accident — the trials stacked up. Years earlier, President Russell M. Nelson's teaching that joy depends on where we focus, not what we face, had moved her to commit to consistent temple worship; she served as an ordinance worker in the Spokane Washington Temple even when money was tight.
The joy came. The circumstances didn't change. That distinction became a hymn.
Written in a Pew
The words arrived during a sacrament meeting, as Molgard's bishop — being released, and having endured an amputation during cancer treatment — spoke of his love for the Lord. 'As he started talking,' she recalled, 'this thought of being joyfully bound to the Savior just kept resonating through my mind and my heart.' She wrote in her notebook in the pew.
For the music she turned to her sister-in-law, Rachel Pettit Mohlman, a BYU-trained choral musician and her longtime publishing partner. Together they set the text simply and brightly. The tune name, GREENBLUFF, honors the little Green Bluff, Washington ward where Molgard had lived.
Bound by Covenant, and Glad of It
The hymn's three verses walk the covenant path — baptism at the Waters of Mormon, the sacrament, the temple — insisting at every step that being bound to God is not a restriction but a source of strength and gladness.
Released February 26, 2026, as hymn #1052, it carries its author's hard-won summary: she 'could sing the song of everlasting joy, even as storms raged in my life.'
Did You Know?
- The words came during a sacrament meeting, as a bishop who had lost a leg to cancer bore testimony of his love for the Lord.
- The tune name GREENBLUFF honors the author's former ward in Green Bluff, Washington.
- Composer Rachel Pettit Mohlman is the author's sister-in-law — they've published sacred music together for years.
- Molgard kept serving as a temple ordinance worker even through financial strain — the practice that taught her the hymn's message.
- The verses trace the covenant path in order: baptism, sacrament, temple.
Scripture Connections
- Mosiah 18:8–11, 13 — The Waters of Mormon — the people 'clapped their hands for joy' at the covenant of baptism, the hymn's first verse.
- Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, 79 — The sacrament prayers — the weekly renewal of the joyful binding.
- Doctrine and Covenants 109:22 — The temple promise: His servants go forth 'armed with thy power,' with angels having charge over them.
Talk About It
Questions to spark a conversation with your family or Primary class:
- The hymn says being 'bound' by covenants brings joy, not restriction. How can a promise make someone more free?
- Anna Molgard's joy came while her problems stayed. What's the difference between joy and things going well?
- At the Waters of Mormon, the people clapped their hands for joy about baptism. What do you remember — or look forward to — about yours?
- Whose testimony has landed on you the way the bishop's landed on her — at just the right moment?
Teaching Resources
Attribution
Music by: Anna M. Molgard and Rachel Pettit Mohlman, 2021; alt. | GREENBLUFF
Text by: Anna M. Molgard, 2021; alt.
Audio files from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints