Prayer

As I attended Church today I was impressed with the speakers in sacrament meeting. The assigned topic must have been prayer. In fact the High Counselor started with a pretty funny joke:

A primary president, bishop, and high counselor were all sitting on the front row of an airplane. They took off and they got and were enjoying their flight when some hijackers took over the plane. He said that to prove they were serious they were going to kill all the people in the front row. The primary president said that she had a last request. She wanted to sing a primary song before she died. The High Counselor said he last request was to give the talk he wrote for church the next week to the passengers. The hijacker asked the bishop if he had any last requests. He waved him over and whispered, "Shoot me after the song".

If you know Mormon culture, what is supposed to make this funny is that by legend or something- High Counselors are supposed to be boring speakers. I find the opposite to be true 99.9% of the time.

So anyways, that is way off the point. The point is this. Prayer is such a powerful thing. The speaker said that most of his family was from back East. He said that when they pray everyone participates with Amens, and such. But he feels that these prayers aren't really the way to pray. He also read the definition of prayer from Webster's Dictionary. I found it interesting as he pointed out that it doesn't say anything about the prayer being answered, just that it is a petition. Then he read the definition of prayer from the LDS Book of Mormon Index. The first thing it says is "See also Answer". If found that profound. Webster's didn't say anything a being answered, but here we read in the scriptures that answered if a focus.
He reviewed the way to pray as well.
1st- Address our Father in Heaven,
2nd- Thank Him for the blessings we have,
3rd- Ask for blessings that we need, and
4th- close in the Name of Jesus Christ.
The rest of the meeting was uplifting as well. A returned missionary from Sweden spoke. It was neat to hear about his experiences. Then the High Counselor spoke. Unfortunately I had to take my 1 year-old out because he was screaming at the top of his lungs. I challenge anyone who reads this to truly pray. It doesn't need to be loud and showy (in fact it shouldn't EVER be). Praying is a very personal thing between you and God. Remember to follow the above steps. And then always keep a prayer in your heart.

As it says in 3 Nephi 18:21 "Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed."
Also as Alma said in Alma 34:27 "Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you."






Keep the Faith!