Prayer

It's late at night, you are falling asleep watching TV or reading a book and a thought flickers in the back of your mind. Your eyelids are heavy, and you can't remember what you just watched or read for the last two minutes and save the two seconds that it will take to flip off the tv or light, you could fall asleep this very second. The thought is still flickering that you have not yet prayed-sometimes, you fall asleep thinking that thought, "K, I'm going to kneel down in thirty seconds to pray." Sometimes I even start counting; I don't remember getting to ten. Or sometimes, I bargain with myself to fold my arms lying flat on my back in prayer...just tonight, I'll pray laying down. I don't remember getting past my thanks for the day that day, and the next thing I know, it's morning.

I could continue this example on into the morning...the busyness that is our lives jumping into our morning, before we get a chance to turn around and kneel beside our bed in the morning to pray to Heavenly Father. When you sit and think about it, about all that we may or will encounter that day, the safety that we need for us and others, and the strength and guidance to get through the trials of our day, how can we forget such an important step?

I will rat myself out and tell you the above two situations are more frequent than I'd like to admit in my personal life. Why is this so hard for me? We do great with morning and evening couple prayers, but finding that personal time to talk with the Lord, seems to be a bigger struggle than it should.

Like anything else, prayer is a process. You know you have a relationship with your Heavenly Father, but how comfortable is it? Like any other relationship, how well does the conversation flow? It flows easier when your talks are more frequent and you feel you can open up to that person. I think its the same thing with the Lord.

" 'We learn to pray by praying. One can devote countless hours to examining the experiences of others, but nothing penetrates the human heart as does a personal fervent prayer and its heaven-sent response.'~Thomas S. Monson (Ensign, October 2004)

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,

Uttered or unexpressed,

The motion of a hidden fire

That trembles in the breast...

Prayer is the simplest form of speech

That infant lips can try;

Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach

The Majesty on high. (Hymns, no. 145)

'We build a relationship of love and trust with Heavenly Father through sincere and frequent prayer. Heartfelt communion with the Infinite can soften souls and draw our thoughts and desires heavenward. In humble prayer, we realize our dependence upon God, the Giver of life and everything in it. As we express sincere gratitude and meekly supplicate, we remember that we are His children and that He loves us with a pure and constant love. May we ever seek to pray.' ~Lloyd D. Newell" (Come, Listen to a Prophets Voice, Lloyd D. Newell.)

I know that deep within my heart, I truly want the Lord to feel what I'm feeling and know the desires of my heart. Sometimes, I think I assume that just because He knows me so infinitely well, and knows my mind and heart, that maybe that's enough. While it is important to go through out our day with a prayer in our heart, its not enough. The Lord wants to be asked. He wants us to formally recognize our blessings, and we owe Him the gratitude of a sincere thanks.

My Relief Society president shared a story with us this last Sunday about one of her daughters. This particular daughter is having a hard time conceiving a child. She had described that while her daughter was raised in the Gospel, she is not too active in the church. My Relief Society president had attended the temple recently and spent hours there, praying and pondering on each of her six children individually. When praying for this daughter, my Relief Society president said she was inquiring with the Lord about her daughters ability to get pregnant. She felt the Lords reply, "She needs to ask me." Now, even though the daughter was not as active as before, my Relief Society president had assumed she had still been praying. In speaking with her daughter after this experience, her daughter was expressing her desperation and sorrow in her inability to get pregnant. Her mother asked her, "Have you prayed and asked the Lord?" She replied that He knew she wanted to have a baby. How could He not know? And she again said to her daughter, "But have you asked the Lord?" Her daughter expressed to her mother, that she hadn't been praying and that she didn't feel worthy to pray for such a thing, especially when there were so many other women out there that were having the same difficulties, that maybe she felt were more worthy of motherhood.

We are ALL worthy of prayer. The Lord is there for each and every one of us. Yes, it is true that He knows the desires of our hearts, but He wants us to acknowledge His hand and presence in our lives. We do that, through our sincere prayers of gratitude, and our sincere pleas for comfort, peace and blessings.

As the above Mormonad states, "If you're missing PEACE and seeking answers, prayer might be the piece you're missing." (See 3 Nephi 18:20).

In a world of chaos and uncertainty, He waits for us to come to Him, so that He can guide us.