My Talk

The leaders in our church have encouraged us to share our beliefs in our blogs, so I decided to post my talk that I gave in church yesterday. If you are a random visitor to this blog, you should know that we belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was really nervous about giving a talk and cried from the second I stood up and started talking to the second I sat down. I had 10 family members there listening and they cried the whole time also. I guess we all have trails in our lives and we need prayer to get us through them. I hope you enjoy the talk. Sorry if it's a little long.

I would like to talk to you today about prayer and the importance of prayer in our daily lives. Prayer is important so that we can communicate with our Heavenly Father and have a relationship with him.

Jesus taught, “Ye must always pray unto the Father in my name.” Prayer is one of the greatest blessings we have while we are here on earth. Through prayer we can communicate with our Heavenly Father and seek His guidance daily. Prayer is a sincere, heartfelt talk with our Heavenly Father. We should pray to God and to no one else. We do not pray to any other being or to anything made by man or God.

Prayer has been an important part of the gospel from the beginning of the world. The Lord commanded Adam and Eve to repent and call upon God in the name of the Son. This commandment has never been taken away. Prayer will help us grow closer to go. All of our thoughts, our words, and our actions are influenced by our prayers.

There are many things that we should pray for.

We should pray for strength to resist temptations from Satan and his followers.

We should pray to confess our sins and to ask for forgiveness.

We should pray for guidance in our daily lives.

We should pray for our families, friends, neighbors, crops, animals, daily work and our other activities.

We should pray to thank our Heavenly Father for all the things he gives us each day.

We need to pray for comfort and strength so we can keep on the straight and narrow path.

We must pray to be righteous in our thoughts, words and actions.

I know when I pray for those things I feel closer to the Lord each day. When I don’t pray for the right things or with a sincere heart, I often feel frustrated or my day doesn’t go right. I am not perfect when it comes to praying every day. Sometimes I forget to say my nightly prayers. When I do forget, I try to say a quick prayer when I remember, whether I am getting ready for the day, driving in the car or going about my daily life. We can pray whenever we feel the need to communicate with our Heavenly Father. At times we may not feel like praying. If you are discouraged, angry or upset, these are the times you should make a special effort to pray. God commanded us to have family prayers so our families can be blessed. In our little family, we have not always done this. Matt and I have talked and are now going to make a special effort to have a family prayer every night even though our little daughter is so young and may not understand it right now. We need to get in the habit of setting a good example for our growing family.

We are taught to pray “with a sincere heart, and with real intent.” As we pray to our Heavenly Father, we need to confide in Him and tell Him what we really feel in our hearts. This is how we will build a relationship with Him. We have been told not to repeat meaningless words or phrases. I find myself doing this often and repeating the same things every night. When I really pray and talk to Heavenly Father I find more peace in my heart and I feel like my relationship is growing stronger with Him.

Our prayers are answered in different ways. We will not always be told what we want to hear. The Lord answers our prayers in His own time. Sometimes the answers will be “No” or “not right now”. Sometimes they are answered with a “yes” or he will immediately answer them. Our prayers can also be answered by other people. I have a few stories of how prayers have been answered differently in my life and in others lives.

This past summer I was assistant girls camp director in my old ward. Camp last year was held up at Heber Valley Girls Camp. On Wednesday night of that week the stake leaders had planned a very spiritual activity about the tree of life. The activity was planned to be held outside. I knew how spiritual the activity was going to be because the stake had done the same one when I was in young womens years ago. I was really excited for it and couldn’t wait for all the girls to experience it like I had. That afternoon as we were all relaxing and having ward time we noticed a big storm coming in. The sky was completely black with clouds and it didn’t look like it would be a good day. All of the stake leaders came around to each of the wards campsites and asked us to gather together and say a prayer that the storm would disappear so that the activity they had planned could happen that night. We gathered each of the girls in our ward together and said a prayer. Within 30 minutes the sky cleared up and the storm went away. Heavenly Father answered our prayers. He has the power to take away a major storm that is coming. All of the young women at girls camp had great faith and our prayers were answered right away. We were able to participate in a very spiritual activity that night. Not one girl or leader walked away with a dry eye.

Another experience that I had was when I was pregnant with our daughter Allie, I had a very horrible pregnancy. I was on IV’s for 5 months, a couple of feeding tubes and I threw up everyday throughout the entire pregnancy. We lived with my mom at the time so she could help take care of me while Matt was at work each day. `I was really frustrated with the pregnancy and my doctor. I felt like I wasn’t being taken care of very well. My doctor didn’t give me any answers as to why I could be that sick and just kept telling me that I should be getting better. In my mom’s ward, which we were attending at the time, they have a prayer in Sunday School each week that they call “the mighty prayer”. This is where they talk about those individuals in the ward that need a special prayer and they pray for them. I was one of the ward members that they prayed for each week. One week they decided to have a fast for me. The day after the fast, my feeding tube clogged up, I had to take it out and I couldn’t stop throwing up. Our 2 neighbors and close friends in the ward came over to take me to the hospital to get an IV. They expressed their feelings to my mom and I about my doctor not helping me out. They decided to take it upon themselves and took me to a new doctor that day. Within 2 days of that dr. visit we found out that I had gallstones. At this point in my pregnancy it was too late to get my gallbladder taken out so I had to wait until after the baby was born. I got my gallbladder taken out 2 weeks after Allie was born. Our 2 neighbors were an answer to our prayers. Heavenly Father was able to answer all those prayers given by the ward members through those 2 wonderful women.

They next story is one that I have heard my mom talk about a few times. About 10 years ago my mother really wanted to go back to school to get her Masters Degree. She prayed to Heavenly Father about how to go about getting her Masters. As she prayed she was told that this was not the time to go back to school and that she needed to be around for her family. She was very sad about it and had always wanted to go back to school. She decided to listen to the Lord and not start any more schooling at that time. A few years later my father was diagnosed with cancer and was very sick for a year. My mom was able to take care of him and his needs. If she had gone back to school she wouldn’t have been able to do what she needed for the family. After my dad passed away she was able to continue on with her schooling. The Lord had told her “no” to her prayer, and to wait for another time. Her faith was strong enough to listen to the Lord at that time. Our prayers may not always be answered when we want it, but we need to have faith in Heavenly Fathers plan. He knows what is going to happen in our lives and he will always guide us if we listen to him.

God gives us the power to answer our own prayers. As we pray for help, we should do all we can to bring about the things we desire. Over the past couple of years I have had a few health problems. I have found myself praying a lot more and asking for the Lords help. I always tried to do everything I could to help myself then Heavenly Father helped me the rest of the way. After having a horrible pregnancy, I had a very long and hard labor, got my gallbladder taken out and my thyroid taken out, all within 6 months. If I hadn’t of built a good relationship with my Heavenly Father during this time, I don’t know if my faith would be strong enough to get through everything. Every prayer that was said or blessing that I got, I was told that Heavenly Father knew what I was going through and that I had to go through it for a reason. To this day I don’t know the reasons why, but I am grateful for the gospel in my life and the trails I have had to bring me closer to God.

As we live the gospel of Jesus Christ and pray always, we will have joy and happiness. D&C 112:10 says: “Be thou humble, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.”