Tag Archives: prayer

General Conference Book Club Week 11: Elder Nelson

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nelsonElder Russell M. Nelson, of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles, explained, “Our prayers follow patterns and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. He taught us how to pray.”    This week, we will study his recent General Conference talk, “Lessons from the Lord’s Prayers.”  As always, I love to read your thoughts and comments.  (Mostly your comments, since I can’t actually read your thoughts.)

If this is your first visit to the General Conference Book Club, click here to learn more about it. You’re welcome to join us at any point along the way.

>>Click here to read the talk “Lessons from the Lord’s Prayers” by Elder Russell M. Nelson <<

Women’s Conference chapter 6: Prayer

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44-06See? I eventually get around to finishing my goals.  After I get back from EFY next week, I’ll write about Sister Beck’s talk, which was my favorite message from Women’s Conference.

These are notes from the class, “Meaningful Prayer:  Holy Communication + Consecrated Work,” taught by Renee Wood and C. Robert Line.  It was based on this talk by Elder David A. Bednar, which I’d still like to go back and read.  As a preface, I really liked this class.  Thought I’d throw that out there in case it encourages you to actually read on.

Part 1:  Sister Wood

  • Prayer became critical after Adam and Eve left the garden– a lifeline, complete and total dependance.
  • Prayer OPENS the door.  Why deal with life alone?  Pray in specifics– as if He’s right there.  He is.
  • We must commit to prayer.  D&C 88:63– “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
  • Sis. Wood told stories from her life and how prayer had been essential.  She had some major challenges:  a sudden, unexpected divorce after 18 1/2 years of marriage, a son who became wayward and lost spiritually, a sister with recurring cancer, etc.  At one point she described her feelings as “I didn’t know someone could hurt so much and still be alive.”  Her story moved me and gave me gratitude for my blessings and the Atonement that can swallow up that kind of pain.  She testified of how prayer made miracles and healing happen in her life and in her family.
  • Just like in Mosiah 24:15, even when the Lord does not take away the trial, He does strengthen our backs to bear them.
  • Answers to prayers always require actions.
  • The key:  Pray with sincerity of heart, listen, accept His will.  Our faith will be strengthened.

Part 2:  Brother Line

  • The prayer of faith requires us to plead and to perform.  It is our duty.
  • Alma 34:28— “And now behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you, do not suppose that this is all; for after ye have done all these things, if ye turn away the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick and afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to those who stand in need—I say unto you, if ye do not any of these things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as hypocrites who do deny the faith.”
  • Elder Eyring taught in this talk that we need to couple prayer with scriptures.
  • There are three pieces of the combination lock to answered prayer:
  1. Faith
  2. Personal righteousness
  3. what is “right” for us

All three must be in place for us to receive what it is that we’re asking for.  Often 1 &2 are there, but it is not what is “right” for us.  Our rejected petitions teach us about our flawless Father.

  • In Mere Christianity (p. 101-102), C.S. Lewis stated that sometimes our process of failing and trying again is what we need.  It trains our habits of the soul.
  • This scripture gives us the formula of how to receive answers to our prayers: D&C 9:8-9–   “But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it* be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought…”
  1. Study.
  2. Make a decision. (*implied.  You have to make a choice first.)
  3. Ask if it’s right.
  4. Get an answer:

a.  burning in the bosom/ feel that it is right = Yes.

b.  stupor of thought/uneasy = No.

c.  Neither a. nor b/ Father witholds an answer. =  He wants us to gain experience, and act with faith and obedience to revealed principles of truth.  GREAT quote by Elder Richard G. Scott:

“When He withholds an answer, it is to have us grow through faith in Him, obedience to His commandments, and a willingness to act on truth. We are expected to assume accountability by acting on a decision that is consistent with His teachings without prior confirmation. We are not to sit passively waiting or to murmur because the Lord has not spoken. We are to act.

Most often what we have chosen to do is right. He will confirm the correctness of our choices His way. That confirmation generally comes through packets of help found along the way. We discover them by being spiritually sensitive. They are like notes from a loving Father as evidence of His approval. If, in trust, we begin something which is not right, He will let us know before we have gone too far. We sense that help by recognizing troubled or uneasy feelings.”

  • D&C 8:23 teaches us that when something is right, the Lord will let us know in our mind and in our heart.  Elder Holland taught that this is like a checks and balances to help us recognize the truth:  God teaches in a reasonable and revelatory way.

Anyway, these were some great reminders to me about prayer.  Although I pray many times throughout the day in my mind and heart, I need to do more on-my-knees, heart-pouring-out praying.  And I loved how he explained God’s pattern for answering (or not answering) prayers.  I hope something has been helpful to you, too.

I’ll post up the new GCBC post on Sunday, but then I’ll be noticeably absent for a few days while I’m teaching at EFY next week.  Don’t think I decided to hate you if I don’t show up at your blogs for a while as I play catch-up.  Have a great weekend.

A child’s prayer

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First things first.  I cannot express the joy I felt as I saw your comments pouring into my inbox beginning yesterday.  I was so relieved that you actually found me.  A huge shout out to my little brother Steve, the expert in all things I choose to ignore.  (I dare you to read his blog… I have no idea what he’s talking about.)  Anyway, while I whined to him on the phone yesterday about my whole mess, he said, “Oh, I can fix that,” and within a few hours he did some kind of RSS feed forwarding trick that I believe somehow made my new blog show up in all your Readers and other feeds as if it were still coming from my old blog.  He’s a freaking genius.  Does anyone out there have any single sisters in Utah looking for the quiet and brilliant type (wink, wink)?  Moving on now . . .

n1002210788_53969_8404Have you ever noticed how powerful a child’s prayer is?  My kids often blow me away with the goodness of their prayers.  Especially Grant, my kindergartener.

Elder James E. Faust said,

“What is a prayer?  … We sing, ‘Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed.’ Sincere prayers come from the heart.”

Well, Grant has prayed fish back to life, rain to stop, and the recovery of his lost brother at the mall.  I’m positive he’s the sole reason my parents were not robbed on their mission in South Africa because Grant prayed EVERY day, “Please don’t let the bad man steal Grandma and Grandpa’s stuff.”  If our family is driving down the road in a snowstorm and cars are sliding off the road all around us, we know we should ask Grant to pray.  He usually thinks of it first, though.  He’s good.

Unfortunately, he’s also sincere.  There are occasionally the meal prayers that say, “Please bless the dinner that it won’t be gross.”  Ha ha, very funny. Or “Bless Natalie that she won’t play with my toys.”  What a sweet little selfish guy.

So, this has not been my finest mothering week.  When my blog went down on Wednesday– the sad event that shall henceforth be called TDBD (The Day the Blog Died)– I spent the majority of the next two days either at the computer or thinking about the computer.  My children were not the recipients of much deserved attention from me, and the attention they did get was mostly grumpy and distracted.  I was frustrated.  I claimed the kids were naughtier than usual, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the real problem was.  Nevertheless, this is Grant’s dinner prayer one of those nights:

“Thank you for this wonderful day.  Sorry Clark and me made some sins.  Please help us.  And please bless the food.  Amen.”

Aaagh.  I hate it when they’re better than me!  So then I reflected (who are we kidding? It was a guilt trip) about my own behavior, and last night when I put them all to bed,  I apologized.  I explained to them that my blog got broken and erased and that’s why I was so grumpy and spent way too much time at the computer.  Rather than begrudge my obvious failings, they were earnestly concerned about my blog and began asking many questions about how my blog “got disappeared.”  Grant had many theories.  This one was my favorite:  “I know.  I know what happened.  Maybe your blog was just tired, and it got so tired that it just went to sleep, and while it was asleep the computer just started re’rasing it.”  Then he offered to say a prayer about it and told me that “you and daddy should probably say a prayer about that blog too.”

If I were really a smart woman, I would have consulted Grant before we even began the backing-up-data process.  My children are my prayer mentors.  And I’m learning that simply by virtue of the fact that I am babysitting their little souls for God, He wants me to talk to Him about them more often.  This quote by Elder Holland inspires me every time I read it:

“Be believing. Keep loving and keep testifying. Keep praying. Those prayers will be heard and answered in the most unexpected hour. God will send aid to no one more readily than He will send it to a child—and to the parent of a child.”

I need to learn to put as much faith in my own prayers as I do in Grant’s.  But if anyone needs any miracles or anything, let me know and I’ll pass it along to him . . . just in case.

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Forgive me as I include this announcement at the bottom of all my posts for the next little while. Thanks to TDBD, there have been a few technology-related changes around here.  To my readers who subscribe to this blog through any kind of RSS feed, including Google Reader:  As of April 1, (no, this is not a joke), this blog will be hosted solely at http://www.diapersanddivinity.com (wordpress will no longer appear in the URL).  When that change takes place, the old feed will be reset and you will need to go there yourself and subscribe again (for the LAST time, I promise.)  May this be the end of the transition….