This mornings thought came from a spiritual impression I had last night. I was thinking about how I had taught my children to say their prayers but the question that came into my mind was "do they know how to really pray?"
We pray in our family regularly. We probably need to do it more than we do. We don't often eat together and so often we forget to pray individually before we eat. But we are pretty consistent on morning and nightly family prayers and praying before a family meal. And I remind my children to pray in the morning when I wake them and at night when they go to bed.
We have taught them the basic structure of a prayer - Dear Heavenly Father, We thank thee for ....., We ask the for ...., in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. We have also talked about how important the gratitude part is and what is appropriate and not appropriate to ask for.
But have we taught them to really TALK to their Father? Like when they are feeling down or have a question, have I taught my children to get on their knees and spend time there praying, like PRAYING.
So this morning, on the way to school I talked to the boys about how important it is to really pray to the Father, not just simply say your prayers. We talked about how we can talk to Him and listen for answers in our thoughts, feelings and impressions. We talked about Enos and how he prayed for a whole day and wrestled with the Lord.
Our Father is always there. Wherever we are, we can always turn to Him. He will listen when we are sad or confused or scared, or lonely. And if we keep praying when we are down till we can find just a pinprick of hope and light, He will flood our souls with the peace and light the Savior offers us.
After Camille died, this was a truth I learned. If you dive into the darkness, praying doesn't help to bring you out of that until you can find a pinprick of hope. It just needs to be a tread light tendril of hope reaching down into the darkness of despair. The Lord will send it down, but we have to watch for it and when we feel or see or become aware of the thought of hope, that tiny faint thread, we must grab onto it.
It is only through grabbing on to the thought of hope, the tiny thread of light in the blackness, that we can be brought up to find peace in Christ.
It is only by bravely coming before the Father and forming the words in our minds to ask forgiveness that we can find cleansing from our scarlet sins.
Both of these kinds of prayer are much more intensely feeling acts that the simple prayers we commonly say night and morning. I do not mean to detract from those prayers for I have felt their power too. But I hope my children will also turn to their Father with their deepest innermost thoughts, feelings, and doubts with faith that they will be heard and answered.
This is where I turned in the pre Google age of my youth and young adulthood and I received then and still receive today powerful answers and teachings from my Father about questions I have, things I don't understand, and guidance I will need. No answer is to any question is every more powerfully felt or deeply understood than when it is answered spiritually by our God straight to our souls.
May we all take time to truly commune with Him today.
