Sunday School - Prayer

For over a year now, every time he prays, little mr j has been saying, "please bless the people in Haiti."
I've wondered if I should tell him to not always say the same thing in his prayer.
And then I think about those poor people and all they need.
And what a gift his little prayer might be for those on that devastated island.
And I don't say anything.

Do you pray?

In the young women class I attended today, the lesson was on "Living the Gospel Daily."
One of the tenets was that praying daily helps us live the Gospel daily.

And I thought about how I was taught to pray as a little girl and the blessings I've seen in my life because of prayer. And I thought about little mr j's words that he says in his prays. I thought about how he is learning to say his "thankful fors" and how he has been very concerned about grandma's back and his friend Jack's dad's back as well. I thought about the time in high school when I was at a gym in a school in another town and my friend was holding the ring my grandpa gave me and lost it under the bleachers and I was devastated. I prayed and gave the janitor my address. I couple of days later a tiny package and a note arrived in the mailbox. "I can not believe I found your little ring in all the mess I swept up. Here you are." I thought about a dear sweet 11 year old boy in our congregation battling a horrible illness. And his mother. And his brothers and sisters. I thought of my mr's cousin, a young mother waiting to take her precious little baby into the hospital for an operation to help his heart on Tuesday. And her brother and his wife and toddler, who were expecting to bring another precious little child into this world very soon, only to learn that that child's heart has problems too and they might be too huge to fix. And their mother (my mr's aunt). How she must feel.

I thought about my "thankful fors" and how I have so many.
And how I am thankful for that.

And how I am thankful to know how to pray.
And I thought, "what if I didn't know how to pray?"
And then I decided to write this post.

An hour later, I attended a council meeting for the young leaders in our ward (congregation).
And guess what our Bishop counseled those young leaders on.
Prayer.
And what a blessing it is that in their young lives, they know how to pray.
And how so many people out in the world don't have that gift and would like.

And then, in an email exchange with a friend of another faith, she was telling me of her Sunday.
And how tonight,  "we kicked off a small group home study here in the neighborhood on prayer."

Truly, prayer is in the air.
So, this is how I pray:

1. I address my father in Heaven, "Dear Heavenly Father."
2. I acknowledge Him and thank Him for what He's blessed me with. The "thankful fors."
3. I ask Him for needs-for me, family friends, strangers. The "please blesses."
4. I close in Christ's name. I always pray in Christ's name. "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Sometimes, when it's urgent, I don't always say my "thankful fors."
Sometimes, I don't always say my "please blesses."
And sometimes, I just think to whom I am speaking or thinking to and pray.
And sometimes the only word I say is "help."
And I know it will come.
Somehow, somewhere, someday.
He will answer.
______________________________________________________________________________

For a precious little song that I learned as a child, that teaches the steps in a prayer, click on the link below:
I Pray in Faith