- Opening Song: A Child's Prayer, Children's Songbook #12- Download MP3 With words or Music only
- Scripture: For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. (Mosiah 3:19)
Prayer is a wonderful tool that we use to speak to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They can help us with many things like:
- Preparing a talk or lesson
- Doing Schoolwork
- To help us in understanding and learning to obey the commandments
- To give us special protection
- And to help us get well when we are sick
- Have Faith that God is there to listen to us
- Have Faith that he loves us enough to answer our prayers
- Have Faith That the answer we have received is just what God meant for us
Have Faith that God is there to listen to us
During seminary, a classmate of mine shared their prayer experience which I have tried to apply to my prayers ever since. He Said:
When I pray, I kneel down and try to picture God next to me. I envision that I am actually talking to him and his is actively listening.
From the Teachings of David O. McKay pg 75, we read:
Latter-day Saint children have been taught to recognize [God], and to pray to him as one who can listen and hear and feel just as an earthly father can listen, hear and feel, and they have absorbed into their very beings, from their mothers and their fathers, the real testimony that this personal God has spoken in this dispensation. There is a reality about it.
Have Faith that he loves us enough to answer our prayers
The greatest example of this is the First Vision of Joseph Smith from JS-H 1:18-19
My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong) and which I should join.
I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: ?they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.?
This by far is the most wonderful example of love from our Heavenly Father to answer such a prayer by a 14 year old boy.
Have Faith That the answer we have received is just what God meant for us
The Brother of Jared went to the Lord many times in prayer to receive answers for his people. Towards the end of preparation for the voyage of the Jaradites, the Brother of Jared went to the lord in prayer to find out what to do for light in these barges they had built. The Lord did not give him an answer, but Ether 2:23 says:
And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire.
The Brother of Jared lacking an answer from the Lord had faith that the Lord would provide a way. He went and melted 16 small clear stones out of a rock and took them to a mountaintop to pray for the Lord to touch them and make them glow. He wasn't just given an answer, he had to work for the outcome of his prayer.
One last quote from David O McKay
I have cherished from childhood the truth that God is a personal being, and is, indeed, our Father whom we can approach in prayer and receive answers thereto. I cherish as one of the dearest experiences of life the knowledge that God hears the prayer of faith. It is true that the answers to our prayers may not always come as direct and at the time, nor in the manner, we anticipate; but they do come, and at a time and in a manner best for the interests of him who offers the supplication.
- Closing song: Sweet Hour of Prayer, Hymn #142- Download MP3 With words or Music only
- Activity:
- Play a game of "Ring Ring, Who has the Ring"
- Plant some "seeds" of faith and watch them "grow". Choose some flower seeds from your local store and plant them in cups and keep them watered with plenty of sunlight. Or plant them in a small patch in your yard. As you watch them grow, refer to them often in follow on FHEs by checking their progress and further discussing faith.
