Today my home teachers came by and talk about this following message "Exhort them to pray"
http://www.lds.org/liahona/2012/02/exhort-them-to-pray?lang=eng (link to it).
I really enjoyed it, how many times have I prayed??? Countless to tell you the truth. How many times have I conversed with the Lord? I hope that also countless, but today I learned new ways to converse with Him. I specifically loved this description of prayer given in the bible dictionary (link to follow) I suggest you read the 7th paragraph a few times which I am posting in my blog after the link.
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/prayer.p2?lang=eng&letter=p
"As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings."
I highlighted what stood out to me the most! It is easy for us to talk, and ask the Lord but we also have to listen, "correspondence with each other", if we are to have a conversation, we can't have it with ourselves.... a conversation requires two or more people. In this case (prayer) is between us and the Lord. From what I could gather today, the way I can make my prayers better is:
- (most important one) Kneeling down, not laying down because I could fall sleep and I love kneeling to converse with the Lord. I feel humble and ready to talk to Him.
- Thanking Him for the things that happened that day, specific things, not vague remembrance of things but of things that we noticed His hand in our lives that made us feel blessed.
- Wait for the Spirit to guide us on what we are going to ask for
- Not being so formal has helped me to be close to my Heavenly Father. I feel like He is right next to me listening to me when I acknowledge His existence but talking like I would talk to my dad.
- Ask for what I need, also specific things, and listen to the answer. If the answer doesn't come I simply say, I will wait for your answer and I will ask again tomorrow. It makes me feel happy that the Lord is getting ready to answer me and I look forward to what he has to tell me.
- If I receive an answer I thank Him for always guiding me the right way whether I am happy for it or not, and I tell Him sometimes, if I am not happy but I also acknowledge the fact that He knows what is best for me and I tell Him that I will do it because I want to be obedient. Then I wait again.
- I say goodbye to Him by closing the prayers in His son's name. Then I would listen to the Spirit once more fill me up with peace.
Aren't prayers great? Knowing that we have a loving Heavenly Father that listens to me and guides me towards the right path makes feel much more secure about every step I take. I love feeling close to Him, I love feeling loved and I can't feel it if I don't wait for His answer to come to me. He is a perfect being and I admit that sometimes I don't feel 100% happy about doing something but I feel 100% sure that it is the right thing to do, and that at the end brings me happiness and peace to an 100%!!! How wonderful it is to have the true gospel in my life and the opportunity to learn from it every day. I know that when trials and tests come my way, I am not alone; I have my Heavenly Father and He will always be with me, no matter what.
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