Category: Hope

Favorite teachings about prayer

Meaningful prayer takes effort. My brain gets distracted, I get interrupted, and my lazy side recognizes that prayer is work. I try to improve, year after year. So, here is another post about prayer because I think about it a lot. Today, this post highlights the teachings of many people who have helped me to grow in my understanding and practice of prayer.

For instance, I like the tradition in our church to pray from the heart and begin with gratitude. I write down God’s tender mercies in a gratitude journal before I pray to remember who I am dealing with.

I like that my evangelical Christian friends and the patrons of the temple write down the names of people for whom they pray.

From the Lord’s prayer, I learn to praise and reverence Heavenly Father.

From David in the Psalms, I learn to lament and really pour out my soul.

I believe that when Christ said, “Thy will be done” it wasn’t just a statement of resignation, but an affirmation. When I express that I know that Heavenly Father’s perfect will is being done, this is a great way to reframe my experiences.

I learned from a Christian author Paul Miller to write down specific hopes for my children and to pray boldly for these things. I also learned from him to collect scriptures to remind me of God’s power and promises.

From C.S. Lewis, “I am often, I believe, praying for others when I should be doing things for them.”

I learned from President Nelson to pray with a pencil and paper ready, to write down thoughts and impressions, and then act on them.

I learned from Sister Becky Craven that those scattered, seemingly random thoughts that sometimes come during prayer are worth noting because the Spirit is communicating with us.

From Elder Richard G. Scott, “Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need. Spiritually sensitive information should be kept in a sacred place that communicates to the Lord how you treasure it. This practice enhances the likelihood of receiving further light.”

With these teachings in mind, I keep a prayer journal. It’s a tool that helps me focus, remember, and act. Currently, the format looks like this:

I keep my petitions on the left and answers and action items on the right. It’s also where I record inspiring words from scripture about God and prayer.

There are needs and dilemmas that carry over week after week, year after year. This prayer journal is evidence that I maintain hope for answers. This journal is also evidence that Heavenly Father is an involved, tender, steadfast, loving Parent.

I only use this prayer journal for one of my prayers each day. Other prayers I offer are more spontaneous and unstructured and often silent. All kinds of prayers are helpful for me.

A formula that works

Blue + yellow = green.

Blue=initial reaction to trials

Yellow=God’s response to prayers

Green=courage and determination enhanced as a result of prayer

The formula is clear in Alma 58:9-13. Just read the highlighted words and apply them to a challenge that you are facing. This formula has worked for me my whole life.

how it’s going

I think that my current anxieties about getting the right clothing for Mark’s mission are because I know that these are some of the last tangible things that I can do for him. We are moving into a different phase where my help shifts almost completely to intangibles. I am crying every day, as one does at such a time.

He has clothing for Arctic temperatures and rain and a lifetime of other preparation. We now have just a few minor things to purchase.

All I need to do is look outside to see my annual “missionary sunflowers” (which first showed up when Daniel left on his mission) for a reminder that God is taking care of everything for Mark. And He allows me to do the very motherly thing to shop for the right coat.

This.

A friend called me this week to talk about the Come Follow Me reading assignment. We talked about deliverance, one of the big themes in the book of Mosiah. I also came across this short clip about being rescued. It’s too good to keep to myself.

Work in progress

I am getting pretty close to finishing this little project, which is based on a very famous painting. I know what it will look like when it’s finished, but it’s still a mystery to me how this is all going to come together. What a metaphor for my life.

I planning for a few months of ward conferences, so despite winter telling me to rest, I have a very full season ahead. My first counselor, on whom I depend so much, is carefully watching over her husband in his final days on earth. These years of serving in our stake callings have not shielded us from life’s challenges. My second counselor Susan passed away suddenly in 2022. Among the women in my presidency, which have changed over time, we have faced milestones along with the challenges. We’ve sent 5 missionaries into the world, had 3 children get married, and had 1 grandchild and one great-grandchild born. We have led during a pandemic and experienced two major surgeries with long recoveries. And now, my counselor’s husband is in hospice care.

There are some challenging days ahead, but if I have learned anything through my service, it is that my Heavenly Father will give me the strength to do what he has called me to do. He is doing the same for my presidency and for you.

Things that helped

After reading through my 2023 blog posts, I’ve decided that I want to end the year by listing one daily, one weekly, and one monthly thing that helped me get through a year which was actually very challenging.

A daily practice that helped:

  • I took the counsel of President Nelson and I kept a journal of impressions that I had while I prayed, and I acted upon those impressions. This created a leap in progress in my understanding of how revelation works and how interested God is in my life.

A weekly practice that helped:

  • Friday dates with Richard

A monthly practice that helped:

  • I tried to do a variety of work in the temple. Richard and I were able to complete temple ordinances for several ancestors with the help of our children, my brother, and my parents.

I have also looked over my reading list from 2023 to see where I have been. I have a special shout-out for Charles Dickins’ David Copperfield and Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

As I prepare for 2024, I don’t have any major resolutions. I do have plans to keep my good habits, while giving myself the grace to just do one thing at a time, including new things.

Wishing you a gentle look back at your 2023, and a hopeful look forward to your New Year.

Love,

A.

The miracle of the sunflowers

I have written before about our sunflower miracle that began when we sent off our first missionary. The week that Daniel left, the first flower showed up. The flowers continue to arrive, year after year. A couple of times we have inadvertently pulled them out with the weeds, but the miracle continues.

I have gone through an anxious season, and several times over the past few weeks, I have retreated to our backyard to study these sunflowers. I realized a new level of meaning behind my miracle flowers. They remind me that if God can orchestrate flowers to bloom on particular days, He is has a plan to help my family, too. I can trust Him.

Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

Matthew 6:25-34

Rest

Painting By Walter Rane

In my Father’s house are many mansions:…I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:2

Recently, I learned the original Greek word, monai, which became a Latinized version of mansions in this passage, actually means stopping places or resting stations. So, the original passage would be something like, In my Father’s house are many stopping places or resting stations, “thus giving the impression of a long journey rather than a large estate.”*

This makes me think of the mission of Jesus Christ in a new way. He prepares places to rest, not just at the end of our journey, but every day. These resting stations allow us to continue on the journey after a brief pause to be strengthened or encouraged, forgiven, and healed.

We need stopping places where we can have our injuries dressed and find the comfort of a Healer.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

Every day, we need a stopping place to repent, and an ideal to follow.

Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—

Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;

Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.

Doctrine and Covenants 45:3-5

Every day, we need a resting station to receive encouragement.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

John 16:33

Where, then, are these resting stations in our lives? Perhaps some physical places come to mind, and maybe some less tangible things, such as behaviors or blessings can be “places” of rest. Whatever the image of rest, I know that the Savior’s understanding, power, and presence are involved.

*Concepts and quote about the Greek translation are from C. Wilfred Griggs, “The Last Supper According to John,” From the Last Supper through the Resurrection: The Savior’s Final Hours, ed. Richard Nietzel Holzapfel and Thomas Wayment, p. 116.