Lesson for October 19, 2014

Lesson for October 19, 2014 Today our lesson was given by Maggie Kopp about “Prayer: A Commandment and a Blessing.” Maggie shared a video of good will in New York and what prayer means to a woman. President Monson quoted the scripture that tells how God knows the prayers of our hearts. This woman had been taught by the missionaries and lost touch with them. She prayed that the missionaries would find her. She saw them in her apartment building and she told them to come in, because she was waiting for them. She said that prayer has helped her be more humble and know when to help someone else. She said that God rescued her through prayer. President Monson said that prayer is the passport of peace and the provider of answers. Miracles are wrought through prayer. Maggie focused on quotes by a 1968 talk by Elder Didier: Prayer is what we need, not something God needs. Prayer is not for us to tell God Hid business, but for us to learn ours. We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit and have our minds quickened by the Holy Spirit. How does prayer help us? It humbles us. Kristine Hanson said it is a boon that unites our will with God’s, so we know what to seek. Emily Campbell said it helps us be heard and feel like we’re being heard. Prayer also helps us to understand things better than we would have. Heavenly Father knows us better than our friends. Jenni Harker said it makes us feel empowered, because there are things we can’t do ourselves that we are helped to do. Sister Bahr said it is a daily communication with someone we love and trust, so it is sacred. Katie said that prayer is comforting and even if she’s not sure what to do, she feels better. Maggie said it changes our attitudes. Emily Campbell said it helps her realize it is not entirely her husband’s fault. Adele Hickman said it helped her realize that God loves her son more than she does and knows what will help him. Kristine Hanson said it helps us feel gratitude and not feel sorry for ourselves. Jessica Lewis said she’s been focusing on true communication and it helps her be able to keep her will more in line with her Father’s will by focusing on what He wants her to do, rather than what she wants. JFS said we should pour out our hearts in gratitude. Irma Lopez said to start prayers with gratitude and giving thanks. Jessica Lewis felt like she needed to get up early to be alone with the Lord. She got the revelation that she needed to focus on gratitude to help her. Maggie asked if we had ever made a gratitude list. One sister said she’s been keeping a prayer journal and she gets a lot of support. Another sister said she kept a gratitude journal and she read it over and saw that when she was especially grateful, she received blessings. Taking the time to think about prayer beforehand helps her thank God for the things she hasn’t received yet, things that she would have asked for and it was an amazing experience. Others also bore their testimonies about teaching our children to pray and being grateful. It changes our actions, too. We should not pray merely with our lips, but express our prayers by how we live. We should put our actions in harmony with our desires. Megan Miller said she gets the most out of her prayers when she is specific. One sister told of an experience where she and her husband had taken the time to pray for him. Everything went wrong that day, but by the time she got home that night, it had all worked out. Linda Campbell said she gets very specific in her prayers for her grandchildren. Our actions show that we have a relationship with our Father. Through our prayers, He wants to build our testimonies, so often He keeps up with His end of the bargain, even if we are not so good at it. Megan Miller said she tries to make things happen with Heavenly Father and she finally realized that she needs to pray for what the Lord wants and things will be taken care of when the Lord wants it to. Our prayers help us learn to trust. In 1919, JFS mentioned the D&C scripture about the season of prayer. He said it is all the time, not just when we go to bed. We are all in our own seasons, but we all need to pray all the time. Maggie said that the seasons of our lives and the seasons of our prayers overlap. Prayer helps us with whatever circumstances we are in. Let us improve our prayers.