Prayers Are Our Link To God

I am excited to have started another semester in the Pathway Program.  In my religion class we will now be covering the rest of the books of the Book of Mormon.  We will be going from Alma 30 - Moroni 10.  One of the topics that we covered in this week's class is prayer.  Prayer has always been one of my favorite topics to study and discuss.  I feel that there are so many people that don't understand what prayer is.

Prayer is a way that we communicate to God, it's our link to him.  Our Heavenly Father has always wanted us to communicate or talk to him.  He wants to know about everything that is going on in our lives.  My daughter, who is 8, has asked me, "Why do we need to talk to God and tell him about our day if he already knows everything that is going on?".  It is a good question. What I tell her is that it's like when I am watching her and her sisters playing outside through our kitchen window.  I have seen everything that has gone on.  I know that you have hit the ball over the fence, that you pushed your sister, or that you were laughing as you were yelling into the wind, but I want to hear from you what your favorite part of the day was.  What will you always remember about the afternoon outside? She understood what I was saying and she has actually wanted to say a prayer every night since that discussion.

I talk to Heavenly Father throughout the day. I am a stay at home mom and so it's easy for me to pray out loud, but when I am out and about I am holding full conversations in my head with Him.  I use respectful words to address him like "thee" and "thou", but I talk to him like he is right next to me.  I seek his counsel, I vent to him, I bring my heavy heart to him when I am burden with the weight of the world, and I sometimes just cry and am comforted in the knowledge that there is someone there with me as tears are rolling down my face.  We are taught in the Book of Mormon in Alma 34:27,  by a missionary, Amulek, when we should pray: 

 27 Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.

What I think is important for people to remember is that God is there when were are frustrated, stressed, mad, and going through a tough trail, but he is also there waiting for us to bring to him our joys and things that we are thankful for.

I thank him for a breeze that comes when I am mowing the lawn and I am dying because it's so hot.  I thank him for one of my favorite songs coming on the radio when I am cranky.  I thank him that many of the things on my grocery list are on sale on a week that the food budget is a bit tight.  God is mindful of all of us and of all that we are going through.  I hope that we all just remember that prayer is powerful, it works, God is listening.  All we need to do is to start talking to our Creator, our Father, and our Friend and he will be there listening and ready to respond.