Prayer is a very personal and individual exercise of one’s faith. When I see people pray in a restaurant, for example, I sometimes think, why am I not doing that? Or I listen to someone in church pray with such sincerity and obvious love for the Father that I think, why don’t I pray like that? Even my bedtime prayers, where I kneel with my wife and offer up a prayer of thanks, I find is often a carbon copy of the one that was said the night before. Not that it was not sincere, because it was! And though I pray night after night (somewhat the same or similar), it still might bring a tear to my eye. I may not have eloquence in the prayers I offer, but I somehow believe that God is listening. He requires that we pray, and we might wonder why that is? Some might say that He is pompous and wants to hear his subjects grovel before him and from their knees plead for His blessings. No! I do not believe that, but I do believe that He has demanded prayer of us because He loves us and He knows that if we humble ourselves before Him, it will be for our good. It will bring us closer to Him and make us feel like He is near and supportive of us and our daily endeavors. I seldom offer a verbal prayer during the day, as I have my mind on so many other responsibilities. I know that He is near, and if there are challenges in life too difficult for me to carry alone, I will find a way to be alone so that I can talk to Him as a son to his Father. When those times occur, I always feel better and somehow feel assured that He will be there for me, to strengthen me, to shore me up, mind and spirit, with the energy I need to carry on. I don’t often speak a verbal prayer during the day, because I don’t often feel a need. I know He lives, I know He loves me and all of His children. The thought that He may have gone through a similar experience Himself is comforting because I then know that He understands what I feel. And I know life will always be a challenge regardless of our prayers. That is the way it was meant to be. But I will always feel His closeness and His love for me. I believe the reason I can feel that way is that, even though I am not a perfect person, I know that He knows that I am trying to do good. Trying to be a kind and a loving person. Trying to follow the plan, His plan of progression, His plan of service, His Plan of love and kindness. Life is always going to be a challenge, and it will always find us falling short, sometimes for lack of energy, sometimes for personal and selfish reasons. Those are times when we feel His spirit slowly withdraw, and it is a depressing feeling, a feeling we want to overcome, and we know what we have to do to regain His closeness. Most of my adult life, as a member of His church and one who believes in His Gospel plan, I have felt His spirit, His love, and often, without any apparent reason, I will tear up and just feel a need to thank Him for the love that I feel, right then and at that very moment.
While the world has so much pain and suffering with starving children and plagues of illness and cruelty among men, at the same time, there are many great and wonderful people who do kindly deeds. People who are charitable and giving. Willing to sacrifice everything for others or at least try to make their lives a little more comfortable. I pray that they will be blessed for their kindness. I remember reading the Poem entitled Abu Ben Adhem as a freshman college student. Without including the whole poem here, I have used T.V. Rajan’s summary of it as follows: The poem narrates the story of Abu Ben Adhem, who wakes up one night
“from a deep sleep of peace” to find “an Angel writing in a book of gold.” Emboldened by the “exceeding peace” of the setting, he asks the angel what he is writing. The angel tells him that he is making a list of those who love the Lord. Abu asks whether his name is on the list. He’s told that it is not. In that case, says the self-effacing hero of our poem, write my name down as one who loves his fellow men.
Our Father’s Plan encourages the love of our fellow man as well as love for Him. The only way we have of demonstrating love for either is by our behavior each day of our lives. That is why I have included this unknown person’s prayer as it describes the way we should follow: “I knelt in prayer when day was done and prayed, Oh Lord, bless everyone, Lift from each saddened heart the pain And let the sick be healed again. And then I woke another day And carelessly went on my way, The whole day long I did not try to wipe a tear from any eye. I did not try to share the load of any brother on the road. I did not even go to see the sick man just next door to me. Yet once again when day was done, I prayed, ‘O Lord, bless everyone.’ But as I prayed, into my ear there came a voice that whispered clear, ‘Pause now, my son, before you pray. Whom have you tried to bless today? God’s sweetest blessing always go by hands that serve him here below.’ And when I hid my face and cried, ‘Forgive me, God, I have not tried, But let me live another day and I will live the way I pray.’”