Today in Relief Society Pres. Park taught the lesson from Pres. Henry B. Eyring's August's First Presidency Message. His article is titled: "That He May Write upon Our Hearts" and he tells us that "parents should teach their children to pray...(because)the child learns both from what the parents do and what they say." "In time, when the children are away from home and family, prayer can provide the shield of protection that the parent will want so much for them to have."
Ocassionally I hear from one of my children and they tell me of an experience they've had with prayer. I am always so full of gratitude for children who have learned to go to the Lord and then to listen and obey. I am also thankful for the many times we gathered together as a family to have prayer. I am also grateful to their father who said to us, "We will read our scriptures and have family prayer every day." He told me that soon after we were married and I know he made it a part of our family life. I can still see him at the head of the table with his scriptures in his hands, reading to us as we ate our breakfast before heading out for the day. I also remember the many prayers we had together before leaving home on a trip. And there are those quiet times when we now have our own prayer together.
Later, in Pres. Eyring's message he talks about "Learning to Seek His Will". Sometimes this is a difficult lesson to learn, but I've found it to be one of the most valuable lessons of my life. It brings peace and happiness. It also teaches personal lessons that can only be learned by listening and allowing His will to become our own. One such lesson I learned at the time of Alisha's birth. I continue to learn from His will what he would have of me. It is always a comfort to know that He is mindful of me (and of you) and that He has a plan for each of us.
There are times in each of our lives when we are unsure of what is ahead for us and we pray for assurance and comfort. I know that you know the Lord listens and answers those prayers. It's interesting that President Erying puts it this way, "Those answers (are) the most clear when what we want is silenced by an overpowering need to know what God wants. It is then that the answer from a loving Heavenly Father can be spoken to the mind by the still, small voice and can be written on the heart."
We had a discussion of the meaning of the word "heart" and I thought it remarkable that the dictionary defines "heart" as ...."the whole personality, the emotional or moral as distinquished from the intellectual nature, one's innermost being, the center, the essential part, the memory."
Isn't it wonderful that through searching for the Lord's will for us we allow him to write His will upon our very heart. As we strive for that in all we do and in all we pray for, we will truely become one with our Father.
I bear my testimony that He loves us beyond what we can comprehend in our minds but with a love that we can always feel in our hearts. That we begin to understand Him by listening, trusting and following His will. That He will write it upon our hearts and that He has always and will always assist us in our eternal progression because it is "His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of (you and me)."
I love you all. Mom
