The Night to Day

 To my daughter, 

                In one of my favorite hymns we sing these words: 

Ere you left your room this morning,

Did you think to pray?

In the name of Christ, our Savior,

Did you sue for loving favor

As a shield today? 

Oh, how praying rests the weary!

Prayer will change the night to day.

So, when life gets dark and dreary,

Don’t forget to pray. 

I love the idea that praying will “change the night to day.” When we earnestly pray, the Lord will open our eyes to see things around us that we couldn’t see before; our circumstances may not change dramatically but we will see more clearly in order to act how He would have us act. As we sincerely pray to our Father in Heaven in the name of Jesus Christ and seek to draw close to Him, He will help us to know the things that we should do and to make right decisions. This song reminds us that each morning we should not forget to pray. When you wake up in the morning, I want to encourage you to kneel down and pray before you get up and go about your day. I hope that you will develop the pattern in your life to speak to your Father in Heaven each morning and night through prayer, and this will indeed be a great shield to you in your life. I remember when I was about your age my mother would kneel down and help me pray, just like I have done with you. I hope that you will make prayer an essential part of your life, and someday you will similarly kneel down with your own children and help them too to learn to speak to the Lord and hear His voice.

                The Lord taught us about prayer and revelation when He said this to Oliver Cowdery: “Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart” (Doctrine and Covenants 8:2). I know that indeed as we pray the Lord will speak softly to our minds and to our hearts through the Holy Ghost. For example, before we left on our trip this weekend I said a family prayer and asked that we think of those things that perhaps we had forgotten, and sure enough we thought of a couple things right after that which we needed that we were able to get before we took off. Early this week I prayed for help in fulfilling an assignment for Elders Quorum to find people to do a certain thing. Typically I have struggled to find people for this specific task, but I prayed and had an idea come to me of two people in particular whom I should ask. They both accepted and it turned out to be a really good thing. About a week ago I similarly prayed for help in something in my work that I needed some ideas on, and after praying and starting to explore my options I soon found something that I realized would work really well. I know it was the Lord guiding my mind and helping me. I know that as we pray and then listen carefully to our mind and heart the Lord will guide us and help us know those things that we should do. I love this verse from Nephi: “But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul” (2 Nephi 32:9). Whatever we are doing, we should first pray to God to help us and guide us, and when we do that with faith He will direct all our performances for good. I encourage you to make prayer an even more important part of your life and to pray with real intent every morning and night. As you do I know that the Lord will be with you and bless you and will indeed grant you “loving favor” and bring light where it is dark. 

Love,

Dad