Cry Unto God For All Thy Support

To my daughter, 

                President Thomas S. Monson told a story several years ago in general conference about the power of prayer that occurred at the cultural celebration for the Kansas City Temple. The youth of the area had prepared a magnificent performance to celebrate the dedication of the temple. As they all got together on the morning of the performance to practice in a large municipal center, there was a major problem: the Jumbotron that was critical to the performance was not working. President Monson recounted, “Technicians worked frantically to solve the problem while the youth waited, hundreds of them, losing precious rehearsal time. The situation began to look impossible. The writer and director of the celebration, Susan Cooper, later explained: ‘As we moved from plan A to B to Z, we knew that it wasn’t working. … As we were looking at the schedule, we knew that it was going to be beyond us, but we knew that we had one of the greatest strengths on the floor below—3,000 youth. We needed to go down and tell [them] what was happening and draw upon their faith.’” He continued, “Just an hour before the audience would begin to enter the center, 3,000 youth knelt on the floor and prayed together. They prayed that those working on the Jumbotron would be inspired to know what to do to repair it; they asked their Heavenly Father to make up for what they themselves could not do because of the shortage of time. Said one who wrote about it afterward, ‘It was a prayer the youth will never forget, not because the floor was hard, but because the Spirit melted their bones.’ It was not long before one of the technicians came to tell them that the problem had been discovered and corrected. He attributed the solution to luck, but all those youth knew better.” Their united prayer had been miraculously answered. President Monson described it in these words, “The youth radiated a glorious, powerful spirit which was felt by all who were present. They seemed to know just where to enter, where to stand, and how to interact with all the other performers around them. When I learned that their rehearsals had been cut short and that many of the numbers had not been rehearsed by the entire group, I was astonished. No one would have known. The Lord had indeed made up the difference.” I love that story of the power of prayer to our Heavenly Father, and it is a reminder to us that the Lord does indeed hear our sincere prayers to Him.

                One of my favorite scriptures about prayer is this one recounting the words of Alma to his son Helaman: “Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever. Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 37:36-37). I want to encourage you today to follow this counsel and pray to the Lord morning and night for help with your challenges and to give thanks for your blessings. And throughout the day, let the “affections of thy heart” be on the Lord as you reach out in silent prayer to Him. Helaman clearly took this counsel to heart, and we have another story in the Book of Mormon where he indeed prayed earnestly to the Lord. He was the leader of an army in the great war with the Lamanites, and they were in trouble. Their army was too small, they didn’t have enough food, and the Lamanites were far more numerous and were close to being able to overcome them. He wrote, “We were grieved and also filled with fear, lest by any means the judgments of God should come upon our land, to our overthrow and utter destruction.” So, what he and his army do? They did the only thing they could: like those youth in Kansas City, they prayed with all their hearts: “Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, yea, and also give us strength that we might retain our cities, and our lands, and our possessions, for the support of our people.” He recorded what happened, “Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him” (Alma 58:9-11). There prayers were answered, they held strong against the Lamanites, and not one of his army of stripling warriors died (even though they were all injured). That is the kind of power that prayer can bring into our lives, and I hope you will reach out to the Lord with all your heart in prayer for help and strength in all your challenges. He can speak peace and grant you great faith as well if you will but ask. I know that prayer is real and that our Heavenly Father and His Son will help you as you seek them in prayer.  

Love,

Dad