My earliest memory is of my family praying. Just like an old photograph, it is fuzzy, slightly out of focus and yellowed with age. However, the feeling of it is still strong and vibrant. There is a warm, comfortable feeling, a feeling of peace and security, a feeling of love and rightness.
Another early memory is of my mother kneeling by her bedside, praying to her Father in heaven. I being a little kid and wanting attention, I tapped her on the shoulder and tried other ways to have her focus on me. She ignored me completely. Only when I put my face up close to her ear and pleaded for her attention did she react with a kind, but firm hush, and a whisper of “I’m praying.” She never seemed to get annoyed or upset when I bothered her when she was praying. It was too important to her, and I saw how important it was to her as she sought daily inspiration through prayer.
It was important to her and she wanted it to be important to her family and her children. She tried to have family scripture study and family prayer in the evening with regularity. My parents also taught us to say are own prayers each night before bed.
Prayer is important. My mother and my father cared so much for us young children then, just as they do now. We are all children of God. He is our father. He cares just as much about you as he does me. He loves us more than we can comprehend and His love passes all understanding. He desires to hear from us just as much as any parent.
I remember that mornings would be hectic, as my mother would try to get us all ready for school and to the bus stops on time. But as far as I can recall, she always managed to have a prayer before we left.
When some of the children started going to middle school, they had to get up earlier than everyone else. My mother knew that prayer would help us and so she put up a handmade plaque or sign by the door with the penetrating question: Ere you left your room this morning, did YOU think to pray?
I didn’t have a large vocabulary at the time, so I had no idea what ERE meant, but I did understand the question and that it meant, did you remember to pray this morning?
Later on as I recognized that this question came from one of our sacred hymns, it gave it more importance. And I recognize my mothers example every time I hear it. But there is more to the song than a reminder to call upon our heavenly father.
The first verse goes:
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?
In Alma 34, verses 17 through 27 it list many of the reasons, the places, and the times that we should pray. In verses 26 & 27, it states:
But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.
Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let you hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.
Prayer is a protection. Luke 12:6-7 says: “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Heavenly Father even knows and cares about sparrows, He cares a great deal about his children, and even though he will not protect us from all conceivable harm, he will help us.
President James E. Faust once shared a story of a family in Northern England.
“Family prayer is a powerful and sustaining influence. During the dark days of World War II, a 500-pound bomb fell outside the little home of Brother Patey, a young father in Liverpool, England, but the bomb did not go off. His wife had died, so he was rearing his five children alone. He gathered them together at this very anxious time for family prayer. They “all prayed … earnestly and when they had finished praying, the children said: ‘Daddy, we will be all right. We will be all right in our home tonight.’
“And so they went to bed, imagine, with that terrific bomb lying just outside the door half submerged in the ground. If it had gone off it would have destroyed probably forty or fifty houses and killed two or three hundred people. …
“The next morning the … whole neighborhood was removed for forty-eight hours and the bomb was finally taken away. …
“On the way back Brother Patey asked the foreman of the A. R. P. Squad: ‘Well, what did you find?’
“ ‘Mr. Patey, we got at the bomb outside of your door and found it ready to explode at any moment. There was nothing wrong with it. We are puzzled why it did not go off.’ ” 18 Miraculous things happen when families pray together.”
The second verse in Did You Think to Pray? goes like this:
When your heart was filled with anger, did you think to pray? Did you plead for grace, my brother, that you might forgive another who had crossed your way?
We all struggle with things. God will help us to overcome our problems, like anger, if we let Him. We will be able to love our enemies if we ask our Father in Heaven and sincerely try. Jesus Christ, our savior, said in Matthew 5:44: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
Being free from hate and full of love can help us get through much in life.
Joseph Smith was a good example of this.
Daniel Tyler, an associate of the Prophet, recalled an important occasion: “At the time William Smith and others rebelled against the Prophet [at Kirtland], … I attended a meeting … where ‘Joseph’ presided. I perceived sadness in his countenance and tears trickling down his cheeks. he turned his back and bowed upon his knees, facing the wall. This, I suppose, was done to hide his sorrow and tears.
“I had heard men and women pray—especially the former—from the most ignorant, both as to letters and intellect, to the most learned and eloquent, but never until then had I heard a man address his Maker as though He was present listening as a kind father would listen to the sorrows of a dutiful child. Joseph was at that time unlearned, but that prayer, which was to a considerable extent in behalf of those who accused him of having gone astray and fallen into sin, [was] that the Lord would forgive them and open their eyes that they might see aright—that prayer, I say, to my humble mind, partook of the learning and eloquence of heaven. There was no ostentation, no raising of the voice as by enthusiasm, but a plain conversational tone, as a man would address a present friend. It appeared to me as though, in case the vail were taken away, I could see the Lord standing facing His humblest of all servants I had ever seen. … It was the crowning … of all the prayers I ever heard.”
The last verse of the song says:
When sore trials came upon you, did you think to pray? When your soul was full of sorrow, Balm of Gilead did you borrow at the gates of day?
To many of us, if we are lax in saying our prayers, or saying them with real meaning, we usually remember to when ‘sore’ trials come upon us. There is real peace in prayer. I remember that when I was having a difficult time on my mission, prayer was a wonderful help. God grants peace if we align ourselves right and strive to obtain it.
Balm of Gilead is an ancient healing balm that originated in the Arabian Peninsula as well as around Palestine. It is also a reference or a comparison to the savior. It originated in Judea just as the Redeemer did. It heals wounds and so does Christ.
Of all the prayers ever offered, two are more remarkable and memorable to the entire world than any other. One was when a young man knelt in a grove of trees on a beautiful spring morning. The other was the most poignant of all, which was when Jesus Christ cried to His Father in a garden of olive trees and accepted the will of His father so that all of us might be able to have peace, to clean ourselves, and to live again.
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.
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