Ok so
Tuesday we Zone Conference. And at Zone Conference elder Winn and I got
to give an instruction. And it was on increasing faith and that was way
cool to have the opportunity to talk about faith. There is this talk
that has a way cool story about how this young mother learn the true
order of prayer I will insert that talk right here( Celeste Davis is a
young mother of three whose baby woke up often, every night. She began
to pray that she and her baby could get the sleep they needed. But her
prayers seemed to go unanswered. This caused her to want to better
understand prayer and why she wasn’t being blessed with relief. She
learned from the Bible Dictionary that “we pray in Christ’s name when
our mind is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ. …
We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant. Many prayers
remain unanswered because they are not in Christ’s name at all; they in
no way represent His mind but spring out of the selfishness of man’s
heart.”
So Celeste decided to make a list of the
things for which she had been praying. By making this list, she realized
that her prayers primarily consisted of asking Heavenly Father for what
she wanted, which was for Him to change her circumstances. She then
decided to make another list, writing down those things that she was
certain Heavenly Father wanted for her. Of course the two lists were not
entirely incompatible—He loves us and wants us to be happy. But this
little exercise teaches an important truth. While she wanted to change
her circumstances, He wanted to change her. So, she decided to adjust
her approach to prayer in order to better align her will with Heavenly
Father’s. She wrote:
“I came up with a little formula to
help me in my prayers. It is simply this—whenever you ask for something
you want and you’re not totally sure if it’s something God wants for
you, tack on the phrase ‘but if not’ and then add something you’re sure
God would want for you.
“For example: ‘[Heavenly Father],
please help me get some sleep tonight, but if not, help me to have
enough energy to be pleasant and hardworking anyway.’ ‘[Heavenly
Father], please bless that my child will get over this sickness and feel
better, but if not, help us to trust in Thee and be patient with each
other.’ ‘[Heavenly Father], please bless that I will be included in my
group of friends, but if not, even if I feel excluded, help me to be
kind and generous.’”
She continued:
“I’ve tried this out for about a year now, and I can say my rate of prayer success has skyrocketed. …
“I
feel like I’m finally fulfilling the real purpose of prayer, which is
not to negotiate my desires, but to align myself with God. …
“An
unexpected benefit has been that I don’t fear hard situations or not
getting what I want nearly as much as I used to because I’ve seen and
felt God answer my prayers—both my desires and my ‘but if nots.") we
then heard from a lot of the other leaders and people that help keep
this mission running. We had a fun full day.
well
it looks like thats really all that i got... we had fun week ahead of
us... we just took the car in to the shop and it may be in there for a
week so we will be roiling around on our bikes so ya. anyway love you
all.
love elder Gordon
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