Thursday, March 21, 2013

I am grateful for a lesson on prayer.

A couple of weeks ago, a woman in our ward explained over the pulpit during fast Sunday that it had been 3 years since she had born her testimony because she had been struggling with an issue. The issue was that the night before her father-in-law was in a fatal ATV accident, she had prayed that everyone would be safe. She said it bothered her that her prayer wasn't aswered. She knows that our prayers are according to God's will, but she questioned why we don't simply pray, "Heavenly Father, I will accept thy will. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Why do we pray for things if it always ends up being according to God's will? She struggled deeply with this question, but it wasn't until her husband recently made a simple analogy that her eyes were opened. Her husband said, "You know how our little nephew is obsessed with his mom's iPad? Well, sometimes our nephew will ask to play with the iPad and his mom will say yes, but other times he will ask and his mom will say no. His mom knows what is best for her son, but her son still needs to ask."

God is our Father. We are His children. He loves us, and He knows what is best for us. Prayer unlocks blessings that wouldn't have been granted without us asking, but sometimes the Lord, with his ultimate wisdom and kindness, says no to our requests.