Personal reflections on prayer by Jessica, a Mormon and former soldier.

Mormons believe in personal prayer, and that God is always listening and always answers.  The answer might not be the one you want, or come in an instant, but we can be assured that there is power in prayer.  Personal prayer to God is available to all, no matter what they believe.  In Mormon families, we are taught to pray to God the Father in the name of Christ, and to always give thanks when we pray.  But as long as you believe that God is listening, prayers can be said by anyone, any religion, any belief, prayer is always there for us.

A photo of a Mormon woman praying at her table.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was founded because of a prayer. Our first prophet, Joseph Smith, was a teenager in New York in 1820, a time where there was  huge religious fervor.  He went from one tent revival to another, but didn’t know which religion was right.  Every Christian sect claimed to have the truth, based on the Bible, but they all found different meanings in the scriptures. One night as he was reading his Bible, he read a scripture about prayer.   The scripture was James 1:5 — If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. He realized that only God could answer his question. The next day, he went to a grove of trees and knelt in prayer. Because of his faith in prayer, he was answered by God and his son Jesus Christ, who instructed him in re-establishing Christ’s ancient Church.

I was in the US. Army when I was 20 years old. I am sensitive to yelling and I knew that I wasn’t going to get far in Basic Training (with those screaming drill sergeants), if I didn’t pray every night for strength. From the first night of Basic, I prayed every night kneeling on my top bunk.

I will never forget the night that I was saying my regular prayer, when I was done, I felt someone take my hand. Looking down, I saw a girl that was opposite the bunk that I was in. Her eyes were full of tears and her expression was that on being humble. She looked up at me and asked softly. “Boyd, (That’s my last name) can you teach me how to pray?” My heart almost dropped as I realized that she had been watching me, that I was an example to her just by praying to myself every night.

Hopping down from my bunk, I began to talk to her about prayer and asked her why she wanted me to teach her. She said that she noticed how I acted, that I never cried, that I always seemed strong. She noticed that the Drill Sgt.’s all had a fondness and respect for me. She figured that the reason I was able to go through Basic with less trouble than the others, was because I was praying every night.

She was struggling a lot in Basic, and she told me that she was to the point where it looked like the only way out was to take her own life. When she was contemplating this, she looked up and saw me praying with the usual smile on my face. It was at that moment, that she decided that if I could smile after all the things we went through in the day, she could too.

We spent the next week talking about prayer and my religion and the effect that prayer had in my life. The Drill Sgt.’s commented to me, that they saw a significant change in her attitude and that she was smiling more often.

Prayer is an amazing thing that each one of us has access to. It’s pulled me through countless times in my life, calmed my nerves when I was scared, and brought about things that I didn’t even ask for. I know that it’s not a common thing to put in an article, but I would like to extend a challenge to you readers. In that moment that you feel life is crumbling down, that you can’t possibly go another day — that moment that you need someone or something, more than you ever had before. I challenge you to go somewhere quiet and just pray. Don’t think about it, just pray. Talk to God as if you’re talking to a best friend. Tell Him how you feel, what is going on in your life that you want to change. Tell him everything, and if nothing else, I know that you’ll get that feeling of love and peace in your heart that I have enjoyed so often.

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