The importance of praying

I taught a lesson at church today about the importance of fathers setting an example for their family by praying together often. Lazy day once we got back from church, I actually fell asleep on the recliner… afternoon nap… Yes! Here are two stories from the lesson I taught (the lesson was from church manual).

We may wonder at times if our children are really learning about Christ and feeling His presence in family prayer. But children are sometimes closer to the Spirit than we realize. President Heber J. Grant wrote about the following experience he had with prayer as a child in the home of President Brigham Young:

“I knelt down … in [Brigham Young’s] home … at family prayers, as a child and as a young man. I bear witness that as a little child, upon more than one occasion, because of the inspiration of the Lord to Brigham Young while he was [asking] God for guidance, I have lifted my head, turned and looked at the place where Brigham Young was praying, to see if the Lord was … there. It seemed to me that he talked to the Lord as one man would talk to another” (Gospel Standards, comp. G. Homer Durham [1941], 223–24).

Prayer should be as inspiring an experience for our children as it was for Heber J. Grant. The following story shows what can happen when family prayer is used the way it should be:

“One father, a quiet, unassuming man, found it hard to express his love for his family. At his wife’s prompting they began holding family prayer, and it became an opportunity to voice what was in his heart. To their daughter, who had misinterpreted her father’s manner as indifference, the experience was a revelation. His prayers were simple and sometimes clumsily worded, but to hear him say ‘Bless my lovely daughter to do good’ thrilled her.

“A timid boy who thought of himself only as a ‘scaredy cat’ felt new pride and self-esteem when his father and mother thanked God for their ‘kind, gentle son.’ And the boy’s self-confidence continued to grow through prayer when even his little brother thanked Heavenly Father for his ‘big, strong brother.’

“In preparation for a family outing in our own family, my husband asked the Lord to bless our family to get along and to enjoy each other’s company. The preaching we had done had gone unheard, but that reverent prayer brought cooperation.

“Our teenage son was tense and sullen whenever we tried to discuss any problem with him. We decided it was important to plan the discussion when he would be most receptive, and that seemed to be at family prayer time in the mornings. It was then that the house was quiet and we shared a humble, sincere feeling. We found the tenseness eased when prayer preceded our discussions.