{"id":28892,"date":"2024-12-10T13:13:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T19:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/?p=28892"},"modified":"2024-12-10T13:13:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T19:13:09","slug":"how-i-pray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/2024\/12\/how-i-pray\/","title":{"rendered":"Favorite teachings about prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meaningful prayer takes effort. My brain gets distracted, I get interrupted, and my lazy side recognizes that prayer is work. I try to improve, year after year. So, here is another post about prayer because I think about it a lot. Today, this post highlights the teachings of many people who have helped me to grow in my understanding and practice of prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, I like the tradition in our church to pray from the heart and begin with gratitude. I write down God’s tender mercies in a gratitude journal before I pray to remember who I am dealing with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like that my evangelical Christian friends and the patrons of the temple write down the names of people for whom they pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Lord’s prayer, I learn to praise and reverence Heavenly Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From David in the Psalms, I learn to lament and really pour out my soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that when Christ said, “Thy will be done” it wasn’t just a statement of resignation, but an affirmation. When I express that I know that Heavenly Father’s perfect will is being done, this is a great way to reframe my experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned from a Christian author Paul Miller to write down specific hopes for my children and to pray boldly for these things. I also learned from him to collect scriptures to remind me of God’s power and promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From C.S. Lewis, “I am often, I believe, praying for others when I should be doing things for them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned from President Nelson to pray with a pencil and paper ready, to write down thoughts and impressions, and then act on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned from Sister Becky Craven that those scattered, seemingly random thoughts that sometimes come during prayer are worth noting because the Spirit is communicating with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Elder Richard G. Scott, “Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need. Spiritually sensitive information should be kept in a sacred place that communicates to the Lord how you treasure it. This practice enhances the likelihood of receiving further light.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these teachings in mind, I keep a prayer journal. It’s a tool that helps me focus, remember, and act. Currently, the format looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I keep my petitions on the left and answers and action items on the right. It’s also where I record inspiring words from scripture about God and prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are needs and dilemmas that carry over week after week, year after year. This prayer journal is evidence that I maintain hope for answers. This journal is also evidence that Heavenly Father is an involved, tender, steadfast, loving Parent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I only use this prayer journal for one of my prayers each day. Other prayers I offer are more spontaneous and unstructured and often silent. All kinds of prayers are helpful for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meaningful prayer takes effort. My brain gets distracted, I get interrupted, and my lazy side recognizes that prayer is work. I try to improve, year after year. So, here is another post about prayer because I think about it a lot. Today, this post highlights the teachings of many people who have helped me to … Continue reading Favorite teachings about prayer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,40,36,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-hope","category-jesus-christ","category-life-according-to-angela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28892"}],"version-history":[{"count":69,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28976,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28892\/revisions\/28976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angelaross.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}