Prayer

I know not by what methods rare,

But this I know, God answers prayer.

I know that He has given His Word,

Which tells me prayer is always heard,

And will be answered, soon or late.

And so I pray and calmly wait.

I know not if the blessing sought

Will come in just the way I thought;

But leave my prayers with Him alone,

Whose will is wiser than my own,

Assured that He will grant my quest,

Or send some answer far more blest.1

This is a great little poem. 

I really like how it says, "I know not by methods rare,/ But this I know, God answers prayer." We don't have to know the science of how our prayers get to heaven (that's pretty much impossible anyway), we just have faith that He hears and answers them.

There's a hymn called Did You Think To Pray? and the lyrics go like this:

1. Ere you left your room this morning,

Did you think to pray?

In the name of Christ, our Savior,

Did you sue for loving favor

As a shield today?

(Chorus)

Oh, how praying rests the weary!

Prayer will change the night to day.

So, when life gets dark and dreary,

Don't forget to pray.

2. When your heart was filled with anger,

Did you think to pray?

Did you plead for grace, my brother,

That you might forgive another

Who had crossed your way?

3. When sore trials came upon you,

Did you think to pray?

When your soul was full of sorrow,

Balm of Gilead did you borrow

At the gates of day?

This is a great song! It's asking if we remember to pray doing our lives, not just meal prayers and morning and night prayers. All those might seem like a lot of prayers already but there's no such thing as "too prayer."
I don't know how accurate my source is but I heard that St. Patrick (before he was St. Patrick) prayed 100 times a day! (Let me repeat, I don't know how accurate that is.)

One thing I've learned can be a helpful way to use prayer is to pray for comfort and reassurance. At times when I feel stressed and I'm pretty sure I'm going to die from the strain of life and homework, I can pray and find peace.

Prayer isn't just important because it can help and comfort us; it's our connection to our Creator, our Heavenly Father.
We can ask Him any thing and He'll answer us, it just might not be right away and maybe not in the way we expect - or want - it to.

So, no matter where we are or what the question is, we can pray and receive guidance.

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1 This poem was shared by Ezra Taft Benson in his talk "Prayer" which can be found on lds.org 

Light

Isn't interesting that evil is always depicted as dark and black and cold while good is represented with light?
Light is an important element in our lives; without it we are lost.

Suzanne Collins is famous for writing The Hunger Games trilogy. But before Hunger Games she wrote another series, The Underland Chronicles. This series follows a boy from New York City named Gregor who falls down hundreds of feet below the surface to Regalia.
It's interesting that in this series, the Underlanders interchange the words 'light' and 'life.' I like that.

Light. Flashlights. Fire. Lamp. Spotlight. Lightening. Light bulb. Match. Bonfire. Lantern. Headlights. These are just some examples of the lights we use in life.


This is the first part of a three part video series about light:

Light is powerful. Light can always overcome darkness but darkness can never overcome light.No matter what. Light always wins in the end.

This is the second video on light:

And here is the third and final light video:

I love these videos!

Anyway, light is seriously really powerful and really important!! Like i mentioned before, light is essential to our lives; we're blind without it.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Interesting phrase. It means that when you're going through tough times, there's hope and if you just endure then you can make it to the end.

This is one of my favorite poems; for one thing, it's all about the light inside of us. Like that first video talked about, the light of Christ, which is in all of us.

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?



Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

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These videos can be found on lds.org and YouTube.
Our Greatest Fear can be found by searching for it on google.