Participate in Sincere Prayer

I am embarrassed to say that, yes, I am an end-of-the-month visiting teacher. And, that I procrastinated until today to read the Visiting Teaching Message from the Ensign. It isn't that I don't like to do visiting teaching, because I really do, especially since the girls I visit I consider good friends. But, I just don't make it a huge priority until I really need to do it to make it count :)

Sincere Prayer:

I LOVED the quote in here from Bruce R. McConkie:

"Prayer changes our lives. Through it we draw near to the Lord, and he reaches out his finger and touches us, so we never again are the same. Prayer is a great tower of strength, a pillar of unending righteousness, a mighty force that moves mountains and saves souls."

I LOVE this quote! I know that my life has been changed many times because of prayer. I would not be where I am right now if it weren't for the power of prayer. I am SO grateful that we are able to pray to our Heavenly Father and that he can answer our prayers!

James E. Faust lists five things that prayer entails:

1. acknowledgment that God is our father, that Jesus is our redeemer

2. confession of sin

3. recognition that we need help

4. opportunity to express thanksgiving and gratitude

5. privilege to ask for blessings

Sabbath

Today in Sunday School we had a GREAT lesson by Bro. Sanderson - I always really like his lessons... There were a lot of comments about the importance of coming together to worship and partake of the sacrament. There was a scripture I particulary liked in D&C 59:9-14:

"And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy holy sacraments upon my holy day; For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High; Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times; But remember that on this, the Lord's day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord..."

The Sabbath is a day to me that should always be different from the rest of the week and a day of rest. I always believed it was important to go to our meetings every Sunday. I think today what i was reminded was that it is the Lord's day. Just like we give back 10% in the money we earn (of course everything we have is already the Lord's) we should give back one day of the week... In a way it is like tithing on our time...

Another thing I thought was interesting was the part about "confessing thy sins unto thy brethren" I see this 2 ways:

1. confessing to the bishop
2. humbling ourselves with the other members of the church and talking about our imperfections in the attitude of looking for ways we can better ourselves. I don't even know how many times I have heard someone comment about one of their imperfections and how they work on it and I have the same imperfection! I ALWAYS get ideas from others on how I can better myself through hearing others examples.