We Have a Loving Heavenly Father

When I was living in the Dominican Republic (DR), serving as a missionary for my church, I did not have the opportunity to talk on the phone regularly with my family and I did not see them for a year and a half. One day during my first couple of months in the DR, I felt particularly homesick for my dad. I was tired, missionary work was hard and it was SO hot. I literally dripped sweat ALL of the time. In this moment of discouragement, I wanted very much to talk with my dad, to get his advice and counsel. But this was not an option. It was then that I noticed a scripture on our apartment wall that reminded me that I had a loving, Heavenly Father that I could always talk to and turn to through prayer. He was always with me even if my earthly father could not be. I took great comfort in that knowledge and the day continued more positively.

 

God is our loving Heavenly Father. He is mindful of us. He has a body of flesh and bones and we are created in His image. We are His children. He knows us perfectly. Because Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to return and live with Him someday, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us so that we can live with Him again. Jesus Christ taught us what we need to do in this life to be worthy to return and live with Heavenly Father and our families after this life.
 
Heavenly Father’s love for us is perfect. It is eternal, kind, and never prideful or self-serving. He rejoices with us, hopes, bears and endures all things with us. Heavenly Father sees all things and knows all things. He always wants the best for us.

Since returning from the DR, I have moved SO many times! As I look back at those many moves, I know that Heavenly Father has been with me every step of the way. For me, those moves were scary decisions and always threw me out of my comfort zone. Yet as I look back, I can see the love of Heavenly Father in providing me opportunities to grow and learn by having me step out of my comfort zone. His love is perfect.

I invite you to consider the love that Heavenly Father has for His children. For you, for me, for ALL of us. We can show our love for Him when we are obedient to His commandments. May we always show our love for Him, share His love with others and trust in His love for us. When we do this we will continue to feel His love in our lives, become more like Him, and one day be able to return and live with our Heavenly Father again.

 

 

How Can Prayer Help Me In My Life?

My first experience that I can remember with prayer happened when I was a little girl. I’m sure there were experiences before this but this is one that I remember vividly.
                                                                                                                           
I awoke one night from a bad dream and lay scared in my bed, mustering up the courage to run across the hall to my parents’ bedroom for comfort. I finally darted out of bed and arrived at their bedroom door. My dad immediately sensed that I was there and called me over to his side of the bed. I ran over to him, tearfully explaining that I had had a nightmare and was afraid. “Do you want to say a prayer?” Dad asked quietly.  I said yes, not really knowing how that would work out but I trusted my dad and I wanted to believe that the prayer would work and that I wouldn’t be scared anymore. He took my hand and walked with me back to my bedroom. Kneeling by my bed, we reverently folded our arms, closed our eyes and bowed our heads and asked God that I not have bad dreams anymore and that I would be able to go back to sleep that night and not be scared.
 
I remember ending the prayer and feeling a subtle sense of calm and peace inside of me. My dad helped me climb back into bed, tucked me in, sat on the edge of my bed for a moment and then went back to his room. And then I remember quickly falling back to sleep, not encountering a nightmare again that night, and feeling peace, feeling calm.

How could this be?

God answered my prayer. He heard the plea of a young, 6 year old girl asking that she not have bad dreams anymore. That was not the last time I had a bad dream as a child and it was not the last time God answered my prayer for peace. He answers.
 
Through that experience as a young girl and many others since then I came to know that God exists. He is real. He is our Heavenly Father and He loves us. He is our loving Heavenly Father.
 
Prayer, talking with Heavenly Father, provides us this great opportunity and blessing to communicate with our all-knowing Father in Heaven who wants the best for us, who loves us eternally and perfectly. Why would we not want to communicate with such a Being? With our Father?
 
As we pray we will receive specific blessings in our lives. As I have prayed, I have personally been specifically blessed to perform well on tests in school, perform well at work, enabled to make challenging decisions, to love others more fully, to feel comfort at the loss of a loved one and to forgive others among many other specific blessings. These are unique and individual blessings for me that have come through prayer. I have also generally been blessed with greater peace, happiness and comfort through prayer.

When we pray, we pray to God, our Heavenly Father. We thank Him for those things which we have and we can ask Him for things we are in need of. There is no limit to what we can pray about. Answers to prayers come through the Spirit. The Spirit helps us to feel feelings of love, joy, peace, patience and goodness. When we feel these feelings it is the Spirit helping us to know that something is right and good and we should move forward with it. If something we are praying about is not right, we will not have these good feelings from the Spirit, we will not feel understanding and enlightened.

I know that prayer is real. I know that through prayer we really can communicate with our Heavenly Father. I know He listens to us. I know He answers us. Let’s use this wonderful opportunity to talk with Heavenly Father. To talk with Him about our joys, our sorrows, our hopes, our fears, about everything that we would like to. He will answer. And His answers will guide us through life.
 
Will you take the opportunity this week to pray to your Father in Heaven?
 
I know that when we pray, we will feel the feelings that come from the Spirit, even joy, peace, patience and/or goodness. I know our lives will be blessed through prayer.