Meaningful Prayer

Prayer is a beautiful form of communication. It's a way for me, as a daughter of God, to speak to my Father in Heaven.

The other week in Relief Society, we were studying a lesson entitled "Pray Always." I loved when we were discussing how to make our prayers more meaningful. The lesson mentioned five ways:

1. We should pray frequently.
2. We should find an appropriate place where we can meditate and pray.
3. We should prepare ourselves for prayer.
4. Our prayers should be meaningful and pertinent.
5. After making a request through prayer, we have a responsibility to assist in its being granted.

In addition to the listen, Elder J. Devn Cornish mentioned, "An essential and sometimes forgotten part of personal prayer is repentance. For repentance to work, it must be specific, profound, and lasting" ("The Privilege of Prayer").

Elder David A. Bednar also listed principles that help prayers become more meaningful ("Pray Always"):

1. Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all our doings.
2. Prayer becomes more meaningful as we express heartfelt gratitude.
3. Prayer becomes more meaningful as we pray for others with real intent and a sincere heart.

There are times when we regularly pray: mealtimes, morning, night. But there are times when prayer is frequent: times of illness, times of stress, times of worry, times of fear, etc. There are other times we should be praying: times of gratitude, times of happiness, times of joy, times of excitement, etc. It's important to always keep a prayer in your heart.

What does "keep a prayer in your heart" mean? Personally, I think one meaning is to keep the channels of communication open with our Father in Heaven. To keep your Father in mind as you go through each day.

I loved what someone mentioned in the Relief Society lesson: the best way for prayers to becoming meaningful and not repetitive or vain is to actually share your emotions.

We frequently say prayers saying, "I'm grateful for this. I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for this too. Please, bless us this. Please bless us with that." But since the lesson, I've been thinking of how I can better express to my Father in Heaven what I'm feeling. Perhaps along with mentioning gratitude, I can say how else things have made me feel. Like, I'm grateful for our meals and how wonderful it is to be able to eat filling meals as a family. Then when asking for blessings, I can say please bless us with a good night's sleep because we are stressed and would like a reprieve from waking up for our baby boy.

During the lesson, there was one more comment made that changed how I thought of prayer. She was from South Korea and was wondering why in English we pray addressing God with "Thee, Thou, Thine, Thy." It sounds much more formal. She wondered, Why do we talk to our Father in Heaven more formally? Why don't we just use 'you and your'? In her language and others there is an informal more intimate way of addressing individuals close to you. But not in English. It triggered something I've learned before in my English classes. In older English we used to have a such a form.

These were the English pronouns during the standardizing of the King James Bible and Shakespeares' time.

This is why we have prayer language as we speak to our Father in Heaven. As Elder Dallin H. Oaks said:

The special language of prayer follows different forms in different languages, but the principle is always the same. We should address prayers to our Heavenly Father in words which speakers of that language associate with love and respect and reverence and closeness. The application of this principle will, of course, vary according to the nature of a particular language, including the forms that were used when the scriptures were translated into that language. Some languages have intimate or familiar pronouns and verbs used only in addressing family and very close friends. Other languages have honorific forms of address that signify great respect, such as words used only when speaking to a king or other person of high rank. Both of these kinds of special words are appropriately used in offering prayers in other languages because they communicate the desired feelings of love, respect, reverence, or closeness.

Modern English has no special verbs or pronouns that are intimate, familiar, or honorific. When we address prayers to our Heavenly Father in English, our only available alternatives are the common words of speech like you and your or the dignified but uncommon words like thee, thou, and thy which were used in the King James Version of the Bible almost five hundred years ago. Latter-day Saints, of course, prefer the latter. In our prayers we use language that is dignified and different, even archaic. ("The Language of Prayer")

The words thou, thee, thy, and thine were once the more intimate form, but in today's age it has also come to show great respect to people as well. Prayers will become more meaningful as we use a language of prayer and follow the principles mentioned to make our prayers more meaningful

Notice how the entire 2nd person singular row has been replace with the plural version. Along with the 2nd person plural subjective.