Seek Guidance through Prayer

Pat Graham, “Sharing Time: Seek Guidance through Prayer,” Friend, May 1988, 39

Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it (Enos 1:15).

Enos

Enos was the son of Jacob and the grandson of Lehi. He was righteous and knew the importance of prayer. One day he went into the forest to hunt. He began thinking about the teachings of his father, Jacob. He knelt to pray and prayed all day and into the night. He asked Heavenly Father to forgive him of his sins. While praying, the voice of the Lord came into his mind and told him that his sins were forgiven.

Enos continued to pray and asked that the records of his people would be preserved so that someday the Lamanites could read them and understand the gospel. Because Enos had great faith, God promised him that the records would be safe. The answer to this prayer gave Enos a feeling of peace.

This experience happened between four and five hundred years before the birth of Christ. Today, just as in Enos’s day, if we seek for forgiveness and guidance through prayer, having faith, Heavenly Father will answer our prayers.

Jeremy and Daniel

A few years ago Jeremy Kearns and his family were on a bow hunt in the La Sal Mountains in southern Utah. One drizzly morning Jeremy and his younger brother Daniel saw a deer near their camp. They shot at it with their toy bows and arrows, then ran after it, not realizing how far from their tent they had run before they lost sight of the deer. Finally they stopped to catch their breath before starting on their walk back to camp. However, they soon realized that they were lost. All afternoon they walked and called out for help, but no one heard them. They began to be afraid. It was raining hard, and they tried to make a shelter under a big tree. They huddled together to keep warm. All night they prayed to Heavenly Father for help.

After walking for three hours the next morning, the boys saw some cows. Just then Jeremy heard a voice in his mind. He was told to follow the cow’s path to the stream, go up the stream, around the mountain, and then someone would find them there.

Jeremy and Daniel heeded this answer to their prayers, and when they reached the other side of the mountain, they heard people calling for them. Soon they were back with their family, grateful for the answer that they had received to their prayers.

Instructions

1. Color figures, mount on lightweight cardboard, then cut out.

2. Make stands for each figure by cutting cardboard circle and attaching a tall triangle to it (see illustration).

3. Glue each figure to triangle stand.

4. Use figures to tell both stories in family home evening. Point out similarities in stories.

5. Tell your own story about how you received an answer to prayer.

Sharing Time Ideas

1. Read Book of Enos. Invite Merrie Miss B and Blazer B classes to make presentation, using Lesson 14, page 62–65 in their manual. Include statement by Bishop H. Burke Peterson, describing how to tell when prayers have been answered.

2. Make headings: Who, What, How. Have children name Book of Mormon prophets, what they prayed for, and how answers came.

3. Sing “Search, Ponder and Pray” (Children’s Sacrament Meeting Presentation 1988, page 9) and “Listen, Listen” (Sing with Me, B-3).

[illustrations] Illustrated by Julie F. Young

Filed under: Lesson 10: I Can Speak with Heavenly Father in Prayer, Prayer