Pray Always

If I prayed as much as I eat I could be spiritually obese. For months, this thought kept returning as I listened to this  pop song about prayer, called "On the Floor" , that talks about spending time on your knees "facing the things I've done" and "where the rats all come away clean".

I wanted to spend more time praying. "What if I spent a half hour praying," I thought, " instead of watching a half hour of TV." But what would I say or do for that long? I came across a quote by President Gordon B. Hinckley he had given to a group of missionaries about ten gifts of serving a mission. He said, "Get on your knees and speak to the Lord as one man speaks to another. There is no substitute under the heavens for earnest prayer."  I then determined that I would just have a conversation. "Here's what I did today," and "here's how I feel about it."
I've spent this month studying prayer and came across a talk by President James E. Faust called The Lifeline of Prayer. One thing he said really inspired me to feel comfortable with the frequency of my prayers,

No earthly authority can separate us from direct access to our Creator. There can never be a mechanical or electronic failure when we pray. There is no limit on the number of times or how long we can pray each day. There is no quota of how many needs we wish to pray for in each prayer. We do not need to go through secretaries or make an appointment to reach the throne of grace. He is reachable at any time and any place.

I also studied two talks by Elder David A. Bednar, given in succession, about prayer--Ask In Faith and Pray Always. His purpose for giving the talks was to help have more meaningful prayers.



In the two talks, Elder Bednar teaches several principles for meaningful prayer.

• Ask in faith
• Be willing to act
• Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all our doings
• Prayer becomes more meaningful as we express heartfelt gratitude.
• Prayer becomes more meaningful as we pray for others with real intent and a sincere heart.

I don't know that my diet of prayer this month has helped my grow in "spiritual fatness"(2 Nephi 9:51), but as I've tried to act on my prayers, expressed gratitude, counseled and prayed for others, I have felt greater peace and happiness.

My bible dictionary says that we must work to obtain blessings from God, and prayer is a form of work. I'll keep on doing my work "on the floor, that's where I'll be."



Feel free to leave links, quotes, or thoughts as comments.
Posted by Peter of the Peter & Elaine & Crew

New Year's Eve

We had a fun New Year's Eve at the Matthew Urmston's home. The Coontz' were there. We ate a lot of food. We watched a few people play video games, which turned out to be more entertaining than it sounds. We played mafia, which was as entertaining as it sounds. We brought in the new year with Dick Clark and Ryan Secrest and then played an old favorite, "search for keys." All in all it was a great way to start off the new year 2011. We hope we can enjoy more fun nights like this throughout the year.



Mafia Cheaters



cousins and cousins









Bronson and Ryan



Christmas Eve Program 2010

Our Christmas Eve program was really fun and inspiring this year. Melanie sang a song about what we can give for Christmas. Grandma then told a story about "A Stocking for Jesus". We each wrote down, and shared, something we would give to Jesus this year. We (Purmstons) sang a song together called "How Many Kings" by Downhere. It was a dream come true to sing and play guitars together. Peter and Porter played guitars, Garrett and Tanner sang, and Talmage played keyboards. The Coontz all played Jingle Bells on their jingle bells. The young cousins performed "The Night Before Christmas"--some more enthusiastically than others. The older cousins performed an impromptu version of Jingle Bells on the jingle bells. It's hard to believe a few of them won't be home for Christmas next year(tear).