2.241 Prayer

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello my friends, it's great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Oh man, I hope you are enjoying Doctrine and Covenants Section 93. It is so deep and I hope you've enjoyed some of the verses that I've selected from that one.

We're going to feed off of our discussion yesterday about truth and shift gears actually and go over into Alma chapters. Well, we're going to focus on chapter 58 today, but Alma chapters 57 through 61 are our readings for this week. Our verse for today is very close.

I had to go double check from last year to make sure that I didn't overlap that one in the first season. It's very close to what we shared last season, but it's Alma chapter 58, verse 10 is our verse for today. This is the situation that Helaman finds himself in as they battling the Lamanites in these war chapters.

And they turn to the Lord often and regularly. And I just want to reflect on what they pray for and see what it means for us in our lives, and what we can do to bring it into our prayers as well. Verse 10 says this: "...and retain our cities and our lands and our possessions for the support of our people." Now if you back up about 20 or so chapters in Alma, you remember that Alma teaches the people to pray often and to pray over all their crops and their fields, and that's instruction he gives to his sons and to the people, right?

And so we see an application here by Helaman and his men. And they pouring out their souls in prayer. And it made me think of a time.

I really miss this aspect of the time I used to live in Houston, Texas. My family, we moved out there and our girls, our early family was spent in Houston, Texas for a number of years. And you know, one of the things I loved about Texas was how often and regular you could see neighbors praying.

And that might sound weird. It was very common to see it in public. And it's something you might expect to see in a predominantly Latter-day Saint-filled location like I am in Utah today, but you see it almost nowhere publicly in Utah.

And it's not about public prayer or private prayer. I'm not trying to bring that up. It just made me think about it.

The times when, you know, we would be at a restaurant, for example. And see families before they sit down and eat their meal, even at the restaurant, join hands and say a prayer of thanksgiving. Or perhaps during the hurricanes that came through and the hurricanes we experienced, times where we would see neighbors gather together and pray.

And you know, it's something that I loved about across Texas and across the South. You could see football players at football games kneeling down in the end zone or perhaps at midfield or whatever, kneeling down to pray before or after a game. And I think it's something that's quite interesting for us, especially those of us that live in predominantly Latter-day Saint areas, as there's such a push to not bring our religion into other people's lives and to not impose upon them.

And yet, honestly, in Texas, I never felt like anyone else was imposing their will on me as they prayed. No one ever, you know, at the restaurant told us everyone at the restaurant had to join hands and pray. They just did it quietly over at their table here or there.

Prayer is a powerful part of our lives. It is where we can seek and find truth. It is also a place we can turn to our Heavenly Father for strength, to help us retain our cities, our lands, our possessions, and support for our people.

I know of its truth. I know of its power. I am grateful for it and hope I can continue to apply it more effectively in my life and hope you do so in yours as well.

That's all for today my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave into the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt.