Announcements & Lesson - 16 Novemer 2014

Announcements:

We had to announce some sad news this week, Sister Pat Bines, who many of you will know lost her battle with cancer on Wednesday.  If you would like to assist with providing food for the funeral please speak with Sister Lesley Southgate.

This Wednesday evening we have our RS Music Appreciation Activity which will be led by Sister Ashlea Sousa - this will begin at 7.30pm.  It would be lovely to see you all there to support Ashlea.

On Saturday this week we have our Stake Auxiliary Training which is for all Relief Society, Young Women, Primary and Sunday School Presidencies.  This begins at 6.30pm at the chapel.

Lesson:

Sister Beth Baxter was called today as a RS teacher and gave a wonderful lesson today based on Chapter 22 of the Joseph Fielding Smith manual on 'Prayer - a Commandment and a Blessing'.

She began by sharing a story:  Around the year 610 a creative Alpine monk decided to make use of the dough left over from baking bread.  The monk formed them into thin strips folded into a looped twist to represent the folded arms of children in prayer.  This yummy treat was given to the children as they learned their prayers.  The began calling the treat 'Pretiloa' which was Latin for little reward, soon it became known the world over as a pretzel.  The simple shape of the pretzel, arms folded in prayer, remind us to pray each day.

Beth took us through the journey of prayer sharing the message of President Smith:

1. What is our duty regarding prayer?  Obviously for ourselves we learn from the scriptures (2 Nephi 32:8-9) that we should be praying always.  But our duty doesn't end there, it is vital we share this with our children, teaching them not only to pray but why! 

2. When do we pray? President Smith shared numerous times when pray is vital, before we tackle tasks (and after to say thank you!), when we travel, when we have meals, at the start and end of the day, when challenges and temptations strike, when we find time alone, with our families - we decided as we learn to involve the Lord in our lives it really does become a continual conversation with the Lord, we can truly learn to pray always.

3. What / who do we pray for?  The lesson shared the best scripture example of this as we read through Alma 34: 18-28 which was quoted in our manuals.  We talked about remembering to look outside ourselves in prayer as at times they can become a little selfish.



4. Why do we pray?  Obviously it is a commandment and we follow the Saviours amazing example as he continually spoke to His Father.  It allows us to seek Him.  President Smith shared 'One of the chief purposes of our mortal probation is to see if we can learn with the spirit of prayer always in our hearts so that when the Lord chooses to speak, we shall hear His voice in our hearts.'  He also went onto teach us:

'I wonder if we ever stop to think why the Lord has asked us to pray?  Did he ask us to pray because he wants us to bow down and worship him?  Is that the main reason?  I don't think it is.  He is our Heavenly Father and we have been commanded to worship Him and pray to Him in the name of his Beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  His work will go on just the same, whether we pray or whether we do not...Prayer is something that WE need, not that the Lord needs.'

5. How do we pray?  President Smith counselled 'In our prayers we should pour out our souls in thanksgiving...we should acknowledge the hand of the Lord in all things and thank him for all things both temporal and spiritual.'    We also discussed the need to ensure prayers are sincere, that we are willing to follow through with the efforts we need to make to enable our prayers and desires to be realised, and that we must always be willing to accept the Lords will.

Beth spoke of how she likes to have to-do lists and then challenged us - what needs to be on OUR to-do lists when it comes to prayer?  Is there something we could do better on?  Do we need to improve our prayers?  Or maybe start having them on a daily basis?  Whatever the spirit whispers to us to do, maybe we need to ensure it is at the very top of our to-do list and give it urgent action.

We finished the lesson by watching the following Mormon Message - you can see it HERE