Monday Musings: A lesson about prayer!

Elder Boyd K. Packer shared a story about a lesson he learned about prayer in his book Teach Ye Diligently His son prayed that their young calf would live. Elder Packer then went off to a meeting where he shared his son's prayer and the lesson that his son would learn: Sometimes God answers prayers with a No. He then humbly recounts that when he returned to find the calf healthy and alive. It was he who learned the lesson.

I have wanted to record this story for some time because it was so important to my son and to me. When we had just moved into our current home, my nephew who is in the military asked us to watch his dog for about 9 months while he was involved in a training in Georgia. I love Naya and so I immediately accepted. We had her with us for about two weeks when tragedy struck. She got out. She ran off and the one neighbor kid who had seen her streaking off the property failed to mention it until about an hour later when we noticed she was missing. Needless to say, I did what any good husband and father would do. I shouted!! A lot. I blamed everyone but myself and then went out looking for the AWOL canine. We looked for about 2 hours and found neither hide nor hair of the beast.

As I was starting to move into the next phase in the Dad response cycle, I went to my older son, who was 5 and I asked him if he would like to pray with me. Now, the whole time I had been out looking for Naya, I was thinking about the fact that there may be no way I could find this dog and I was going to have to tell my nephew who was serving me and our whole country in Iraq that I had lost his dog. I realized that I may not be able to find the dog, but God could guide it back. I discussed this with my son and he offered a sincere, heartfelt and spiritually powerful prayer. As powerful as any I have ever heard. I felt the spirit very strongly and my 5 year old son wept openly not out of fear, but he truly felt the spirit. Within moments, my wife felt she should go open the door and in ran Naya.

I learned two things. My son's feelings, emotions and spirituality were as deep as anyones, and that though I may not be able to solve a problem God can cause things to happen that bring about our relief !