Thanks for that wonderful lesson today, Sister Walker!

I loved the Conference talks you gave us on Prayer! 

Remember, girls that this lesson Coordinates with Personal Progress Value Experience Faith #1 so check it out, complete it, and bring your book in next week so we can get it signed off!

Here is my favorite part from those talks:

From Pray Always by David A. Bednar

Consider this example. There may be things in our character, in our behavior, or concerning our spiritual growth about which we need to counsel with Heavenly Father in morning prayer. After expressing appropriate thanks for blessings received, we plead for understanding, direction, and help to do the things we cannot do in our own strength alone. For example, as we pray, we might:

• • Reflect on those occasions when we have spoken harshly or inappropriately to those we love the most.
  
• • Recognize that we know better than this, but we do not always act in accordance with what we know.
  
• • Express remorse for our weaknesses and for not putting off the natural man more earnestly.
  
• • Determine to pattern our life after the Savior more completely.
  
• • Plead for greater strength to do and to become better.
  

Such a prayer is a key part of the spiritual preparation for our day.

During the course of the day, we keep a prayer in our heart for continued assistance and guidance—even as Alma suggested: “Let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord” (Alma 37:36).

We notice during this particular day that there are occasions where normally we would have a tendency to speak harshly, and we do not; or we might be inclined to anger, but we are not. We discern heavenly help and strength and humbly recognize answers to our prayer. Even in that moment of recognition, we offer a silent prayer of gratitude.

At the end of our day, we kneel again and report back to our Father. We review the events of the day and express heartfelt thanks for the blessings and the help we received. We repent and, with the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord, identify ways we can do and become better tomorrow. Thus our evening prayer builds upon and is a continuation of our morning prayer. And our evening prayer also is a preparation for meaningful morning prayer.

Morning and evening prayers—and all of the prayers in between—are not unrelated, discrete events; rather, they are linked together each day and across days, weeks, months, and even years. This is in part how we fulfill the scriptural admonition to “pray always” (Luke 21:36; 3 Nephi 18:15, 18; D&C 31:12). Such meaningful prayers are instrumental in obtaining the highest blessings God holds in store for His faithful children.

I loved this! I am going to start putting a lot more thought into my personal prayers to develop a much more 'real' relationship with my Father in Heaven. Don't you just love Personal Progress! We learn so much and become so much better people! I will definitely be passing off this value experience, and I hope you do too! (Faith #1)

~Sis Koeven