More Than Just Words

Finding a table in the crowded cafeteria, I set my tray down, bow my heard and say a prayer. Students are looking on, curious of what I am doing, but it doesn’t bother me. On this particular day, a few memories came to mind of past lessons learned:

Thinking back to my days in high school, I remember my quartet The Wise Guys. Meeting our group, you quickly came to the conclusion that we were appropriately named. What might have surprised people though was that our quartet could often be found praying. We prayed before our performances; we prayed at restaurants before we ate; we prayed before competitions.

Not long after our quartet was formed we were sitting in God Fathers Pizza. When it was suggested we bless the food, my friends looked rather uneasy and a little hesitant about the idea. After some debate, the quartet settled on the idea that we would all hold up menu’s (as if we were looking through them) while someone said the prayer. We thought we were rather clever until the waitress, thinking we wanted to order an appetizer, approached our table half-way through the prayer.

This experience probably wouldn’t have stood out to me, had it not been that later that week we were sitting in Hunan’s Chinese restaurant and saw a Baptist family all hold hands and pray together before their meal. I admired them. I was reminded of our experience earlier that week, and the scripture: “Whosoever shall be ashamed of me…him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his glory…” (Luke 9:26) After that it didn’t matter anymore where we were or who was watching.

As John and I were preparing to part ways, (he would be attending college at Northwest Missouri, and I BYU-Idaho) he wrote me a note: “Up until we started hanging out, I had gone to church, but just to please my mother. After a few prayers before performances… I’ve started to get back into Christianity and believe more and more.” It made me smile to think that of all the crazy things we did together, it was our prayers together he mentioned in our parting letter.

I remember one prayer said as an eleven year old blessing the food. As many of us do, I would rush through the final words of the prayer: “in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” On this occasion, my Uncle Truman pointed out how sacred those words were and told me that I should slow down and think about the significance of what I was saying. It was a small event, but I have never forgotten this lesson I learned that day.

            Our group was rather immature when we arrived in the MTC. I don’t know what it was like for anyone else, but there were often occurrences of laughter during evening and morning prayers as a district. In the MTC cafeteria you learned to pray with one eye open, for fear that you would finish your prayer and find your desert missing.

            Slowly all that changed. Trying to learn Chinese was a struggle for all of us, and the hymn “I Need Thee Every Hour” began to take on particular significance. By the time we left the MTC, it was our favorite hymn and we sang it often. As we recognized our constant need for God’s help, and as our love for Him continued to grow, it began to be reflected in our prayers – both as a district and as companionships and individuals.

            My last memory is of riding through a terrible snow storm. The roads were icy and visibility almost inexistent. In many ways it was a scary experience, but I remember hearing the fervent prayers of my mother. I was a young child, but if I knew only one thing, it was that God heard her prayers. It gave me confidence that everything would be ok.

A fervent prayer is more than just words.