"Is My Friend Here?!"

No, that's not a quote from my kids.  That's a quote from me, from when my husband brought in the mail on Saturday.  I was seriously starting to go through Friend withdrawals!  It's not like I'm perfect about reading it every day, but another month was starting and I didn't have the easy access to it.  Had I forgot to renew my subscription?  Had the same person who stole my pumpkins stolen my November Friend Magazine?!  If so, that was OK, but I just needed closure!  Oooooh.  It's the General Conference issue.  That's why it was later than usual. I guess that's a good reason.  :)

Before we are completely over with October's issue, if the month got away from you and you didn't do a thing with it, first, YOU ARE STILL WONDERFUL. :)  Life happens and we teach our kids every moment we are with them (that's kind of a scary thought, isn't it/)  What I mean is just because you don't sit down with a handout, song and creative center piece doesn't mean you haven't given a lesson.  But if you do want to do one thing out of October's issue consider turning to page 40...

"Prayer Is Reverent Communication Between God and Me" is such a sweet article.  It's hard to think of something more important that knowing there is God and we can pray to Him.  One night before bed, just so we could quiet down and do some reading, I opened up to this article.  I really felt like I hadn't done anything spiritual with my kids in forever.  This has been a hard year financially, our house is in dire need of repairs, I haven't lost a pound since having my baby 4 months ago, we had had mac and cheez for dinner AGAIN and I wasn't going to be able to solve all my problems in one night!  Darn.  I decided if there was one good thing I could do it was teach my kids one thing out of The Friend.

All we did was look at the pictures on pg. 41 and talk about them.  We talked about how we can pray to Heavenly Father at any of these times and any time.  I told my son if he was scared at school he could say a prayer for comfort.  I told my daughter if she was nervous when she gave her testimony at the microphone she could say a prayer so she could be brave.  She told me she doesn't get scared when she talks in the microphone.  :)  I told them that sometimes I pray when I'm driving, but with my eyes open.  We talked about how just like Grandpa and Grandma like to hear from us on the phone since we live faraway, Heavenly Father likes to hear from us too.  He likes to hear us say thank you and hear what's on our minds and in our hearts.

That's all we did, me, my crazy five year-old and four year-old, my sweet husband, and my four month-old rolly-polly baby, there in my humble living room with stained carpets and mismatched painted walls.  But through that small act of just talking about prayer the feeling in my living room changed.  It felt warmer, safer, and bright.  The Spirit of God was there.  And I honestly felt that even if I died in my sleep that night I would not need to worry about my children because they knew that they could pray to their Heavenly Father and He would answer their prayers.

I have said many prayers this year, thousands.  I know my Heavenly Father has heard everyone and answered them in the best way possible- His way.  I'm not sure what was better that night, the feeling in that room while we talked about prayer or the feeling I had when I walled into my daughter's room to tuck her in and found her kneeling in prayer by her bed.  If that isn't a miracle- a crazy, squirmy five-year old choosing to say a reverent prayer before bed, I don't know what is.  The Gospel is true!  Stick with it!  Love, Eva