Its been a month plus since Norman and I have started attending our local LDS church and a LOT has happened in that time as well during our attendance, reading past posts that I’ve dun about attending plus the talks with the missionaries its been interesting to reread what I’ve written over this span of time.
So here’s another Sunday rundown so to speak … we arrived at church just in time to scoot though the doors before they where closed for sacrament to take place, so got lucky in that regards. Ended up being semi late because the garage door was being a bug (when we got home it turned into more of a bug – as it took us close to an hour to get it back on its track again, going to have to save to get a more updated garage door over the ones that’s been on it for the past 40+ years).
The talks in sacrament where interesting, they had two young people talk a boy and a girl, the girl was more prepared it seemed to give her little talk then the boy – but both where semi humours to listen to in their own regards, the boy even admitted to not reading the BoM and stuff as much as he really should.
After sacrament we headed off to the Gospel Principles class, which is a basic starting class for those who are relearning their basics and for those who are new to the faith to learn the basics as well.
Well the original talk for the day was to have been on “The Holy Ghost”, but because someone wasn’t able to be there, it was changed to “Praying to Our Heavenly Father” instead. A interesting topic in general and to degrees one I was trying to figure out to various degrees since I’m so NOT use to praying to a singular being, yes I’m use to praying to a multi being so trying to just use a singular form my brain is still having issues processing to various degrees.
At any rate, the basics of the class boiled down to 4 basic areas to a prayer, those being…
1 – Our Heavenly Father (addressing deity)
2 – Thanking for various things
3 – Asking/Requesting something
4 – In the name of JC, amen (thanking the son for listening and possibly granting your request).
Yes straight forwards as it can be and not the actual problem of the matter for me, my issue is my brain trying to understand why you would call on one being, but thank its son at the end of it instead of that same being that you first called on in the beginning. I might not seem strange to you, but for me it is strange and feels wrong or out of place, most of that I know is because I’m use to calling on those I’m needing to thank and talk to then thanking those who came to listen and help, so its always a complete circle deal of calling ABC and then thanking ABC for being there.
Yet I know from reading that particular chapter, that it says “Jesus taught, ‘Ye must always pray unto the Father in my name'” so that would employ that they are one and the same that you are addressing when you open the prayer with “Our Heavenly Father” at least that’s how it sounds to me and what is making me shake my head trying to get my mind around the quandary it poses when I’ve been told that they are two separate beings (and believe them to be long before this).
The Chapter talks about Praying aloud and silently regardless of where you are and what ever you are doing, this is something that I have dun most of my life to various degrees, sometimes it would be a fast thank you for something that came my way or asking that I/we make it safely to a destination without harm or car issues, but it is often silent and I don’t do the whole “our father … in the name of…” deal I tend to just ask for something and when arrival or completion send up a prayer of thanks, but it is not directional so I’m not sure if its one and the same meaning that the chapter is referring to or not.
My granny never said you had to direct a prayer that the one listening always knew when you where talking to him/them and would take it from there to answer you when it was time to do so (on his/their own time table, which might not be when you think it should be).
The chapter has additional reading references to help you understand how to pray, i’ve not yet looked at those references mostly because my brains been going around in circles with the concept and other things, so I’ve not made time to do so yet – but in short order I will mostly because I’ve got questions that keep coming up so need a form of an answer that will quite the brain down or at least give it food for thought to work from and not be so active.
Oh well, take care everyone post more as time does allow for it!