Prayer Alone Is Not Enough....

Prayer Alone Is Not Enough

(Rabbi Jack Riemer)

We cannot only pray to You, O God, to end war;

For we know that You have made the world in such a way

That we must find the path to peace

Within ourselves and with our neighbors.

We cannot only pray to You, O God,

To end starvation;

For You have already given us the resources

With which to feed the entire world,

If we would only use them wisely.

We cannot only pray to You, O God,

To root out prejudice;

For You have already given us eyes

With which to see the good in all people,

If we would only use them rightly.

We cannot only pray to You, O god,

To end despair;

For You have already given us the power

To clear away slums and to give hope.

If we would only use power justly.

For You have already given us great minds

With which to search out cures and healings,

If we would only use them constructively.

Therefore, we pray to You instead, O God,

For strength, determination, and will power,

To do instead of only to pray,

To become instead of merely to wish,

For Your sake and for ours, speedily and soon,

That our land and world may be safe,

And that our lives may be blessed.

Ma the words that we pray, and the deeds that we do

Be acceptable before You, O Eternal,

Our Rock and our Redeemer.

Spiritual Learning

“To keep spiritual learning in its proper place, we will have to make some hard choices of how we use our time. But there should never be a conscious choice to let the spiritual become secondary. Never. That will lead to tragedy. Remember, you are interested in education, not just for mortal life but for eternal life. When you see that reality clearly, you will put spiritual learning first and yet not slight the secular learning. In fact, you will work harder at your secular learning than you would without that spiritual vision.”

Henry B. Eyring, “Real-Life Education,” New Era, Apr. 2009, 5

~Self-Reliance~

Becoming Self-Reliant

Elder L. Tom Perry

of the Quorum of the Twelve Apolstles (Ensign-1991-November)

The Lord does help when we go to Him in times of need, especially when we are committed to His work and respond to His will. But the Lord only helps those who are willing to help themselves. He expects His children to be self-reliant to the degree they can be. ..........Independence and self-reliance are critical to our spiritual and temporal growth. Whenever we get into situations which threaten our self-reliance, we will find our freedoms threatened as well. If we increase our dependence on anything or anyone except the Lord, we will find an immediate decrease in our freedom to act. ..........