We have been counseled to pray always, to establish houses of prayer and worship, to communicate often with our Father in Heaven.

A simple prayer, offered in humility, with real intent, uplifts the soul, comforts the bereaved, invites the Spirit to attend and gives proper devotion to God."Prayer is the simplest form of speech

That infant lips can try;

Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach

The Majesty on high

O thou by whom we come to God

The Life, the Truth, the Way!

The path of prayer thyself has trod;

Lord, teach us how to pray.

(Hymn 145, verses 3 and 8.)

What are our prayers like? Are our personal prayers worthy of utterance, or do our sacred communications with God leave much to be desired?

When we kneel at night to thank God for preserving us one more day, for the bounties of life, the tests we have endured, or ask for help with the challenges that lie ahead, is our prayer dashed off as we slip into sleep?

President David O. McKay reminded us: "Sincere prayer implies that when we ask for any virtue or blessing we should work for the blessing and cultivate the virtue."

Do the blessings pronounced on our food become so repetitious as to be meaningless? Have our prayers in meetings become so indifferent that we are no longer talking to our Father in Heaven, but are trying to impress the congregation?

Have we become so miserable as to make a mockery of prayer itself?

Jesus Christ identified one type of offensive prayer when He commanded His disciples:

"When thou prayest, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

"Be not therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." (Matt. 6:7-8.)

President Spencer W. Kimball advised:

"When we kneel in family prayer, our children . . . are learning habits that will stay with them all through their lives. If we do not take time for prayers, what we are actually saying to our children is, `Well, it isn't very important . . . prayer isn't very convenient.'

"What a joyous thing it is to establish customs and habits in the home that when parents visit their children in the latter's homes after they are married they just naturally kneel with them in the usual established manner of prayer."

Many testify to the power of prayer in their lives. Coupled with fasting, prayer can work mighty miracles. The history of the Church is replete with accounts of miraculous healings, divine interventions and even simple day-to-day problem-solving answers to prayer.

In our time, was it not the prayers of many that brought down the walls of indifference throughout the world so that the Light of Truth can shine into corners of the globe where only a short time ago the gospel was unknown?

In one of the most inspiring accounts in the Book of Mormon, the Resurrected Lord appears to the Nephites, heals the blind and lame, the sick and afflicted, then prays unto the Father.

" . . . and the things he prayed cannot be written . . . the eye hath never seen and the ear heard before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father; . . . and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father." (3 Nephi 17:15-17.)

The prayer offered in this case was appropriate to the event. The Nephites witnessed a mighty prayer on their behalf offered by the Son of God. As we pray for one another, let us continue to remember this powerful tool available to us.

"And again, I command thee that thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private." (D&C 19:28.)

Prayer is the catalyst which opens the door to the Savior. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3:20.)