I Can Receive Answers to Prayer

By Laurel Rohlfing

Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers (D&C 112:10).

It is a wonderful blessing to know that you can pray to Heavenly Father and that He will always answer your prayers. Sometimes He will answer yes, sometimes He will answer no, and sometimes the answer might not come for a long time. But prayers asked in faith will always be answered.

Answers from Heavenly Father usually come very quietly. You will seldom hear them with your ears. They come as warm, peaceful feelings in your heart or as thoughts in your mind. (See D&C 8:2.)

To help you prepare to receive answers to your prayers, Heavenly Father has given you these steps to follow (see D&C 9:8–9):

Study the situation and think about your choices.
Decide which choice you think is best.
Ask Heavenly Father if your choice is right.
Listen with your heart and mind. If the choice is right, you will feel good inside.
If the choice is wrong, you won’t feel good and you should make a different choice.

You can make a mobile to help you remember the steps for receiving answers to prayers. Instructions: Cut out the shapes, mount each on heavy paper, and trim. Punch a hole in the top of each shape, then thread yarn or string of different lengths through the holes. Tie the strings in different places on a wire coat hanger, bent as desired. Hang the mobile in your room.

The people in the following stories used these steps to receive answers to their prayers. In each blank, write the number of the step that was used. Then read the sentences in their correct order.

Sammy wanted to know if the Book of Mormon was true.

____ Sammy decided that the Book of Mormon must be true.

____ He read the book and thought about it. He liked the stories and the things that he learned.

____ He prayed to know if his decision was right.

____ “My chest felt like it was burning, so I knew that it was true. I felt it in my heart,” Sammy said.

The brother of Jared was told to prepare barges to take his people across the great water to a promised land. He wondered what his people would do for light inside the dark boats. (See Ether 2:19, 22–25; Ether 3:1–6.)

____ He decided to prepare sixteen stones as clear as glass. If the Lord touched them, they would shine forth in the darkness.

____ The brother of Jared studied the problem. He knew that he couldn’t have windows or fire because the barges would be underwater some of the time.

____ The Lord stretched forth His hand and touched the stones with His finger. The brother of Jared knew that he had made a good choice.

____ The brother of Jared prayed to know if his plan was a good one.

Amanda had many friends who watched videos after school. Some of the videos had scenes that Amanda wasn’t sure Heavenly Father or her parents would like, and she wondered if she should watch them.

____ Being with her friends was fun. The videos weren’t that bad, and she would be a part of the group. If she didn’t watch the videos, she might not have anything at all to do after school.

____ Amanda chose to watch the videos with her friends.

____ She prayed to know if her decision was right.

____ Amanda felt uneasy about her decision to watch the videos.

President Spencer W. Kimball was concerned because not all men in the Church could receive the priesthood.

____ One of the Brethren said that there was a sacred feeling in the room. The Spirit of God was there. The Holy Ghost gave President Kimball a special feeling that what he had prayed for was right. Everyone there knew the same thing by the power of the Holy Ghost. They didn’t hear a voice with their ears, but the Spirit whispered to their minds and hearts that the choice was right. (See Ensign, October 1988, pages 69–70.)

____ He spent many hours and days praying and thinking about the situation. In the temple, he asked the Brethren what they thought.

____ President Kimball decided to ask Heavenly Father whether the time was right for all worthy men to hold the priesthood, and he led the Brethren in prayer.

Sharing Time Ideas

Ask children to share experiences in which their prayers have been answered. These could be recorded and compiled into prayer journal.
Have children draw and label sequence pictures depicting scenes from stories.
In Braille (see encyclopedia for Braille alphabet), write steps to receive answers to prayer, and have children decipher them.
Discuss proper prayer language and how to pray.
Sing “The Still Small Voice” (Children’s Songbook, page 106, or Sing with Me, B-92), “Listen, Listen” (Children’s Songbook, page 107, or Sing with Me, B-3), “I Pray in Faith” (Children’s Songbook, page 14).

Illustrated by Shauna Mooney