Devotional

Today was the last Tuesday Devotional of the semester and boy was it a good one! :) Elder Bruce Porter, of the Presidency of the Seventy, was the speaker and he talked about prayer. He said that prayer is the most exalted privilege that we have here on Earth and that we need to pray from the heart. We are communing with our loving Heavenly Father; when we pray, we need to pray truthfully and mean what we say. "An insincere prayer is the most subtle form of hypocrisy." If we draw near unto Him, He will draw near unto us. He shared a poem, "...word without thoughts, never to Heaven go." If we share all thoughts and feelings with God, He will teach us more about ourselves because He knows us even better than we know ourselves. If we do this, we will also be able to stay open for His Spirit to enter into our hearts. He said, "Prayer is the act where the will of God and the will of the child are brought in correspondence with each other." However, we cannot change God's will. We must accept it and love it. For hard decisions, we must make our decision then take it to Heavenly Father and ask if it be right. It won't be a glorious shining moment of knowing that its right, rather the answer will feel right, rather than a feeling of wrongness. Finally, we must not be afraid. Fear and doubt are Satan's biggest tools against us. If we let fear and doubt enter into our hearts, we will no longer be confident in the faith that we have. I have a testimony of the power of prayer. I have been thinking quite a bit about my Sunday School teacher in my home ward back in Wisconsin. Her name was Amy Jensen and she is absolutely amazing! Every lesson, she started off by singing to us, "Ere you left your room this morning...." I knew she had a strong testimony of prayer because she never let us forget that we need to pray to our Heavenly Father. :) I'm so grateful for her influence in my life during my last year of high school. She brought such excitement and power to the scriptures. She got so excited and that excitement was so contagious!
Well, let me tell you...this girl is going to be praying pretty hard this next week and a half with finals coming up quickly! I know that I have to put the effort in and then pray for the gift of remembrance. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and is mindful of my struggles and triumphs alike. How could He not love me? I know Heavenly Father loves me because He sent such amazing people into my life that have made such an impact to who I am today. People like Amy, my amazing family, great teachers and leaders, such supportive friends and a wonderful home ward with such loving and caring members! I had a chat with my mom this morning and she was telling me about a woman in the ward who constantly asks her how I'm doing. She is a huge supporter of BYU (who wouldn't be?) and she has been so supportive of me! I'm so grateful for her support and prayers! I'm amazed everyday at the love that my Heavenly Father has for me. It is so easy here at BYU to feel inadequate. I thought I was good at piano...there are some amazing musicians here! I thought I was pretty smart...there are so many people who make me feel so small, insignificant, and dumb here! I thought I worked hard...there are so many people who practically live in the library and do homework all day long! However, I was accepted to BYU for a reason and I WILL work my behind off if I have to because I'm meant to be here! There is no doubt of that in my mind. I have struggled to adjust in my first semester...I knew it was going to be hard, but I was very unprepared for how hard it really is. However, I have learned so so so so much in such a short period of time! I have no idea where the semester has gone; it seems to have flown by! My testimony has grown so much and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here at this amazing university! Love you all!