Prayer

 Isn't it just a cool thing that not only are we allowed to talk to the Creator of the Universe, but he wants us to? To me, that's such a cool concept to wrap my head around. I mean, the Savior, tue Messiah, wants to listen to ME, little Katie Beth down in south Alabama, talk. And it's so easy, we don't have to go through a priest or set up and appointment or anything, we can just talk. 

 A lot of us, because of the ease, take prayer for granted. We treat prayer as if God is a genie, or if we put coins in we will get blessings out. Prayer is so much more that just telling God all of your problems. Yes, He wants us to tell him our problems, but if that's all you pray about, I mean come on... 

 A prayer exercise that I was taught in Sunday school as a child was to always start a prayer with thanking God, so that out heart would be in a grateful mood for the upcoming prayer. Even now, I still try to use this because I realize so much of the time, that when I pray, I am only asking God for things that I want, when I should be asking for His will. Asking for His will is hard, for it may not be something that we think we want, but this is where we have to remind ourselves that His plan is always greater.