Ponderize Week 4

This week's scripture was chosen by Avery:

Doctrine & Covenants 61:39

"Pray always that you enter not into temptation, that you may abide the day of his coming, whether in life or in death.  Even so.  Amen."

Trey

"Believe in Heavenly Father and in Jesus Christ.  Talk to Heavenly Father."

Nate

"Recalling that the entire creation and everything given to us is to teach us of our relationship to Christ, this scripture perfectly ties in to that purpose.  Praying doesn't always mean 'asking' for something, but if we find ourselves in a constant state of prayer, it can also be acknowledgement, reflection, and pondering and such would constitute 'prayer' and in this process, the Holy Ghost will confirm truth, and inspire us with understanding so that pure knowledge and wisdom will distill upon us as the 'dews from heaven' without compulsion.  Ultimately we will find we find less 'to ask for' because our constant reflection and focus on the Lord will lead us in paths of truth and light without having to be aware we need to ask.  When our thoughts become His thoughts we will find ourselves in a position where we can 'abide the day'."

Courtney

Praying will help us because when we pray we are really talking to our Heavenly Father. We can ask him for help in our troubles and our problems and even ask for things we don't need. Praying will help us work harder, too. When we ask for thing from Heavenly father, we try to work harder at it to help Heavenly father answer our questions.
We should pray always to help us.

Heather

Earlier today, Trey was playing "Primary" and pretending he was conducting closing exercises, saying prayers and giving talks and scriptures, etc.  After this went on for a while, Chase said, "Oh, we're saying another prayer?"  So I joked that Trey was only obeying this scripture which says to "pray always."  But, in fact, this scripture doesn't really mean that we say lots of prayers, in the formal sense.  To me, it means that our hearts are always drawn out to our Heavenly Father.  We are always thinking of Him, always evaluating our conversations, thoughts, and actions by what we believe is His will, and in order to keep Him close to us.  It's very much like the way we think of someone we love when we are apart.  We have that person in our hearts and on our minds so much that we almost bring him or her with us wherever we go.  But, I believe that in the case of our Heavenly Father, we do this in a real, literal sense.  And when we do so, we are protected from entering into temptation, from falling prey to the weaknesses and errors of the natural man, at least insofar as we "pray" always.  If we progress in this manner, we will certainly abide the day of His coming because we will be like Him, since He has always been with us.

Chase

To me, "pray always" means to pray about everything--every blessing we are grateful for, every trial, every question, every sin we are trying to repent of, every person who needs help.  Praying about everything invites the Holy Ghost to be with us constantly, and this is what strengthens us in our righteous endeavors and in resisting temptation.  He helps us to endure faithfully and joyfully to the end.  I need to continually try harder to "pray always," so that I can receive this blessing.

Avery

Prayer is a very important part of our lives- so important that one of Jesus' first topics in the Sermon on the Mount was prayer.  Interestingly, he also recommends prayer as a way to avoid temptation, just as here.  Prayer can help us to focus on what is important in our lives as we ask Heavenly father for help with what we really want.  Focusing on priorities can help us avoid temptation, and if we do that, we will stand blameless before God at the last day, just as this scripture says.