I love my church....

I love my religion. (http://lds.org/) I love being a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (http://www.mormon.org/) One of the things I love is that you can sign up to have inspiring thoughts and quotes emailed to your inbox each day! There are ones that focus on the family, the youth, young single adults, and church history. Today, I love my church even more than I did yesterday. Because I got this in my inbox today...

Family Prayer Is Powerful and Sustaining

"The Savior told us, 'Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed' (3 Nephi 18:21). In our day, the Church urges us to have family prayer every night and every morning. . . ."Family prayer is a powerful and sustaining influence. During the dark days of World War II, a 500-pound bomb fell outside the little home of Brother Patey, a young father in Liverpool, England, but the bomb did not go off. His wife had died, so he was rearing his five children alone. He gathered them together at this very anxious time for family prayer. They all prayed . . . earnestly and when they had finished praying, the children said: "Daddy, we will be all right. We will be all right in our home tonight."" 'And so they went to bed, imagine, with that terrific bomb lying just outside the door half submerged in the ground. If it had gone off it would have destroyed probably forty or fifty houses and killed two or three hundred people. The next morning the whole neighborhood was removed for forty-eight hours and the bomb was finally taken away. On the way back Brother Patey asked the foreman of the A. R. P. Squad: "Well, what did you find?" "Mr. Patey, we got at the bomb outside of your door and found it ready to explode at any moment. There was nothing wrong with it. We are puzzled why it did not go off" ' Miraculous things happen when families pray together."

James E. Faust, "The Lifeline of Prayer," Ensign, May 2002, 60-61

I hope we can all feel the love of our Heavenly Father and the power of family prayer. I know that our families will be blessed when we pray together. I am so grateful to belong to a religion that recognizes the necessity and power of family unity. To me, there are very few things that match the beauty of a family kneeling in prayer together.

Have a great Monday - and don't forget to pray!!