Pour Out Your Hearts Continually To God

“But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.  Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you” (Alma 34:26-27).  

I’ll be honest, I hardly ever pray.  The more I do it the better I feel, true, but for some reason that fact doesn’t click in my brain: the benefits don’t seem to register.  It may stem from the fact that I’ve never seen it as a commandment, or it may come from my belief that I should not rely on anyone for help and deal with my problems myself.  Every time I read the book of Alma I skimmed over this scripture, never really understanding its significance.  It took two separate significant times in my life to make me see the importance of this scripture.

The first time this scripture became clear to me was when I found out I had a cyst (which turned out to be a tumor) in my tibia and I had to have it surgically removed.  The place where the cyst was located was near a main nerve.  If that nerve was hit my leg would be numb, inhibiting my ability to walk.  My biggest fear is being paralyzed or disabled physically in any way, so the thought that this could happen to me was terrifying.  For the first time in my life, I turned to God for help.  I prayed for hours, crying my eyes out until I fell asleep, and then my thoughts were always on what I could do to receive help from God so they surgery would go well, and once I got over myself, I asked God to help my family not worry about me.

In all the time I’ve been alive, that time was the first time I really felt the benefits that came from sincere prayer.  Sure, I’d given many half-hearted prayers in my lifetime, but I’d also received half-hearted answers in return.  As I read in a book once, I felt that I had given a million dollar prayer and received a million dollar answer.

The next time I really gave a prayer where God was continually on my mind was when my fiance went to basic training.  I cried all the time, feeling so alone and not willing to accept help from anyone, especially not my family.  So, for the first time in nearly two years, I turned to God.  I cried to God every chance I got to keep my fiance strong throughout basic, and then I prayed that I would remain sane and be able to function throughout the ten weeks he was in basic training.  Angels came to comfort me.  Every time I pray sincerely I find myself benefiting from it.  Never has anything detrimental happened to me because I prayed. 

Amulek was right.  In order to have strong faith and a relationship with God, I need to pour out my heart in prayer continually to him.  If you do this you can live in a world of turmoil and be okay because the love of your Maker is with you.

Deb Moss Intro

Deb Deb Deb

Splat!  Such is my fear if I were to jump out of an airplane when it is on the ground.  There is no such fear in Debbie’s mind as she goes to jump out of one at an immense height.  The warm summer air splashes her face and sends her hair in an exotic, electrocuted position as she makes her jump.  Reaching the elevation which requires the deployment of a parachute, Deb and her friend Jen follow instructions and release their parachutes.  Debbie is enveloped by her parachute and she begins to fall to her death, but an unexplainable phenomenon (unless you are familiar with the abstract) stops the terrible situation.

Everything goes dark.  Being a green crayon brings a nature-like feel with it.  An odd, acute sense of smell that comes with being a crayon lets her receive a whiff of her favorite scent in the world, new books.  The box is opened by an unknown being.  Looking over, awesome green crayon sees the terrible pink crayon to the right of her and the no less abhorrent red crayon to her left.  At first she is glad to be taken out of the box away from such horrible colours, but then the reality of the situation sets in.  A little girl is going to use her to destroy a brand spanking new book! Nonetheless the book that she is currently reading: Eclipse.

Snap!  As the crayon is snapped in half Debbie’s soul leaves it and involuntarily splits in two.  The same unexplainable force creates two bodies and puts each half in either body.  Coming to consciousness at the same time, both Debbies see each other.  Now, if I saw myself next to myself, my first reaction would be somewhat vulgar, such as Holy bleepity bleep bleep bleep!  I didn’t know I had a twin!  Debbie’s reaction is, “Hey, would you be friends with me?”  Other Debbie replies, “I think so.”