Moment: Passport of Prayer
Contributed By the Church News
"I know the whole family is … thanking the Lord for what’s on the table and asking Him to watch over me."
Article Highlights
- Never underestimate the influence of lessons learned at home.
- Have faith in the protecting, strengthening power of prayer.
“Security is not born of inexhaustible wealth but of unquenchable faith. … Prayer is the passport to spiritual power.”—President Spencer W. Kimball
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“Security is not born of inexhaustible wealth but of unquenchable faith. And generally that kind of faith is born and nurtured in the home and in childhood.
“Prayer is the passport to spiritual power.”
So declared President Spencer W. Kimball in his address during the Sunday morning session of the April 1973 general conference.
“From World War II comes a story of a young Utah boy who was called to serve his country in the faraway places across several time zones,” President Kimball related.
“On his wrist he wore the conventional wristband watch to tell him the time in the area in which he was living. But strangely enough, he carried a larger, old-time heavier watch in his pocket, which gave another time of day. His buddies noted that frequently he would look at his wristwatch, then turn to the old-fashioned one in his pocket, and this led them, in their curiosity, to ask him why the additional watch. Unembarrassed, he promptly said:
“‘The wristwatch tells me the time here where we are, but the big watch which Pa gave me tells me what time it is in Utah. You see,’” he continued, “‘mine is a large family—a very close family. When the big watch says 5 A.M. I know Dad is rolling out to milk the cows. And any night when it says 7:30, I know the whole family is around a well-spread table on their knees thanking the Lord for what’s on the table and asking Him to watch over me and keep me clean and honorable. It’s those things that make me want to fight when the goin’ gets tough. … I can find out what time it is here easy enough. What I want to know is what time it is in Utah’” (adapted from Vaughn R. Kimball, “The Right Time at Home,” Reader’s Digest, May 1944, 43).
President Kimball told the conference congregation: “I knew this family well. I knew the sailor slightly. I knew this father. His cows had to feed a large family, but his greater interest was the growing children who needed more than milk and bread. I have knelt in mighty prayer with this wonderful family. The home training has carried through to the eternal blessing of this large family.”
