What is the Power of Prayer?

I have a family that I love very, very much.  They are good people.  Life has been so difficult for them.  But they're still so wonderful and they deserve big BIG blessings.

What can I do besides love and pray for them and hold them tightly to my heart?

What is the power of my prayer?  And can that power be added onto?

I hope to find out.  I thought about it and decided to take further action by having their names put on five prayer rolls - one in Salt Lake City, one in Mt. Timpanogas, one in Snowflake, AZ, one in Logan, UT and one in Lubbock, TX.

Maybe if they close their eyes and stand still from time to time, they will feel strengthened from the many prayers united in their behalf.

In an article from the Ensign last month was the following assurances:

Handling Grief

• We are not left alone in our grief because Jesus Christ - "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3) - has borne our sorrows as part of the Atonement.
• We can strive to resist the temptation to ask, "Why?"  Instead, we can ask for the Lord's guidance.
• We can accept the challenge to surrender our will to our Heavenly Father.

It is difficult at times to accept that bad times are strictly for refinement purposes.  I believe that sometimes bad things happen because of natural consequences to daily choices - and not necessarily OUR choices.  At other times, they happen because it is the natural results of our surroundings.  But the scriptures tell us over and over that we can grow under extraordinary circumstances.

"Behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves before him; and because they cried mightily unto him he did deliver them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him" (Mosiah 29:20)

Sometimes the scariest thing to do is to just 'try'.  Try to change.  Try to understand.  Try to maintain faith.  Yet it is that act of enduring to the end that the Lord requires from us.  That and the faith of a child in the process.

I have faith.  Sometimes I have to really challenge those faith muscles by lifting something REALLY HEAVY but I know that it is not Heavenly Father who fails us.  He loves us as much whether we're rich or poor, healthy or weak.

Post Script:  Ron and I watched an amazing movie last night called "Joshua."  I highly recommend it.  Ron would too, but he gets emotional talking about it.  Okay, you'll have to endure the first half, which is nothing short of smaltzy.  But after that.....it's an emotional and personal journey. It really brings the purpose of the journey back to the basics - that God loves all of us and wants us to find happiness.