The Power of Prayer

Last week a brother in our ward had a terrible motocross accident.

The accident left him in induced coma for three days, two broken arms, a broken wrist, and head trauma.  While not in ICU anymore, he is still in the hospital dealing with the effects of head trauma.

His wife wrote on her blog this morning:

"We are so grateful for all those who want to visit, with broken bones and bruises, I would have you all. But with brain trauma it is a different story. We were told by the trauma team, just hearing a beeping noise from a machine and someone talking can be nauseating and can cause him to throw up. He said it was like a migraine times a million. I have only had one or two in my life, and I couldn't stand noise or light. So I am respecting the Doctors wishes by not inviting visitors. It is for the best interest of ******'s healing. He repeats the days of the week constantly, counts and trys (sic) hard to focus, I know his brain is working on overload and don't want to cause him more stress and trauma, that keeps him from healing. I will continue asking the Doctors when it is best to have visitors, but for now your prayers are what he needs."

I've thought a lot about what we want and can do in situations like this!

We can take meals.  We can visit.  We can mow lawns, shovel snow, rake leaves.  We can fix leaky toilets, fill vehicles with gasoline, send bouquets of flowers.  We can watch children, help with schedule changes, even pay the mortgage!!

But sometimes, when someone says, "I just need your prayers!"  I think, "What?  Please tell me that's not all I can do?  Because I am capable of so. much. more."

Which got me to thinking about prayer and it's power.

And my thoughts quietly took me to a Garden. Yes, that Garden, wherein the Savior of us all knelt to pray - to pray - for all God's children.

For after all His parables, all His sermons, after turning water into wine, feeding the 5000, walking on water healing the lame, the blind, the sick and raising people from the dead, what He did was what we needed the very most:  He prayed for us!!

And His prayer, that Prayer, coupled with Him humbly kneeling in the Garden for me and for you, petitioning the Father on our behalf, makes me realize that the intrinsic power of prayer means that I am truly capable of doing so much more than just taking in a meal.