Strenghth in Prayer

 While watching General Conference both Don and I were impressed by the following talk:
Parents: The Prime Gospel Teachers of the Children by Tad R. Callister

In the talk it talks about prayer being a strength.  The spirit prompted me, telling me that our family needed to improve on prayer.  We pray at meal time and do family prayer at night.  But I felt I was in fact sending my children to battle every morning without their armor.  That one was easily fixed.  We have started family prayer before the boys march off to school every morning.  But the second thing I felt I needed to teach our boys the strength that comes through prayer.  I talked with Don about how to do this.  He suggested that when the boys come to me with a problem I tell them to pray about it.  Simple enough.
Only a day or so later Jaron came to me because Smally, his very small bear, was lost.  Here it was the moment we had been waiting for.  I told Jaron that he should pray to Heavenly Father to help him find his bear.  He was a little nervous to do it himself so I prayed.  After, I told him to just sit still a minute and wait for an answer.  I was saying a little prayer that it would work, because I knew this was a crucial moment for Jaron. Would Heavenly Father answer his prayer? I explained that answers usually come to my mind in forms of pictures, showing me where the thing is I need to find.  He said, "No Mom, he is telling my heart."  I told him that is great and asked where his heart said it was.  He shrugged as if it was still a question and replied, "Under the bed?" I said if that is where he said it was we should look there.  So we pulled things out and looked.  Sure enough THERE IT WAS!! We then thanked Heavenly Father for helping us. The other boys were there and witnessed our little family miracle.  I could tell they were just impressed with Heavenly Father as Jaron was.
This is a great story in and of itself. But a few days later Don and I left the kids with his sister Stacie.  When we came back she had a cute story.  The remote to the TV was lost and we all know how important the remote is. The boys suggested that they pray to find the remote because it had worked to find Smally.  So Bryson knelt and prayed and then listened.  Sure enough he found it.
So friends I testify that God hears and answers prayers.  Even those of little boys looking for stuffed animals or remotes.