Family Prayer

Family prayer strengthens families, and the strongest families I know hold regular family prayer. There is an old saying that families who pray together stay together. It is true that families who do many things together stay together - whether it is eating dinner together, playing together or anything positive - but family prayer keeps families together even when they are far apart physically.

When the Savior visited His people on the American continent, he counseled them: "Pay in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed" (3 Nephi 18:21).

Praying together as families helps to bring family members together in their desire to know and follow the will of God. Prayer unites families in their goals and in their communication. Praying together as families teaches children the importance of prayer and helps them feel comfortable saying their own personal prayers in times of need.

President Thomas S. Monson shared the following: "A prominent American judge was asked what we as citizens could do to reduce crime and disobedience to law and to bring peace and contentment into our lives and into our nations. He carefully replied, `I would suggest a return to the old-fashioned practice of family prayer.'
"As a people, aren't we grateful that family prayer is not an out-of-date practice with us? There is no more beautiful sight in all this world than to see a family praying together. There is real meaning behind the oft-quoted `The family that prays together stays together.'" (See "Come unto Him in Prayer and Faith," Ensign, March 2009, 5.)