Because he offered it when his soul was tried

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Morning Session of the April 1996 Conference.

Oh, President Eyring. Why do his talks speak to me so deeply right now? I wonder if when he wrote this talk, he was in the same stage of life I am now? Or he had similar children to mine? Or a similar way of looking at the world? Whatever it is, it seems like he is always asking the same questions I'm asking. But then he knows answers I don't know!

In this talk, "A Legacy of Testimony," the topic is one of Elder Eyring's common themes, the need to pass testimony on to our loved ones. He says, 

In our thoughtful moments we know that we will need help. We will need to invite the powers of heaven to guide our families in days when we are not there and to face spiritual dangers we may not foresee…We would, if we could, leave our families a legacy of testimony that it might reach through the generations. 

Then he spends the rest of his talk discussing how we might do this. One important thing he mentions is just teaching truth and then bearing testimony of it—not formally, but in small everyday ways. I liked this, about Elder Eyring's great-grandpa:

We know something of his life because after that time he kept a journal, making a short entry nearly every day.…His short entries don’t have much preaching in them. He doesn’t testify that he knew Brigham Young was a prophet. He just records having answered “yes” every time the prophet called him on a mission…The few entries which record his testimony seem to appear when death took a child. His testimony is to me more powerful because he offered it when his soul was tried.

Here is one of those touching journal entries, the day after a daughter had died:

“Wednesday. Repairing up the stable my little children pratling around me but I miss my dear Lizzy. I pray the Lord to help me to indure faithfull to his cause to the end of my days, that I may be worthy to receive my children back into the family circle, who have fallen asleep in Christ in the days of their innocence Ann, Moroni, Esther Ellen & Elizabeth, blessed & happy are they because of the atonement of Jesus Christ.”

Then Elder Eyring says:

All the elements are there. He taught the truth. He testified that it was true. He lived consistent with his testimony, and prayed that he might endure faithful until he could be united with his dear family. I feel his love and a desire to be included in that circle.

It seems so simple when he lays it out like that. Like I don't have to do something special to bear testimony to my children, but just speak and observe and comment on the truths I am already thinking about in our lives. I can just react to and engage with faith in the joys and troubles that come inevitably into our days. Even the little things I write could be meaningful to my children someday!

This next part makes me feel like I have a lot more to learn about prayer. Elder Eyring says,

Kneel together in humble prayer as a family, each having the opportunity to be voice. There may be times when the prayer seems rote and when those not praying let their minds wander. But there will be other priceless moments when someone will petition in faith for real needs and the Holy Ghost will touch hearts with testimony. I don’t remember as much of my mother’s teaching as I do her prayers for us. I could feel her love, and the Spirit confirmed in my heart that she loved Heavenly Father and the Savior and that her prayers would be answered. She brought blessings down on our heads then, and the memory of her prayers still does.

I've heard him tell this about his mother before. I'm not sure how she had such powerful prayers! I think I'm learning to pray with more sincerity and power in my personal prayers. When I'm alone and have a good long time to commune with God, I do start to feel how miraculous prayer can be. But in a group setting—especially a family setting, honestly, where I feel like everyone just wants the prayer to be over with—I haven't learned how to access that same feeling of power. I haven't learned how to find that same sincerity. It's not that I'm NOT sincere in group prayers…I just have a hard time saying what I feel. Or it seems too personal, or like not the time for it. Well! That gives me something to work on, I suppose. Pray like Sister Eyring did for her family!