If prayer is like asking for rain, then faith is carrying an umbrella.

The Child who brought an Open Umbrella for Prayer

The rains failed again that year. It was the third year in succession when there was no rain. The crops had disappeared and the land was a brown swath of dusty rubble. Trees had lost their leaves years ago and stood out like silhouettes of cactus on the dusty horizon. There was a stream that skirted the village in years bygone. Now the riverbed was dry. Where once flowed clean, fresh water from the nearby mountains, there was now a bed of clay, cracked in a checkerboard pattern with gaps as wide as a foot.  No one knew what had happened to the birds except for the vultures that circled the town, looking for a carcass or two of an animal that was left dying.

There was famine in the land. People walked around like sticks, sans flesh, surviving on whatever ration was brought to them by trucks, distributed by charities, located in far-away lands.

Desperate for help, the people of the village held a meeting under a big banyan tree that was as old as the village. “Let us pray”, said an elderly man. “Only God can help us now’…

…The faithful decided to hold their prayer in the open, late that night, under the open sky, away from the town. It was a full moon night and the moon shone with its alluring brightness against a background of shimmering stars. The men gathered in a field by the river. The mullah was there with his white turban and so were the kazi and the muezzin. And there were the men who at one time were considered rich by virtue of the cattle, sheep, orchards and cultivated land they owned.

As the men formed neat rows for prayer, a child came running from the town, holding high an open umbrella over his head. Huffing for breath, he stood in the back row, umbrella still unfurled. The men could not but help turn around and wonder what was going on.  Some were curious; others were annoyed because the umbrella created space between their shoulders where there should be none.

At last the mullah admonished the child. “Why did you bring the umbrella, O foolish child!” said the mullah to the child. “Don’t you see there is no rain and we have come here to pray for rain?  Only a foolish one would stand on a clear night like this with his umbrella open”

“Yes”, said the child. “I came to pray too. I am certain my prayer will be answered and it will rain. I have complete faith in God. That is why I brought my umbrella.”

The mullah was dumb founded. The men had a sense of shame. Each one looked to his right and to his left and then he looked inside his own soul for that certainty of faith that was absent.

Who was the teacher here and who was the pupil?  If you pray for rain, you must have certainty in your heart that it will rain.

“Verily! Through the passage of time Humankind is at loss

Except such as those Who have certainty of faith…”. (The Qur’an)

Do we have complete and total faith when we kneel to pray sisters? I know that I fall short in the area of prayer; I often find myself running through life and not stopping daily to pray. More times than I would like to admit I find myself with my head on my pillow rushing through a prayer so that I can go to sleep.

The reality is that our Heavenly Father wants us to pray; it is not a commandment but it is one of those things that he asks us to do as a way of showing our faith in our Father and our Savior.

Too many times, we treat Heavenly Father like an umbrella--we only use or call on Him when it's raining. Many of us, myself included, try to get along in life by only using Heavenly Father when we are in trouble, when there is a great need for something or when we just want to ask a quick, little prayer with no real attitude of faith or repentance. Sisters Heavenly Father cannot answer our prayers if we don't mean them.

I've thought, in the past, that I could sin the same sin over and over and just keep asking repentance every time, but in my mind, I haven't really repented. True repentance brings forth physical evidence. Just like true meaningful and sincere prayer can bring about physical evidence and all we have to do is open our umbrella of prayer.

President Spencer W. Kimbell said, “If the umbrella is not opened up, it is little more than a cane and can give little protection from the storms of nature. Likewise, God-given plans are of little value unless they are used.

The umbrella spread out makes the silken material taut. When the rain falls, it runs off; when the snow falls, it slides off; when the hail comes, it bounces off; when the wind blows, it is diverted around the umbrella. And in like manner, this spiritual umbrella wards off the foes of ignorance, superstition, skepticism, apostasy, immorality, and other forms of godlessness.

It is my prayer that we shall all spread our spiritual umbrellas for protection of our families.

Sisters an umbrella will not protect us from the storm unless we open it and stand under it. Similarly, prayer cannot increase our faith in Jesus Christ until we do it. Prayer is our umbrella in the storms of life.

Just as our spiritual umbrella can ward off the foes of ignorance, superstition, skepticism, apostasy, immorality, and other forms of godlessness it can also bring us encouragement, strength, knowledge, peace, rest from our burdens and joy to our souls.

When I thought about the quote I found, If prayer is like asking for rain, then faith is carrying an umbrella I was reminded that our only means of communication with the parent who loves us dearly is through prayer and just as surely there will be rain again there is a surety that our prayers will be answered.

The Lord tells us in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Do you think sisters that perhaps He was speaking of our umbrella of prayer? Was He telling us that if we will come to Him in prayer asking for our needs to be met He will meet them? Was He telling us that if we will come to Him in prayer seeking to find an answer, it will be given to us? Was He telling us that if we will come to Him in prayer, knock on the door of spiritual growth and He will enlighten our mind to it?

How lucky we are to have a Heavenly parent who wants to hear from us not once in a while, not once a month or week or even once a day; but who wants to hear from us at least three times a day?

As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part. Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be like Samuel who was recognized by his nation to be characteristically a man of prayer? Sister’s let us have great faith like this little boy who was foolish enough to bring an umbrella for prayer. I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.