Since about 1974, my parents have kept up a tradition that I haven’t seen anyone else do, and for which I have come to be very grateful. My mom started a book when I was a year old (yes, you can now easily tell how old I am!) called “The Thanksgiving Book.” Every year she puts a picture of the family on the front page, and each of us write what we are thankful for. It sounds simple enough, but for my mother it has been a lifelong battle to get us each to write in it. She has won the war, though, and we now have a nearly 40 year old book that shows how the Hammond family has changed. You can flip to each new page and see our family’s growth and progression in the pictures. And, you can also see through our handwriting and the content of our messages how we have matured as individuals. I literally have an entry where I am thankful for my curling iron and a few entries that reference cute boys I was dating (I wish I had white out,) but most entries included my gratitude for my family and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This year my Thanksgiving book entry will include one of my new prized possessions—my prayer journal.
A few years ago I was on my weekday morning walk that was intended for exercise, but which was generally most beneficial as a counseling session with a best girlfriend. It was during one of these talks (disguised as a walk) that my relationship with my Heavenly Father was forever changed. Personally, I was in the middle of another round of the Refiner’s fire in my life, and I felt like I needed some more definite answers to my prayers. In a half-hearted, somewhat exasperated query, I asked my girlfriend if SHE would ask our Heavenly Father for my answers joking that maybe she had a more direct heavenly line. In that same walk I started to think about how I pray and wondered if I really was getting my answers and just not recognizing it. It was on that day that I determined to start my experiment with prayer. I went home and thought about what I wanted my experiment to look like. I resolved that part of it was to not try and give away my free agency in my prayers by simply asking Him what to do, and rather to ask for more opportunities to hear the Holy Spirit communicating directly to me accompanied by the knowledge that it was His personal revelation for my life.
I bought a journal. The left page of each the double pages I divided into two columns. The first column was reserved for my list of very carefully worded, specific ideas that I wanted to pray about. I literally wrote down, one by one, what I was praying for. I was specific and thoughtful and made sure that I was asking for things that would give me keys to making my own decisions. This way I could then take my decisions to the Lord for confirmation. When praying, I would kneel in prayer with my journal next to me so that I could refer to it because I had very carefully determined how and what I was praying about. I felt like it was important to consider each point of prayer in turn specifically as I had written them down. I don’t mean to suggest that all of your prayers should be scripted in the least; I just had a few items that I wanted to make sure that I included in my personal prayers in a very clear and specific way.
In the second column of that left page of my journal I wrote down the dates of journal entries that correlated with the detailed, amazing personal revelation I found was flowing to me in answer to each of my questions. It was miraculous. I then used the right side of each of the pages to journal these answers as they came. In the course of a year, I recognized that I had been getting pointed answers to my significant questions. I came to know what I had suspected in the beginning, which was that I had always been receiving answers but I just wasn’t recognizing it. Because I was so specific in the ideas of what I was praying for, I recognized the answers more clearly. Slowly I realized that it was as if I had been praying all of my life and generally forgetting how I was actually wording the questions. Imagine being a student and hearing “Yes you can” but forgetting what you even asked or how you asked it? Previous to this experiment I had more general ideas that I was praying for and generally taking the process for granted. But understanding the clarity of His answers came so much more easily when I understood clearly the questions I was asking Him.
My friend has since moved away. And, while that was hard on me, I can truly say that I am at peace. She was, after all, a topic of very specific prayers (and answers) on my prayer list!
Brook Hammond- Attorney and
Motivational Author & Speaker
Question: “Why do you want to listen to anything I have to say?” Answer: “I haven’t a clue.” But, I think we likely have something fundamental in common, which is that our lives don’t look and/or feel like we expected them to. Each day I am learning to find joy in the unexpected.
My dream was to get married and be a stay at home mother of five kids. I graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor’s in Family Science with the idea that I would always need that education because the most certain thing in my life was that I would surely get married and have a large family—ironic. My girlish dream was to go to law school; so when I was not married and wasn’t having my five children at age 23, I decided to go for it. It was more of an “insurance policy” in the event that my “unknown” but surely soon-to-be husband left me widowed in my unknown future. I did marry and have one amazing son, but life changed dramatically and I cashed in on that insurance policy when I became a young single mother. I do not have any more children(yet!), and I am not married(yet!). But, I still have hope! My life’s dream may have shifted a little, but I am happy and have been well cared for by my Heavenly Father.
Professionally, I have earned the right to belong to an exclusive attorney group called the “Million Dollar Advocate Forum.” I am a trial attorney and have been practicing personal injury law for ten years (licensed in both Nevada and Utah.) A fun tidbit about me is that I am a part of Nevada’s history as Miss Nevada USA 1995, and a motivational youth speaker since 1991. I am a monthly contributor to PRISTeen Magazine, a teen fashion magazine that focuses on girls’ inner beauty.
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