My First Prayer

by John P. Pratt

In my first serious prayer I told Heavenly Father exactly how to answer me!

Straight Arrow Injun-uity Guide
(Click to enlarge.)

When I was five years old I sent away for a 72-page Straight Arrow Injun-uity Guide book for 15¢ and one Nabisco Shredded Wheat box top. I had earned my own money by hauling groceries up the big hill from the Safeway Market on the corner of State Street and First Avenue in downtown Salt Lake City, about one long block from my home at 218 First Avenue. I got a nickel for each trip and saved the nickels in a beef bouillon can that was just the diameter to hold about a dollar's worth. I had been collecting the pages of this little book as the cardboard separators between layers of shredded wheat biscuits in the box. When I received the book in the mail, which came to the home twice a day, I was delighted with all of the amazing information it contained about Indian ways of survival. It was a huge amount of information for three nickels! I have this book in my treasure box and am still so impressed with its wilderness skills that I'm posting the entire book on my website!

One day the little book disappeared. I looked everywhere but it was gone!

My can for saving nickels.

I talked to Mother about it and she assured me that if I prayed to Heavenly Father that I'd get my book back. I totally believed what she said, so that night I fervently prayed for the book's return.

I wasn't about to take a chance on having Heavenly Father just leave the book out on the table or some other place where I'd have to hunt for it again. So I gave Him very explicit instructions so that He would know exactly how to answer my prayer.

I told Him to put my book in the bottom left-hand draw of my little desk! That would save me from hunting around for it.

The next morning I ran to my desk and opened the bottom drawer without any hesitation because I had absolute belief that my treasured book would be there! To my utter shock, it was not there! I was dumbfounded. How could that be?

I talked it over with Mother and she explained that Heavenly Father had lots of little boys all praying for things every night. It might take a little time for Him to get to my request, but she assured me that He would answer my prayer. That sounded reasonable, so I decided to pray every night until the book appeared in the lower left-hand drawer of my desk. I must not have told her about that part of my prayer because she undoubtedly would have counseled me to allow God a little more freedom in His method of answering me.

"Put my book in the lower left-hand drawer of my desk!"

Every morning for about two weeks I ran to my drawer and pulled it open, fully expecting to find my book. It never occurred to me that it wouldn't be there one day.

After about two weeks my older brother Jimmy and I were in the front room of Grandma and Grandpa Worsley's home where we lived in the basement. Jimmy pulled something off a bookshelf there which had been stuck in on top of some books. "Isn't this yours?" he asked as he threw my precious book across the room to me. I was flabbergasted! That was not how things were supposed to happen! I was delighted to have my book back, but had to really think about what had happened!

Did God answer my prayer or not?? That was the big question. Had Jimmy just chanced onto finding it or was he somehow guided? I had prayed to get my book back and it was back, so maybe the answer was yes. But could God actually use my big brother, who harassed me regularly, to answer my prayer?? That seemed too hard to believe.

Again I counseled with Mother who was very wise in these matters. I don't remember what she said, but I do remember ending up deciding that as unlikely as it might seem to have my brother be the messenger to answer my prayer, I must conclude that my prayer had indeed been answered!

That was a life-long lesson for me, which I still remember. Even now I still catch myself telling Heavenly Father exactly what He needs to do to answer my prayers and often He condescends to do it my way! But I have also learned to give him a lot of latitude in being creative in finding His own way to answer!