Improving the Quality of your Prayers

Bishop H. Burke Peterson:
"As you feel the need to confide in the Lord or to improve the quality of your visits with him—to pray, if you please—may I suggest a process to follow:

• Go where you can be alone, go where you can think, go where you can kneel, go where you can speak out loud to him. The bedroom, the bathroom, or the closet will do.
• Now, picture Him in your mind’s eye. Think to whom you are speaking, control your thoughts—don’t let them wander—address Him as your Father and your friend.
• Now tell him things you really feel to tell Him—not trite phrases that have little meaning, but have a sincere, heartfelt conversation with Him. Confide in Him, ask Him for forgiveness, plead with Him, enjoy Him, thank Him, express your love to Him, and then listen for his answers.
• Listening is an essential part of praying. Answers from the Lord come quietly—ever so quietly. In fact, few hear His answers audibly with their ears. We must be listening so carefully or we will never recognize them. Most answers from the Lord are felt in our heart as a warm comfortable expression, or they may come as thoughts to our mind. They come to those who are prepared and who are patient.
  (“Conference Excerpts,” New Era, Jan. 1974, 6)