Ponder these quotations:

“The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we are picking up the telephone and ordering groceries – we place our order and hang up. We need to meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as one man speaketh to another” (Gordon B. Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 469).

“If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies. We should remember the Most High day and night – always – not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help” (Howard W. Hunter, The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1997], 39).