I thought of Enos

Looking for role models from the Book of Mormon who are applicable and relevant today can be very hard. Most of the characters have either waged war on their enemies or killed someone, neither of which is an advisable way to live.

Everyone has their favourite person in the Book of Mormon.

Mine is Enos.

Enos is the real man.

I think of Enos a lot.

Nephi beheaded another human. Ammon cut off other humans' arms. Captain Moroni executed the death penalty on otherwise innocent humans. Teancum murdered another human in act of revenge.

There were also many good points about these people, and their darkest moments I mentioned above may be rationalised away by many with decent arguments. Yet the point remains: how is beheading someone relevant to me? Chopping off limbs? Supporting the death penalty? Being filled with revenge and anger? 

And then there was Enos.

Here's a picture of Enos praying

What do we learn about Enos from the Book of Mormon?

We learn that he valued his parents' teachings so much that the memory of their words were able to suddenly and vividly come to his mind. We learn that he was an imperfect person who was magnified and emboldened by the power of prayer. He had gone off into the forest hunting beasts, which we may assume was a very normal activity in his life, and ended up having a profound spiritual experience. We learn that his energy and motivations in prayer was for people - for his own welfare and the welfare of ALL others. 

Enos also possessed a reverence and respect for the written record and requested for divine assurances that the record of his people might be preserved. The Book of Mormon on my dining table today is that very record that Enos was so concerned about around 2,500 years ago. 

We also learn that Enos understood that the Lamanites had something against the Nephites but that he lived amongst a people who tried to resolve conflicts and plead their innocence of false assumptions by peaceful means.

Enos is my role model. I too strive for peaceful resolutions to conflicts. I can relate to having spiritual experiences in the often normal and mundane tasks of the day. I am imperfect like him and stand in need of repentance like him. I understand the 'struggle' of prayer, of spending long minutes in quiet but pained thought and determined frustration to say what I want to say and not what I've been conditioned to say. To pray for people; myself, friends, enemies, local and world leaders, church leaders, all who have a need. That these are often the most fulfilling and meaningful prayers.

So when I was wondering where on earth to read in the Book of Mormon the other day, I thought of who I judged to be a good character and who I totally admired in the record. I thought of my role model. 

I thought of Enos. 

The Perfect Prayer

I have been exposed to the set prayers of Catholicism and heard the beautiful call to prayer from mosque speakers. I have seen Buddhists kneel down in temples before statues of their enlightened founder and pray with heads bowed to the floor.

I try to pray multiple times each day. There are days where I don't. I'm very conscious of repeating tedious words and phrases.

Prayer is a great struggle for me, yet at the same time, a grand spiritual experience.

As a Mormon, I have learned a lot about how to pray. My mission president had us read and re-read repeatedly an article named "The Proper Pattern of Prayer" which went into detail on how to pray properly to God. We also have before us examples of the sacred language of prayer given by Jesus, for instance, in John 17 - the use of 'thee', 'thy', 'thine' and 'thou', along with the most basic concepts that investigators are taught - to address our Father, give thanks, ask questions, and close in the name of Christ.

But does God not hear the untidy, illiterate prayer just as clearly as the eloquent, well-prepared prayer? If I just go through a methodical introduction each time I pray, what does that actually mean?

Sometimes I think we can over complicate things, and sometimes we can be too repetitive with things, like prayer. Here, I'm not thinking of the language or structure of a perfect prayer, but rather the content.

It's important for me to be myself but sometimes it feels like I'm straining to be something else. There are times when this conflict is so great that I find myself entirely lost for words during prayer or lost for thoughts while preparing to pray.

Hilary Weeks' song "The Perfect Prayer" sums up my exact feelings. I've been listening to this song since 2004 when I was a young missionary. Here are the lyrics:

"I may not know just what to say

Or how to put it into words sometimes.

My tongue gets tied.

All the words of other men

Seem to sound so eloquent

Compared to mine.

When my brokenness is all I have to share

I may stumble and stutter, but to You

It's the perfect prayer.

I want to speak words from my heart

But I just don't know where to start sometimes.

What are my lines?

I may not please the ear of man

But somehow You still understand

And it's all right.

If I'm honest You will meet me anywhere

And anything I whisper in Your name

Is the perfect prayer.

If I stood and paid You tribute

With a long impassioned speech

It still wouldn't mean as much

As when I fall to my knees.

When my silences are all I have to share

My quiet time I spend in thoughts of You

Is the perfect prayer."

I feel that my contemplative thoughts are just as much a prayer as my quietly uttered words. I also feel like I need to un-learn or forget everything I have been taught about prayer so that I can actually 'speak words from my heart' and for it to sound meaningful and my own. When preparing to pray either publicly or privately, I just take a deep breath and press the reset button so that there is no programming left in me as to what to say, allowing me to bin the robotic and exercise the natural.

I think, of all the scriptural accounts of people talking with God, Enos had the right idea. I wish there was more in the record about Enos! He described his prayer as a 'wrestle' and he was 'struggling' to speak to God. His 'soul hungered' for communication with the Divine and he did it by 'pour[ing] out [his] whole soul.' He further remarked that he prayed for others 'with many long strugglings.' (Enos 1) He didn't seem to be burdened by a checklist of things to say or a specific approved method to follow.

This is the guy whom I can identify with about prayer. I'm sure there were many silent moments while he prayed 'all the day long' in addition to the 'long strugglings' he encountered.

Prayer doesn't have to be dictated with precision or flowery language. There is no set method or standard for content to be strictly followed. It is the personal and deeply meaningful yearnings of the heart, the long silences where one strives with great effort to spiritually connect with divinity and seek real meaningful conversation that makes a perfect prayer.

Is it really necessary to sophisticate our spoken sentences with the Supreme Being, or should we solely simplify our soliloquies to the Most High?

We are taught in the words of the beautiful hymn, "Prayer Is the Soul's Sincere Desire" that:

'Prayer is the simplest form of speech

That infant lips can try;

Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach

The Majesty on high.'

The truth is the perfect prayer is always an imperfect sincere sieve of thoughts that slip from our minds as we slowly and silently struggle to systematize solemn correspondence with Deity.

The Apostle Paul stated:

'for when I am weak, then am I strong.'

(2 Corinthians 12:10)

That sounds true for me in prayer.