The Savior once said, “Ask, and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.” It interests me that each of those words keynotes effort.

I want you to know that prayer works, and nothing is so trivial or insignificant that we cannot counsel with the Lord about it. I have a friend who learned years ago this important principle.

When she was just seven years old, she went to the fair with her brother. They both came home with helium filled balloons. Misti took hers outside to play. Well, you can – you can probably guess what happened. It wasn’t long before she let go of the string and her balloon floated away. Disappointed, she went inside and told her mom.

Mom told her not to take her brother’s balloon outside because it might get lost also. Again, you can probably guess what happened. Misti grabbed her brother’s balloon and out the door she went with a promise that she wouldn’t lose it.

Less than ten minutes later, however, she let go of it, and this time the balloon floated up to the top of a tall tree and stuck. In tears Misti went inside to tell Mom. Mom came out, took one look, and told Misti there was no way they were going to be able to get that balloon down.

Crying and scared that her brother would be mad, Misti then did what good parents had taught her to do. She knelt down right there in the grass next to the tree, and in the tender innocence of a seven-year-old girl pleaded with Heavenly Father to help her get the balloon back. She closed the prayer, opened her eyes, and looked up – just in time to see that balloon float right down into her hand.

Well, Misti stopped crying. Excited and filled with the sweet assurance of knowing that her prayer had been heard, she ran inside to tell Mom. As she poured out her heart to Mom, Mom didn’t say a word. She just stood there and cried.

Now, my dear friends, I believe that when we are sincerely trying to be good, no matter what it is, if it’s important to us, it’s important to Him.