I remember when I first watched Disney’s movie, Aladdin, I found myself wondering what I would have wished for if I had been him. But you know, now it occurs to me: Who in the world needs a genie when we have a generous Heavenly Father, and the power of prayer? May I illustrate?

One day in seminary, Beth asked for a chance to share something with her class. She told how as a ten-year-old girl, she had been taught one day that if it was [were] right and she prayed in faith, Heavenly Father would hear and answer any prayer. So convinced was she that she went straight home that very day and knelt by her bed.

“Heavenly Father,” she said, “you know my father is a good man and a good father, but he never goes to church, not – not even when I have a part on the program. Oh, Heavenly Father, please touch my father’s heart so he will have the desire to go to church, so we can become an eternal family.”

Several times a day Beth would offer this prayer, sometimes it was punctuated by pleading tears. For six years she prayed this same prayer every day, never giving up. Then, just a few days before her sixteenth birthday, one morning at the breakfast table her father asked her what she wanted for her birthday. He said she could have anything she wanted and that money was not a problem. Can you imagine?

Beth was just ready to ask for a new car as her older sister had done when a voice came into her mind and said, “Beth, [here’s] your chance! [Here’s] what [you’ve] been hoping and praying for all those years.”

Beth paused for a few seconds, and then said, “Dad, there is one thing I would like to have more than anything else in this world, and it won’t cost you one penny.”

Well, naturally Dad was surprised and wanted to know what this wonderful thing was. But Beth wouldn’t tell him, not until he promised he would give it to her.

Finally Dad agreed, “All right – [all right], I promise.”

“Dad,” she began, “the one thing I want more than anything else in this world is that we kneel down every morning together as a family in family prayer.”

Dad was stunned. Who wouldn’t be? But the next morning, true to his word, Dad called the family for prayer asking Beth to offer it. For the first week Beth was the only one to pray. Then Mom began to take her turn, then her older sister, and finally the two younger brothers.

Then, one day – after about a month of this, Dad said, “[Well,] I guess it’s about my turn to pray.”

As her father prayed, Beth said it was the most humble, beautiful prayer she had ever heard. She cried all the way through it. When it ended, the whole family came together in one big tear-laden hug.

Beth told the class – that yesterday had been her seventeenth birthday, and she had received the most beautiful gift any mortal could ever receive. All of her prayers about her family had been answered.