Learning to Pray at My Mother's Knee

 

Lucile with daughters Irene and Norma, and son Wayne the summer of 1951

I remember very distinctly preparing for my first talk in Junior Sunday School because mother drove me down to the church so I could actually practice in the Junior Sunday School room. It is interesting that I do not recall what my talk was about, but I was too young to read and therefore it all had to be from memory. What is important is what I remember after we had practiced me giving the talk a couple of times.

We walked down the hall of the church to a classroom, and I remember mother telling me that we should kneel down because she was going to offer a prayer. I don't remember everything she said, but I do remember her asking Heavenly Father to help me to be brave. 

That made a profound, indelible impression in my mind. Years later when confronted with the problems of life and feeling overwhelmed with fears and doubts, that memory would come back into my mind. It wasn't just that Lucile Goates was a woman of faith; it was like she was pointing the way for me and saying "this is where you go when you need courage to be brave or to take on something that may be overwhelming." She knew and taught me that the ability to converse with the Lord when overwhelmed with life is like getting a jump start when you car battery is exhausted or almost dead.