admittedly, it's not a big deal, but's it's an overused and trite phrase that has, over the years, become a pet peeve.
...and, oh yeah, don't forget to give us some extra money, just so God knows you are for serious.

I just saw this on Facebook:
"The Stake Presidency invites all members to pray and fast for moisture this coming Sunday. We are joined by other stakes in the area, and have invited local congregations of other faiths to take part as well.

President XXXX encourages us to express gratitude for the decade or so of good harvests we've enjoyed, and, in addition to your fast offering, to consider what else you might offer to the Lord as an indication of your faith."

if I was a profit, I would always make sure to pray for rain right before the Summer Monsoon season

The Whovian in me always thinks of Cassandra. MOISTURIZE ME!!

Thank goodness.. I'm not alone...


;-)

We live in a desert (if your from Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, california). Hot and dry weather is not unusual. We should expect that. What we should pray for is to better adapt to our surroundings.

I live in the Pacific Northwest, so I really don't expect this.

I am an atheist and I am praying for rain now, especially before the fireworks. Or after or during.

I'd like to send some of ours over to your side of the continent. We get too much on the east coast. And then there's a drought on the western side. It isn't balanced "measures" at all!

The western half is getting the extreme heat wave. We got a Siberian Polar Vortex two winters in a row. Last winter was the worst on record. This summer's heat wave so far is breaking all records for the last week in June, in several areas (just the ones I've been following.)

Too many extremes both directions. Kind of like Mormonism. Maybe instead of praying for more moisture, Mormons like the rest of us try doing something about the global warming patterns that is causing the crazy weather shifts in the first place. The future of our planet depends on us making adaptations that we aren't even close to doing for us or our future generations....

Future world wars are going to be fought over water supply. Folks, we are closer than we realize based on the rate of supply and demand alone.

To all you religious folks praying for rain, please tell God your zip code so he/she/it can target the right state. My area has all the rain we can stand for a while.

How do any religious people take this "pray for rain" stuff seriously? It has always seemed like such a worthless exercise in pomposity. Just another excuse for people to stand up and pray in public to be seen of man.

I recall in Utah back around 1980 or so there was a long dry
summer. Spencer W. was the prophet at the time and asked the
membership to pray for rain (or was it "moisture"?). It was a
big deal becoz THE PROPHET(tm) was actually asking the whole
church to pray for rain (even those in monsoon-stricken Asia).

Well the rain didn't come and day after day of blue sky and
scorched lawns ensued. Finally toward the end of the summer
there was a small bit of rain. Not enough to even help the
drought situation, according to the state meteorologist.

But Spence, the next time conference came around thanked the
Lord for the "moisture we have received." Basically thanking
the Lord for tantalizing us with a bit of rain that did no good.

Of course, a year or so later came the SLC floods with State
street turned into a river.

The Lord hears our prayers, but His timing seems a bit off.

I remember a photo of someone who caught a large trout on State Street. =)

but do you remember people kayaking on state street ?

We must live in the same end of the province, showed up in my Facebook feed as well.

I always thought this sort of thing was ridiculous: "we thank thee God that thou hast blessed us with beautiful sunshine this day of our ward picnic, and cursed the farmers who cry out for rain, that our funeral potatoes not be soggy."

wanna find out?
holyt.ghost@gmail.com
I only check this account about once a week so don't sweat it if I don't get back to you right away.

We prayed last summer during our drought and we got floods this spring.

"moisture" is what's on my lawn after a heavy dew.....we need 3" of rain RIGHT NOW in southern Alberta! I don't remember it this dry on the years I farmed ('70-'07)....

RB

YES! This misappropriation of words has always annoyed (and even angered) me. Why the h@!! can't they just say RAIN?

If they pray for rain it's more likely that they go without getting their prayers answered.

If you pray for moisture then all that needs to happen is for the temperature to drop a bit or have drizzle for a few minutes and you could technically say the prayer was answered.

Well my fellow Lethbridge Reprobrate, it looks like God has pre-empty sly answered the fasting and praying cuz it's pissing down.

So folks, hypothetical question. If God preemptively answers your fast and prayer, do you still have to do it?

We had a wee...and I mean wee shower at about 6:30PM MDT this evening while I was on the deck out here on the farm at Wilson Siding enjoying a beer. It settled the dust on our gravel road but no more...and cooled it off a bit from 28C down to 21C.

Ron Burr



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2015 11:41PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

And a thunderstorm at 2AM that got the road a little wetter....but no puddles...so hot and humid today...

RB

Holy T Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So folks, hypothetical question. If God
> preemptively answers your fast and prayer, do you
> still have to do it?

God can travel faster than light, so there is a reference frame in which he's actually going back in time to turn on the sprinklers. So yes, you still have to do it; otherwise it won't have rained. In fact, this means that any time something good happens, you need to pray and ask God to do it.

Does "god" change his "will" regarding how much "moisture" he'll dump on the planet based on how many mormons ask him to change his "will?"

Or is rain (and the lack thereof) simply a factor of climate and weather patterns, and skipping meals and praying to an imaginary man in the sky have nothing whatsoever to do with it?

I'm going for the latter. :)

Spoke too soon. Rain is over. lord just teasin' to make sure the faithful pay some fast offerings.

I have noticed a tendency here in the "bible belt" of upstate New York (we have a strong conservative mix here,) that often on Thanksgiving Eve or Day, or Christmas Eve or Day, where there has been a dry week or month preceding...that suddenly we'll get a good snowfall *right on* the holiday happening.

It happens more often than not, for whatever reason. When it snows on a holiday, I look up and say well someone somewhere prayed for snow, and it looks like their prayers were answered and just in time for the family gathering.

Back in 2002, the drought was really taking its toll in Colorado. This was the same year as the terrible Hayman Fire (started by a firefighter burning a letter from her exhusband during a fire ban) and all the churches were begging their congregations to pray for rain. Colorado Springs and the surrounding area is high desert, but for a long time, it rained like clockwork nearly every day in the late afternoon.

It did finally rain, but only after a local Wiccan coven did a ritual for rain in the area. I thought that was amusing.

I remember a time when Sonny's hands were shaking and his face was white as a sheet. It turned out that in order to get back to Detroit in time to do the TV forecast, he had piloted the plane he owned through some of the worst weather imaginable.

I have noticed that some of the meteorologists use the word "moisture" and I laugh and laugh and laugh...

I much prefered the weather from good ole Sony Elliot in Detroit. He knew how to use and abuse words and make you smile:)

I am in northern Maryland, within 12 miles of the Mason-Dixon Line. A week ago the National Weather Service had us under a tornado watch. Fortunately no tornado hit but Cockeysville Maryland got golf-ball-size hail, which did a lot of damage.

At our house we had three inches of rain over a 24-hour span, with localized flash flooding.

Finally June 29th was a perfect summer day -- high temp of 75F with full sunshine and light winds. I am hoping for more days just like that, but that is not in the forecast. It is going to get hot again. But the good news is we have plenty of moisture and no drought.

Members are confused. When the letter went out from the First Presidency saying, "Brethren, make it rain!," they were not talking about moisture.

Holy the Ghost Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "...and, in addition to your fast offering, to consider what else you might offer to the Lord as an indication of your faith."

I love how Mormon God is only placated by money. The revenues from City Creek must be down.

>I love how Mormon God is only placated by money. The revenues from City Creek must be down.

That is apparently the case - some of us oldtimers remember this gem:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365935/

and, here is an abridged version of the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LJuITHtbJo

OMG!!!!! Over the years this has become the biggest joke with me and my kids. Oh gawd please give us mostur(spelled phoenetically but probably not even close). I heard that BS in prayers and talks and almost every conversation when I was going to church to the point that when I heard someone say that I would say "Becareful what you wish for you may end up with more mostur than you want."

I laughed outloud when I read the titel and had to put in my two cents worth.

We could always pray to St Randy of the Bachmans (and the rest of the Guess Who Pantheon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JgHbO4SCiY
(one of my favorite Guess Who songs, but I don't know if it was a hit in the US)

I thought moisture was just what we post-menopausal women pray for.