Push forward through prayer

Recently, I have been making the effort to make my prayers more meaningful and to really rely on the Lord through my prayers. This week in class we discussed the story of Samuel the Lamanite, a prophet of God who prophesied of the signs of Christ's birth. At the time when the signs were supposed to occur many of the Nephites lost faith and began to doubt that the signs would come. This group of people then began to persecute those that still believed that the signs would come and Christ would come into the world. They set a date that they would kill all those who believed that Christ would come if the sign hadn't been given by the end of that day. 3 Nephi 1:11-13 says "And it came to pass that he went out and bowed himself down upon the earth, and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people, yea, those who were about to be destroyed because of their faith in the tradition of their fathers. And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying: Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets." In past times when I have read this passage I always assumed that the date was decided to be the next day, and so Nephi prayed that night, and the sign was given. In class, Brother Griffin presented a more reasonable alternative. Imagine that the date was set to be a few weeks later. Nephi would have prayed every day until the sign came. In the scripture, it says that he prayed in behalf of his people. His life was also at stake and yet he was more concerned for his people. I love this way of interpreting the story so much better (even though we cannot be completely sure on the details) because it is more consistent with how Heavenly Father answers prayers. To quote my teacher, "Prayer is not about pushing buttons, it is about pushing yourself." Heavenly Father doesn't often answer our prayers immediately. Rather, He allows us an opportunity for growth by delaying the time that he answers our prayers. While the natural man might wonder why God didn't choose to just put us out of our misery, it is important to remember that this life is our time to grow and become like God. As I've been thinking about how to make my prayers more meaningful, I realized that there are so many things to pray about. Here is a list to start with.
1. Express gratitude
2. Pray for strength and virtues
3. Pray for blessings
4. Pray for others
5. Pray to understand His will
6. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel
7. Pray for the companionship of the Holy Ghost