“Generations Yet to Be”

How far into the future do your prayers extend?

Truthfully, most of my prayers reflect a fairly short-term focus. I fill my prayers with gratitude for things which have happened recently and I plead for blessings which I hope I and others may receive fairly soon.

In contrast, here’s Enos’s prayer for his enemies, the Lamanites:

That if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation—

For at the present our strugglings were vain in restoring them to the true faith.

Enos 1:13-14

Granted, Enos had the benefit of his uncle Nephi’s vision. Nephi had learned that his descendants would be completely destroyed. (See 1 Nephi 12:19-20, 1 Nephi 15:5.) Nevertheless, Enos makes this sound like a new prayer. As he grew closer to God, his heart turned toward “generations yet to be” (Paul L. Anderson, “Turn Your Hearts,” Hymns, 291).

The Lord responded that Enos was not alone in this desire:

Thy fathers have also required of me this thing; and it shall be done unto them according to their faith; for their faith was like unto thine.

Enos 1:18

More than two thousand years later, as Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, the Lord revealed to him that this book was an answer to the prayers of ancient prophets:

The remainder of this work does contain all those parts of my gospel which my holy prophets, yea, and also my disciples, desired in their prayers should come forth unto this people.

And I said unto them, that it should be granted unto them according to their faith in their prayers;

Yea, and this was their faith—that my gospel, which I gave unto them that they might preach in their days, might come unto their brethren the Lamanites, and also all that had become Lamanites because of their dissensions.

Now, this is not all—their faith in their prayers was that this gospel should be made known also, if it were possible that other nations should possess this land;

And thus they did leave a blessing upon this land in their prayers, that whosoever should believe in this gospel in this land might have eternal life;

Doctrine and Covenants 10:46-50

What a thrilling thought! Ancient prophets like Enos, as well as the disciples Jesus chose during His ministry on the American continent, prayed for us. They prayed for people who would be born in the distant future, their own descendants as well as other people, who would be blessed by their words in order to draw closer to God and have eternal life!

When Jesus visited the Nephites and the Lamanites, He quoted Malachi’s prophecy that the prophet Elijah would “turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (3 Nephi 25:6). We recognize that our hearts can be turned not only to our immediate parents but also to our ancestors, and even to our spiritual ancestors—people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But our hearts can also be turned toward our descendants—those we know and love in this life, and those who will come in the distant future.

Our son and daughter-in-law welcomed a new child into their family this week. My perspective isn’t nearly as expansive as Enos’s, but as a new generation of our family grows, I can visualize the joy we feel extending to many generations of people in the future.

Today, I will pray for future generations, both living and “yet to be.” I will ask God to help my children, grandchildren, and others to experience the joy and the spiritual growth which the gospel has brought into my life.