After starting a new job as my wife and I were starting our family, I found myself needing to learn a new skill set in a new industry. I had to learn new company rules and legal regulations.
I had a stack of sticky notes next to my computer keyboard. Every time I was told something new I needed to remember, I would write it down and stick the note on the edge of my computer monitor.
Soon, coworkers began to give me a hard time for the rainbow of colored notes that I had hanging from every possible part of my monitor — some stuck to each other in a chain of new information I wanted to remember.
Was it the best way to retain all the new information coming at me? I don’t know. But the notes seemed to be a good way to take an immediate action in order to help me remember something I thought I needed and shouldn’t forget. For me, it worked.
The memory of that time and experience came back to me on Monday, June 8, after attending the funeral of Sharon Cox, the mother of Sister Tracy Y. Browning, second counselor in the Primary general presidency.
Sister Browning shared beautiful and tender memories of her mother. Among them, she shared a habit that her mother had developed over many years. When someone she knew needed heaven’s help, she wrote a brief prayer for that individual, by name, on a sticky note.
After Cox died, Sister Browning found those sticky notes in various places around her mother’s home, she said. Sister Browning held some of them in her hand as she spoke.
She told those attending the funeral that if they had ever let her mom know that they were struggling, her mom had probably put their name on one of those sticky notes as a type of what she called a “single-serving prayer.”
“My mother believed in prayer in a remarkable way,” Sister Browning said. “And she lived her life pleading with the Lord.”
Those pleas lived on after Cox’s mortal life in a way that reminded her loved ones how much she loved them and prayed for them.
“What I learned is, if you ever talked to my mom, shared a challenge, shared a hope, shared a need, … she would come home and write a prayer for you,” Sister Browning said.
I loved the sweetness of this effort. She could have offered a silent prayer of the heart. I’m sure God would answer those prayers just the same. But the fact that Cox took the time to write down her prayerful thoughts, and the fact that they were here after her passing, made me think about the lasting effect of prayer.
How humbled would we each be if we could see the prayers offered on our behalf represented by a stack of sticky notes? How grateful would we feel? How supported would we feel?
“How humbled would we each be if we could see the prayers offered on our behalf represented by a stack of sticky notes?”
Primary General President Susan H. Porter, with whom Sister Browning has served for the last four years, said in her April 2024 general conference address that individuals can feel Heavenly Father’s love and support when they pray.
“Because Heavenly Father has all power and knows all things, He can see all His children and can hear and answer every prayer. You can come to know for yourself that He is there and that He loves you,” she said.
As Sister Browning shared the story of her mother’s single-serving prayers, it was as if those in attendance retroactively felt seen and loved.
The prayers of the past had likely found their resolution. The needs that necessitated those prayers may have gone away years ago.
The feelings that her loved ones felt when they heard of those written prayers, however, brought newfound appreciation for Cox’s kindness on their behalf.
Parents pray for their children. Members of the Church pray for President Dallin H. Oaks and other leaders of the Church. Family of missionaries pray for them as they serve.
As we express gratitude for answered prayers that come from a loving Heavenly Father, may we also take time to thank those who pray for us in our moments of need.
Even though I never met Sharon Cox, I’m grateful for her example of pleading to the Lord on behalf of those she loved and loves.
— Jon Ryan Jensen is editor of the Church News.
