Written for a grandson, new hymn ‘Close as a Quiet Prayer’ teaches truth to all children

When Sally DeFord’s son was young, he received a poster in Primary that said something like: “I am a child of God. I know Heavenly Father loves me, and I love Him. I can pray to Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere. I am trying to remember and follow Jesus Christ.”

DeFord said her son taped the poster to his closet door so he could always see it and remember it.

“What a privilege and blessing to know that our Heavenly Father is never far away from us, and that He will hear us pray anytime, anywhere,” DeFord said.

When a new grandson was born, DeFord wanted to help him know this truth. She has written songs for each of her children and grandchildren, and for this new child, she wrote “Close as a Quiet Prayer,” finishing in 2017.

“I wrote it for him in the hope that he will always remember that Heavenly Father is never far away, and listens to his prayers no matter where he is or what he’s doing,” she said. “That knowledge has been a comfort to me throughout my life, and I hope it’s a comfort to him.”

“Close as a Quiet Prayer” is now in the new global hymnbook, “Hymns for Home and Church,” of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Added in the February 2025 batch, the song is voiced for children but, like other children’s songs in the new hymnbook, is placed beside the other hymns for anyone to sing or listen to in their worship.

In fact, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square sang Ryan Murphy’s arrangement of the song during the Sunday afternoon session of April 2025 general conference.

“It was, as you would expect, glorious and beautiful,” DeFord said. “The arrangement and the delivery were both perfect.” She said she and her grandson, who was then 9 years old, cried through it across the country from each other. He lives in Georgia and she lives in Colorado.

While she was a child in Eugene, Oregon, DeFord’s grandparents taught her to appreciate music. Her grandmother played the accordion and her grandfather the banjo. Her first calling in the Church was Primary pianist when she was 11 years old. Primary pianist and chorister remain her all-time favorite callings, and she has had all the ward and stake music callings at different times in her life.

Moving often with her family and then settling with her husband in Colorado Springs, Colorado, DeFord has enjoyed a wide variety of musical pursuits — singing, playing the piano, directing choirs, and composing and arranging solo and choral music.

She was an early adopter of music composition software in the 1980s and has single-handedly run her own website for 40 years, her husband Dennis DeFord explained in an email to the Church News. She said always wanted to allow anyone to download recordings and sheet music of her songs and arrangements for free as she wanted to share the musical gifts God gave her with others.

Besides “Close as a Quiet Prayer,” DeFord has another hymn in the new hymnbook as well called “Peace, Peace, Be Still,” which the Church News wrote about in September. She has submitted many other songs to the Church and they can be found by searching her name in the Church’s music library, found at ChurchofJesusChrist.org/media/music.

In a post about “Close as a Quiet Prayer” on her website, DeFord included this scriptural phrase:

“For he is not far from every one of us,” found in Acts 17:27.

The About the Hymns essay for this song on the Church’s website says while DeFord initially wrote “Close as a Quiet Prayer” for her grandson, she hopes everyone “understands the comforting truth that Heavenly Father is always near, ready to hear their prayers. Whether they pray aloud, in a whisper, or in a silent plea, they can be confident that He will hear them.”