Gratitude
I was asked to speak on Gratitude. Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness. In the talk, Grateful in Any Circumstances,
President Uchtdorf says, "When we are grateful to God in our circumstances,
we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation. In grief, we can still lift up our hearts in
praise. In pain, we can glory in Christ's Atonement. In the cold of bitter
sorrow, we can experience the closeness and warmth of heaven's embrace." That doesn't mean that we need to be grateful
of our circumstances though, as he says soon after. When we are grateful in our
circumstances, instead of grateful of them, we are choosing to have an attitude
of gratitude. That means that we are
thankful all the time, until we loose that attitude. In Doctrine and Covenants, section 78, verse
19, it reads; And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made
glorious ; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an
hundred fold, yea, more. When we are
thankful, we will be greatly blessed.
There are many things to be thankful for, such as a small favor from a
family member or friend, to a beautiful sunset, to a miracle. When we are thankful, we need to help and
bless others too. There is a hymn that
states this very thing on pg. 219, called Because I Have Been Given Much. It says; Because I have been given much I too
must give; Because of thy great bounty
lord each day I live I shall divide my
gifts from thee With every brother that
I see Who has the need of help from me.
To help and bless others, we need to use our talents. In Doctrine and Covenants, section 6, verse
11, it says; therefore thou shalt exercise thy gift, that thou mayest find out
mysteries, that thou mayest bring many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, canvince
them of the error of their ways. That is definitely serving others. We can choose to be grateful. It doesn't just come all of a sudden when
something amazing happens. If that was the way things worked, then we
wouldn't have much success in just hoping that we could be thankful all the
time. To do that, we have to choose to
be grateful. President Uchdorf, in the
same talk that I quoted earlier, told a story about a waiter who gave a
customer two slices of bread. The
customer said it was good, but not enough. After the waiter gave the man a
doubled amount, and then even twice as much as the doubled amount, the
costumer, was still not satisfied. When
the waiter gave him a nine foot long loaf, cut in half, the man said,
"Good as always. But I see you're
back to giving only two slices of
bread." Like this man we can choose to be ungrateful no matter what,
or we can choose to be grateful no matter what.
In order to be happy, we need to choose the second choice. I know that everybody has much to be grateful
for. It is a tradition in my family,
that every thanksgiving we put a huge piece of paper on our pantry door, and at
the top in big letters write; We are Thankful for… After that, for the whole thanksgiving
season, when ever someone thinks of something that he or she is thankful for,
they write it down on the piece of paper.
If they have not learned to write yet, they draw a picture. Every year at the end of the year, the poster
is filled in every nook and cranny, and corner, with words and pictures. Every one always spends lots of time dropping everything they are
doing, to write another thing that they just remembered. There are always things from chocolate chip cookies, to family, to
the Atonement. I know that when we are
grateful all the time, and when we do all of these things, we will be blessed,
and be happy as long as we are grateful in, not always of our
circumstances.
