Gratitude

                                                                                                                                There is a tradition someone started on 

Face Book a few years ago. I forgot about it this year and missed the first day of November. The point is to write down one thing each day of November, something for which you are thankful. Some people have decided not to do it this year, but I appreciate the opportunity to think each morning of my blessings. Today am I warm and dry? Is my water clean running and working well? Am I having a relatively pain free day? Am I hungry because I was just too busy to remember to eat rather than not having food?

My Mother did this years ago. She decided to write a gratitude journal. At the end of every day she was going to write one happy thing that happened that day. I on the other hand thought I’d have a specific journal for the things that made me mad. I would only write angry thoughts in it. My idea was to channel my angry thoughts into one place so I could reserve my journal for happy ideas. Guess who had the happier time!

President Monson said in a conference talk several years ago,

“My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven.

My brothers and sisters, do we remember to give thanks for the blessings we receive? Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love.

My beloved friend President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “When you walk with gratitude, you do not walk with arrogance and conceit and egotism, you walk with a spirit of thanksgiving that is becoming to you and will bless your lives.”

We have all experienced times when our focus is on what we lack rather than on our blessings. Said the Greek philosopher Epictetus, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

 “And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things.”

In the Book of Mormon we are told to “live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which God doth bestow upon you.”

Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings.

We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”

How can we cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude? President Joseph F. Smith, sixth President of the Church, provided an answer. Said he: “The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil. Love overpowers jealousy, and light drives darkness out of his life.” He continued: “Pride destroys our gratitude and sets up selfishness in its place. How much happier we are in the presence of a grateful and loving soul, and how careful we should be to cultivate, through the medium of a prayerful life, a thankful attitude toward God and man!”

lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us. Unfortunately, these are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for granted.

The English author Aldous Huxley wrote, “Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.

Someone has said, “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

I have a niece who one time wrote, “How would you feel if you woke up and only had the things you said you were grateful for.” Have a lovely grateful month and Happy Thanksgiving