Act of Thanksgiving

"And in nothing doth man offend God...save those who confess not His hand in all things" (D&C 59:21).

In the spirit of Thanksgiving tomorrow, I decided to say a few words about gratitude. We have so many things to be thankful for that I wonder if we even realize just how blessed we are. We have countless blessings, and this time of year is the time when we recognize them. But there are 364 other days in the year. What do we do with them?

I think oftentimes we take for granted the little things we have, like cars, electricity, warm clothing, food. The things we use every day. But there are people out there who don't have those things. Communities everywhere do canned food drives to collect food for those who don't have the means to have a big Thanksgiving dinner like most of you will enjoy tomorrow. We are extremely blessed, and oftentimes we don't even realize it. So we need to give thanks now and tell our Heavenly Father just how grateful we are just for the privilege of being alive, because for all we know, everything we have could be gone tomorrow.

Another aspect of gratitude is being grateful for everything we have, and all our experiences. The good...and the bad. Because when we look back at those trials we have, we find that we grew stronger. We wouldn't have had that chance without those hard times, and so that's something else we need to remember as well. In the scripture I quoted above, it says "confess...His hand in all things" (emphasis added). "All" includes trials as well as those moments we cherish.

I know that as you remember all your blessings, the big and the small, this Thanksgiving and always, you will find so much more joy in life. You will learn to really appreciate everything with an eternal perspective, knowing that everything will benefit you in the long run, if you just recognize and acknowledge it.

Tender Mercy:
My companion and I were able to contact and teach a potential investigator yesterday that we haven't been able to contact for nearly two weeks, and the lesson was amazing! The Spirit was strong, and we set a return date! Plus we were re-invited to their Thanksgiving Dinner :)
Or, we could count the 90-minute nap I got on P-Day this week.