"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."
That is how I feel today. I've been working on a talk that I have the privilege of sharing in Sacrament Meeting tomorrow at My in-laws branch here in Valentine, NE (it's so small that Ryan and I were asked to speak due to the lack of people haha). Anyway, the topic is about gratitude, and boy, do I have a lot of it right now!!! I am going to post it here rather than try to paraphrase it. All I know is, I am SO grateful for everything and everyone that I have been blessed with in my life!
In a talk by Bonnie D. Parkin, she speaks about gratitude being a spirit-filled principle. She said that, “Gratitude requires awareness and effort, not only to feel it, but to express it.” In the April 1977 Conference Report, Bishop H. Burke Peterson told the following incident about President Spencer W. Kimball and his talent for expressing love and appreciation:
“Two weeks ago President Kimball passed me as we were rushing to a meeting. He stopped, took my hand, looked me in the eye, put away all of his other cares, and said simply, ‘I’m sorry we’re sometimes so busy. I guess I haven’t told you lately how much I love you and appreciate you.’
“I felt his spirit; I believed him; my spirit soared to a new height”.
President Kimball said this about our need to express appreciation to our Heavenly Father: “Too often we take blessings for granted, like the sun, the air, health, and opportunity. Or we accept favors, honors, and privileges day after day without a word of thanks. We would thank the person who gives us a seat in the bus, the person who offers a ride, the friend who picks up the check after dinner, the person who does the baby-sitting, or the boy who cuts our lawn, but do we express gratitude to Him who gives us all?”
Going back to Bonnie D. Parkin’s talk, she states that, “Frequently we are oblivious to the Lord’s hand. We murmur, complain, resist, and criticize; so often we are not grateful. In 1 Nephi 2:12, we learn that those who murmur do not know ‘the dealings of that God who created them.’ The Lord counsels us not to murmur because it is then difficult for the Spirit to work with us.”
Gratitude opens our minds to a universe filled with the richness of a living God. Through it, we become aware of the wonder of the smallest things, which gladden our hearts with their messages of God’s love. This grateful awareness heightens our sensitivity to divine direction. When we communicate gratitude, we can be filled with the Spirit and connected to those around us and the Lord. Gratitude inspires happiness and carries divine influence. “Live in thanksgiving daily,” said Amulek in Alma 34:38, “for the many mercies and blessings which He doth bestow upon you.” Mercies and blessings come in different forms – sometimes as hard things. In D & C 59:7 the Lord said, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” All things means exactly what it says, ALL things, good or difficult – not just SOME things. We should be grateful for trials, adversity, and affliction. It is sometimes difficult to express gratitude when we are under stress, yet it is often such situations that permit significant spiritual growth.
There is a story related by Elder Marion D. Hanks about a boy and his mother, who knew the value of expressing gratitude:
“I sat at a stake conference where a returned missionary bore his testimony. He had but a short time and he chose to use one idea. He thanked God for a great, humble mother, and gave his reason. He said that as a high school boy, he [had] been sorely tried by the illness and then death of his little sister whom he had loved greatly and who had been the darling of the family, being the last of them. Their father had died. The little girl grew ill, and in spite of prayers and administrations and fasting and much concern, worsened and died in the night. The boy went into his room, locked the door, and sobbed out his broken heart to the walls because he was not willing to do it to the God whom he could not now honestly approach. In his rebellion and anger at a God, if there were one, who would permit such a thing to happen to them, he cried out in rebellion. He said he would never pray again, would never go to church again, and could never have any confidence again in a God who would permit this to happen. And in his immature but sincere sorrow, he made some rather serious covenants with himself. He stayed awake the rest of the night, apprehensive about an experience he anticipated. It was their custom, as it is in so many, though not enough, Latter-day Saint homes, to kneel morning and evening with the children around the mother, to thank God for the goodness of his blessings.
“He waited for that moment, knowing what he had to say, but fearing it. When his mother said, ‘Come, children,’ he said, ‘No.’
“She said, ‘Kneel down, son.’
“He said, ‘No, I will not kneel down, and I will never kneel down again.’
“She said, as I remember his words and I was deeply touched as were we all. ‘Son, you’re the oldest child in this home. You are the only man in the house, and if I ever needed a man, I need one now. You kneel down.’
“He knelt down, still rebellious, but because his mother, the idol of his heart, needed him, and he began for the first time to think in terms of her broken heart and her sorrow. So he knelt, but he said to himself, ‘I wonder what she’s going to thank God for this morning.’ And his mother, knowing as she must have, the questions in his mind and the minds of the other children, taught them the gospel on their knees that morning. She thanked God for what the family knew, for the blessing of eternal ties, for direction and purpose and guidance and convictions as to the future. She thanked God that they had been blessed with this wonderful, angelic child who had brought so much to them and who was to be theirs, always. And out of her mother’s heart, knowing the desperate, critical nature of the moment, taught her own children what there was to thank God for under conditions of such stress.
“As the boy stood, a successful, dedicated Latter-day Saint who had filled an honorable, difficult mission, he thanked God for a mother who was a heroine”.
The kind of gratitude that receives even tribulations with thanksgiving requires a broken heart and a contrite spirit, humility to accept that which we cannot change, willingness to turn everything to the Lord – even when we do not understand, and thankfulness for hidden opportunities yet to be revealed. Then comes a sense of peace.
When was the last time we thanked the Lord for a trial or a tribulation? Adversity compels us to go to our knees; does gratitude for adversity do that as well?
President David O. McKay observed, “We find in the bitter chill of adversity the real test for our gratitude…,which…goes beneath the surface of life, whether sad or joyous.”
Before concluding, I’d like to share something I found in my searching for this topic. It’s the 10 things we can do to help us develop gratitude:
1. Count your blessings. Awareness is the first step in developing gratitude. Henry B. Eyring pointed out that if we count our blessings with faith, the Holy Ghost will often bring other blessings to mind. Many of our greatest blessings have been part of our lives for so long that we may have forgotten they are gifts. How often, for instance, do we recall that our physical bodies are blessings we eagerly longed for as spirit children? One day a sister was contemplating the richness that music added to her life. She was suddenly overcome with a feeling of gratitude for those eternal laws that enable us to enjoy music. With that came a deep appreciation for the technology of recorded music that allows us to listen to music without having to be in the actual presence of the performers, a privilege we have been able to enjoy only in the past few generations.
2. Recognize trials as blessings. It may seem odd to think of illness, social upheavals, natural disasters, and personal tragedies as blessings. But, how often have we heard people bear testimony to the growth they experience through enduring periods of challenge and trial? Some have supposed that trials are reserved only for the disobedient. But, the scriptures make it clear that even the humble and obedient will face tribulation. Experience is a great teacher, and sometimes our hardest experiences can be our best teachers.
3. Carefully nurture every feeling of gratitude no matter how small. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude is much like caring for the seed of faith. If we nourish the first tiny sprout, in time it will grow into a beautiful and fruitful tree. I find that when I first become aware of a blessing, I can strengthen my feeling of gratitude if I immediately express my thanks.
4. Think about your own blessings. Too often, we fail to recognize those gifts that have been given to us specifically. Pondering our blessings can help us recognize and appreciate these personal gifts. They can also help us avoid the human tendency to despise our own gifts and covet those given to others. As we come to understand our own blessings, we can feel Heavenly Father’s love for us and trust His wisdom in giving us what we have.
5. Read Mosiah 2:19-25.
6. Record your blessings. Recording our blessings in a journal helps focus our minds on them and enables us to recall them later when we may have forgotten. Others, too, might benefit. President Spencer W. Kimball said, “Journals are a way of counting our blessings and of leaving an inventory of these blessings for our posterity.”
7. Express your gratitude to Heavenly Father. When we pray in private, the Holy Ghost often reminds us of blessings we have overlooked. Public prayers can also be revelatory. President Ezra Taft Benson has said, “There is a great tendency for us in our prayers and in our pleadings with the Lord to ask for additional blessings. But, sometimes I feel we need to devote more of our prayers of gratitude and thanksgiving for blessings already received.”
8. Express your gratitude to others. It has been said that when Heavenly Father wishes to bless us, he often sends that blessing through the service of another – a friend, a parent, a Church leader, a teacher. Expressing appreciation to these agents of the Lord’s love accomplishes two important things: it reminds us of the kind and thoughtful service they have given us, and it knits our hearts together.
9. Pay an honest tithe. The basis of gratitude is understanding all that we have comes from God. In giving back to him on-tenth of our increase, we acknowledge that truth. Paying tithing helps cultivate a deep and sincere gratitude for the source of all of our blessings.
10. Overcome roadblocks to gratitude. Sometimes no matter what we do, a spirit of bitterness or depression keeps feelings of gratitude away. In such cases, the unhappiness we feel may stem from something we have little control over. People suffering clinical depression need professional help in order to find relief from their negative emotions.
I’m going to end my talk by reading the Scripture D&C 78:19. I am so grateful for this gospel and for the Atoning sacrifice the Savior made for me, as well as for everyone else on this earth. I’m grateful for my wonderful family and the opportunity I have to be with them in this life as well as in the eternities. I hope that I am always able to express my gratitude to them, and those around me, and most importantly to my loving Heavenly Father; and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
