SO I had to give a talk on Sunday... it was about (drum roll please) THANKSGIVING!
I thought I would share it... just in case any of you ever need a talk on Thanksgiving... or feel like reading a novel... BUT MOSTLY for future reference for myself in case I ever need to give another talk on being thankful or thanksgiving :)
Now think of someone you know who isn’t happy at all. Maybe they seem almost 10 years older than they are, drained of energy—perhaps they are angry or bitter or depressed.
What is the difference between them? What are the characteristics that differentiate the happy from the miserable? Is there something that unhappy people can do to be happier?
Elder Joseph B Wirthin states “Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character. We like to be around those who are grateful. They tend to brighten all around them. They make others feel better about themselves. They tend to be more humble, more joyful, more likable.
You might be surprised to know that gratitude is a commandment of the Father. “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things” (D&C 59:7), He has admonished that “in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments” (D&C 59:21).
In Alma 34;38 we learn that we should “live in thanksgiving daily, for the many emercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon (us).” It is difficult to even imagine a resentful person who is grateful or a grateful person who is resentful.
President Gordon B. Hinckley has said: “Absence of gratitude is the mark of the narrow, uneducated mind. It bespeaks a lack of knowledge and the ignorance of self-sufficiency. It expresses itself in ugly egotism and frequently in wanton mischief. … “Where there is appreciation, there is courtesy, there is concern for the rights and property of others. Without it there is arrogance and evil” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1964, 117).
I believe that many people are unhappy because they have not yet learned how to be thankful for what they have. In these times of economic trouble it seems many in our generation and younger generations have come forth emanating a sense of entitlement. I think this attitude directly correlates with the fact that these people are flat out being ungrateful for what they do have.
If we look around us, it seems there are thousands of reasons of which to be ungrateful . We seem to only see the things we want to change,
“I wish I had more money”
“ I wish I had a nicer car or house”
“I wish I were better looking”
“ I wish I were smarter”
It is so easy to think of these things and give us reason to be utterly unhappy. It doesn’t take a special skill for one to find what they lack and want what is unreasonable. The problem lies where one wallows too much in the feelings of ungratefulness and become bitter and resentful towards those who do have what they want.
A few years ago my husband and I had the opportunity to visit Guatemala. We went to church with members who were wearing the nicest clothes they had. We were sitting in one of the nicest chapels of all Guatemala city. I looked around and at first, I saw yellow stained shirts and ragged clothing, a tile floor with no Air Conditioning, melting in the humid sticky heat and not understanding a word of what was being said in Spanish I instantly decided I was bored and it was a waste of time for me to be there. In a few words I had thought harshly “What’s in it for ME?”
Then I was taught, basically bonked over the head with the spirit telling me how LUCKY I was to have many sets of nice church clothes, how nice it was that my church building back home had carpet, clean running water and Air Conditioning, and lastly that I could meet there in Guatemala with my brothers and sisters in the gospel still feel of the spirit.
I had done a complete 180 degree change and upon further examination of these people I realized that they were SO HAPPY! It did not matter that they didn’t have the nicest, latest and greatest. These people thanked the Lord in all things and it truly humbled my heart.
One cannot predict happiness by the amount of money, status, or power a person has. External conditions do not necessarily make a person happy. Those who live in thanksgiving daily are usually among the world’s happiest people. And with that, they make others happy as well.
Elder Wirthlin, in his talk “Living in Thanksgiving Daily” suggests 3 ways in which we can learn to be constantly in the spirit of thanksgiving.
His first is that we must open our eyes. He says (I said what this video says, the video used exactly what Elder Wirthlin said in his talk... I thought you would want to watch a video rather then read it eh? I also quote president monson somewhere in my talk too, that guy is the man. )
The second he names is to open our hearts.
We must let go of the negative, resentful, hurtful things in our lives and replace them with a spirit of thanksgiving.
As I discussed this topic with my husband he brought up something interesting to note, when we are troubled with a person or group of people, we are counseled to serve them. Along those same lines we have been told with going through trials and adversities we need to be thankful for them. Seems a little counterproductive at first, but then when delving further into the topic we find,
That the Lord taught the prophet Moroni, in Ether 12 “I give unto men weakness that they may be humble,” and then promised that “if they humble themselves … and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them”. In the midst of the persecutions the Latter-day Saints were suffering in Missouri, the Lord gave a similar teaching and promise: “Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks; … and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good” (D&C 98:1, 3). And to Joseph Smith in the afflictions of Liberty Jail, the Lord said, “Know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:7).
As someone has said, there is a big difference between 20 years’ experience and 1 year’s experience repeated 20 times. If we understand the Lord’s teachings and promises, we will learn and grow from our adversities.
For example, President John Taylor on the subject of gratitude for suffering: “We have learned many things through suffering. We call it suffering. I call it a school of experience. … I have never looked at these things in any other light than trials for the purpose of purifying the Saints of God that they may be, as the scriptures say, as gold that has been seven times purified by the fire” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: John Taylor [2001], 203). Pioneers like President John Taylor, who witnessed the murder of their prophet and experienced prolonged persecution and incredible hardships for their faith, praised God and thanked Him. Through their afflictions they became what God desired them to become, and they laid the foundation of the great work that blesses our lives today.
One of my favorite poems is by Doug Malloch, it’s called Good Timber
The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.
Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
The more the storm the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
What I feel like that poem is saying is when we open our hearts and understand that God offers us opportunities for blessings and strengthens us through our adversities to make us what he wants us to become, we can understand why He has commanded us again and again to “thank the Lord thy God in all things” (D&C 59:7).
President Thomas S. Monson says: "A grateful heart comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives."
The third point that Elder Wirthlin makes is, once we have opened our eyes and our hearts we need to open our arms.
One of the best ways we show our gratitude is by blessing the lives of those around us. The great King Benjamin taught his people in Mosiah Chapter 2.
“If you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice. If ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants” (Mosiah 2:20–21).
And how do we render thanks unto God? King Benjamin told us that as well: “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17).
Elder Wirthlin goes on to ask, “When was the last time you told someone you love how much they mean to you? When was the last time you expressed your gratitude to someone who has always been there for you, someone who has sacrificed for you, someone whose heart has always been filled with hopes and dreams for you? When was the last time you unselfishly reached out to help another in need? Every time we cheer another’s heart, every time we ease another’s burden, every time we lift a weary hand, we show our gratitude to that God to whom we owe all that we have and all that we are.”
It does not matter if you have not been the best at showing gratitude in the past. Surprise those around you that think they know you best with your new found spirit of thanksgiving and thank them for what they have done for you. Today is a new day and it’s your choice to be just like those happy people we thought of in the beginning or like those unhappy people.
In closing I am thankful for many things, including my family. But the thing I am most thankful for above all else is the sacrifice my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ made for me in the Garden that through his atonement I might be able to repent of my sins and hopefully one day return to live with my Father in Heaven once again. My hope and prayer is that all of us can recognize that sacrifice and live in a spirit of Thanksgiving.
