Gratitude

Last weekend our church held a world wide conference, and there was one talk on "Remembering our Blessings" by Elder Eyring that I really liked so I thought I would share a part of it with you.

Maybe it's because we are getting closer to Thanksgiving, and maybe it's because I am so much happier when I feel like my life is being blessed and that there is someone out there who is watching out for me, but his comments on gratitude really struck me. He started by telling a story

Elder Eyring's experience:

"When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. Let me tell you how that got started. I came home late from a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house. He was carrying a load of pipes over his shoulder, walking very fast and dressed in his work clothes. I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property.

He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps toward the house, thinking of what he was doing for us, and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: “I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.”

I went inside. I didn’t go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family. Grandpa didn’t have to do what he was doing for us. He could have had someone else do it or not have done it at all. But he was serving us, his family, in the way covenant disciples of Jesus Christ always do. I knew that was true. And so I wrote it down, so that my children could have the memory someday when they would need it.

I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done."

So I have decided that I would start to keep a journal of the ways in which the Lord is blessing me. I can't say that I am as good at it as Elder Eyring, because I have missed a few days, but I thought I would share my experience over the past week as a way of maybe encouraging some of you that are reading this to do the same. It has definitely made me more aware of my blessings, and it is a good time of year to start thinking about that.

Monday 10/8
Today I went to my friend Kelli's mom's house to learn how to can. I needed to find something to do with all my tomatoes and so I wanted to make salsa. My sister in law has this amazing recipe for salsa that you can so I had been trying to get ahold of her with no success. I was at the store getting a few extra ingredients before we were to get started when my cell phone rang. My sister in law was calling to give me the recipe and I was able to get everything I needed at the store before we got started. Talk about timing.

Wednesday 10/10
I was asked to help choreograph a section of the Nutcracker for my daughter's school production. As I was listening to the music in the car, the choreography just started to come to me. The more I listened the more I learned. I was able to write it all down with the dance teacher at their school when I went to pick up the kids after class. I don't think that I have ever had ideas come so quickly.

Sunday 10/14
Today we had a primary presidency mtg and I had asked one of my counselors to share a spiritual thought, and then I chose a section to review for training. Interestingly enough we both choose to talk about the same thing "Teaching by the Spirit." It was a testimony to me that it was something that was important for us to talk about, and that the Lord wanted us to learn more about as we discussed the needs of the teachers and kids.

There are so many more things that I could write about, but I thought I would share a few of the events that stood out to me. Good luck with your own journal writing efforts, and to end this "Churchy Blog" I thought I would quote one more section from Elder Eyring.

". . .the challenge to remember has always been the hardest for those who are blessed abundantly. Those who are faithful to God are protected and prospered. That comes as the result of serving God and keeping His commandments. But with those blessings comes the temptation to forget their source. It is easy to begin to feel the blessings were granted not by a loving God on whom we depend but by our own powers. The prophets have repeated this lament over and over:

“And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him.

“Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.”
And the prophet goes on to say:

“Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom’s paths!”4

Sadly, prosperity is not the only reason people forget God. It can also be hard to remember Him when our lives go badly. When we struggle, as so many do, in grinding poverty or when our enemies prevail against us or when sickness is not healed, the enemy of our souls can send his evil message that there is no God or that if He exists He does not care about us. Then it can be hard for the Holy Ghost to bring to our remembrance the lifetime of blessings the Lord has given us from our infancy and in the midst of our distress.

There is a simple cure for the terrible malady of forgetting God, His blessings, and His messages to us. Jesus Christ promised it to His disciples when He was about to be crucified, resurrected, and then taken away from them to ascend in glory to His Father. They were concerned to know how they would be able to endure when He was no longer with them.
Here is the promise. It was fulfilled for them then. It can be fulfilled for all of us now:

“These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”5

The key to the remembering that brings and maintains testimony is receiving the Holy Ghost as a companion. It is the Holy Ghost who helps us see what God has done for us. It is the Holy Ghost who can help those we serve to see what God has done for them."

Have a great week.
Love the Priors