Gratitude

Sometimes, I forget that in spite of all my trials, I still have something to be grateful for.  I actually have many, many things to be grateful for.  So, this morning I have been focusing on all the blessings that I am given.  It fills my heart with joy to open my eyes, look around me, and realize how very blessed I am.  I could make a never ending list of the blessings that God has given me, especially if I started naming them.  So, so matter what is going wrong in my life, there is really a lot of things that are going right. 
It is easy for me to get so lost in focusing on the end of the road, that I forget Heavenly Father wants me to enjoy the journey along the way.  We are supposed to feel joy in this life.  However, to do that, we have to recognize that we have much to be grateful for. 
This season is a wonderful time of year for me.  We have our traditions and family that keep us focused on the real meaning behind the dinner.  I can also look across the table and realize how much I love everyone seated around me, and how much I miss those who are at another table this year.  I feel their love even while I miss their presence. 
The problem with the disease of depression is that I seem to focus more on the loss than on the love.  And so I have to learn to bring my focus back to what matters most of all.  I need to celebrate the joy more and feel the value of every single family member and friend. 
Today, remember that there are those who love you, and need you.  There are those who miss you and who wish you could be with them, both on this side of the veil and on the other.  As I think of all those whom I love, I realize how close they really are.  May your heart swell with gratitude and may you know always that you are loved. 

Sabbath Day Scribblings - Thankful Hearts

Colossians 3:15-17 

15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. 

 
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 

17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

I love this season of Thanksgiving for all things.  It is a beautiful time of year.  This year especially, I am trying to let peace rule my heart.  I am trying to give thanks in all things.  I have so much more than I can ever deserve.  May your hearts also be filled with thankfulness on this beautiful day as we each seek to follow Him.

Gratitude - Day 3 - Memoir Monday

It is not happy people who are thankful,

It is thankful people who are happy.

Now that my 31 days of writing is over, I thought that I would get back on track with some of the things that I normally write about.  Today, I wanted to share what Thanksgiving means to me.
I have had to learn about Thanksgiving the hard way.  I was divorced when my older children were young.  Thanksgiving became a time of sharing where everyone went different directions on different years.  Eventually, we were able to get it worked out, but not without all of us giving up something.
I learned that Thanksgiving is not a single day.  It is an attitude.  It can be any day or any weekend that I need it to be.  I learned that we could have Thanksgiving on Sunday instead of Thursday, that we could juggle the times between different families and that the thing that was most important was that we would all be together.
Over the years, I have given a lot up to try and keep my family together.  It was not always easy, sometimes it was more difficult than I ever imagined, but I think for the most part, we have succeeded.  We have learned that dinner does not always include turkey (especially if we are tired of it) and that it can be anything we want it to be.
Some years we dress up and some years we don't.  We have burned the turkey before, and had the fryer not work and had to pressure it one year.  We have even had fish sticks once because that was all we could afford.
It helps me so much to not think of Thanksgiving as a single day, but more as a season and an attitude.  We all pitch in and find something we love to bring and share and make and take home.
This year, our Thanksgiving will be on Friday after I get off work, instead of on Thursday.  We are having company that can't come until then.  So, we will do something else on Thursday.
For me, the best part of all is being surrounded by those that I love.  It is feeling a part of something that is bigger than myself.  It is being thankful and appreciative for the blessings that we do have, rather than the ones we don't.
Being thankful every single year, is a choice.

Have a Little Gratitude

"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."
~Thomas S. Monson,~ 

"The Divine Gift of Gratitude"

I am working on this.  I am often grateful.  I want to see the blessings in the world around me.  That is one of the reasons that I started blogging.  It helps me to recognize the gifts that surround me.   And I am surrounded, each and every day, by thousands of blessings.  I just don't always recognize them that way.  Sometimes, the things that happen in life can seem so overwhelming.  I get tied up in the day to day difficulties and I can't seem to remember to recognize the blessings in the midst of the trials.  But still, they are all around me.  

Yesterday morning, we woke up to a fresh coat of snow.  It was glistening and white.  It was frosty and beautiful.  It was amazing.  I love sitting in a warm house, with the fire burning in the fireplace and watching the snow fall outside my window.  Winter has two sides for me.  It can be a burden or a blessing.  It all depends on how I look at it and on what is going on in my life at that moment.  Winter itself doesn't change, just the way I look at it.  

We have a loving Heavenly Father.    One who can't wait to bless us.  Who does bless us continually.  But we have to be willing to open our eyes and behold the blessings.  I know that I have had hard times in my life, but my point is that, even though things did not turn out quite the way I thought they would, in a very strange way, they have turned out much better than I have ever imagined.  I have so much more than I dreamed.  

It can be hard for me to focus on what I have.  It can be hard to remember the blessings.  But I can tell you, that when I do, I feel peace.  I feel the divine gift of my Heavenly Father's love.  I feel His tender mercies in the wonders that surround me.  They have always been there, I just needed to stop and look and heal.

Writer's Workshop - Thanksgiving is a gift

Now it’s your turn!

Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come over to Mama Kat's to add your name to the link list. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!

The Prompts:

1.) Share a Thanksgiving recipe you will be cooking up this week.

2.) What traditions do you carry on with your family each year?

3.) A favorite Thanksgiving memory.

4.) Write a poem about something you’re thankful for this Thanksgiving.

5.) Who is cooking the turkey you will be eating for Thanksgiving this year? Share a memory that makes you smile when you think of this person.

I chose number 4.)  to write a poem.  

Thanksgiving is a Gift

by Patricia A Pitterle

The turkey is eaten, the children are fed

Football is over I'm ready for bed.

The table is cleared now the dishes are done

The children are gathered to watch Christmas reruns!

The house is all quiet ,the day is complete

The guests have all gone, now I put up my feet.

I have watched as my children have laughed and had fun

They've eaten enough and Thanksgiving is done.

But wait just a moment, who says it must go?

This is the thing I would like you to know.

Remember your blessings, count them every day.

By seeking His goodness you will find His way.  

He never leaves you, you are not alone

No matter that right now you feel on your own.  

So spend time to acknowledge His love in your life

See His blessings surround you as you walk through your strife.

Make this moment a gift that you give to His Son.

The gift of your seeing just what He has done.

Remember the lepers, there were ten cleansed that day.

But only one faced the Savior his "thank you" to say.  

Don't be like the nine with gratitude unexpressed

Leaving His presence and none would attest

His hand in their healing, His eyes on their souls,

His heart on their reaching, His love made them whole.

Gratitude isn't something that just comes once a year

It lives in your heart, it should be always near.

So look for your blessings, acknowledge they're there

Just open your eyes, look around you, and share.

By seeing the goodness in the midst of your trials

You'll find joy in the journey and after awhile  

Thanksgiving won't be a day that is just sun to sun.

It's a gift that you give Him after all He has done.  

Giving Thanks

Today, I have been wondering about giving thanks.  As always, when I am feeling reflective, I turn to the Savior who is the ultimate example of us all.  I love reading the story of the ten lepers.  The Scripture story is found in Luke 17:12-19

12  And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
13  And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
14  And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
15  And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16  And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17  And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
18  There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
19  And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

I wonder how the Savior felt when only one returned to thank Him.  He did this amazing miracle and they were so excited that they hurried off without even a single word of thanks.  The one who did return to thank Him was a Samaritan.  These were people who did not believe.  Yet, this one man remembered and returned.    I find it interesting that ten were cleansed, but only one was made whole.  I think that this must have been a wonderful and amazing blessing in his life.

Bishop Merrill J. Bateman taught: “In becoming a whole person, the grateful leper was healed inside as well as on the outside. That day nine lepers were healed skin deep, but only one had the faith to be made whole” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1995, 16; or Ensign, May 1995, 14).

The Savior alone knows how help us.  It is to Him that we owe our gratitude.  I think of His great example of strength.  What strength He must have had to almost never be thanked or appreciated.  What strength it must have taken to continue walking with those who did not recognize who He was or what His purpose was in coming.  May each of us take a moment today (or even several moments) to remember those things which we have been blessed with in our lives.  May we each remember Him who helps to bear our burdens and heal our hearts.  May our faith in Him help each of us to truly become whole.  

Washed Clean

by Boyd K. Packer

In ancient times the cry “Unclean!”

Would warn of lepers near.

“Unclean! Unclean!” the words rang out;

Then all drew back in fear,

Lest by the touch of lepers’ hands

They, too, would lepers be.

There was no cure in ancient times,

Just hopeless agony.

No soap, no balm, no medicine

Could stay disease or pain.

There was no salve, no cleansing bath,

To make them well again.

But there was One, the record shows,

Whose touch could make them pure;

Could ease their awful suffering,

Their rotting flesh restore.

His coming long had been foretold.

Signs would precede His birth.

A Son of God to woman born,

With power to cleanse the earth.

The day He made ten lepers whole,

The day He made them clean,

Well symbolized His ministry

And what His life would mean.

However great that miracle,

This was not why He came.

He came to rescue every soul

From death, from sin, from shame.

For greater miracles, He said,

His servants yet would do,

To rescue every living soul,

Not just heal up the few.

Though we’re redeemed from mortal death,

We still can’t enter in

Unless we’re clean, cleansed every whit,

From every mortal sin.

What must be done to make us clean

We cannot do alone.

The law, to be a law, requires

A pure one must atone.

He taught that justice will be stayed

Till mercy’s claim be heard

If we repent and are baptized

And live by every word. …

If we could only understand

All we have heard and seen,

We’d know there is no greater gift

Than those two words—“Washed clean!” 

One More Today

I thought I would add a little today, as I am driving out of town until late tomorrow and won't have an opportunity to do it then.  I have been reading and focusing on the story in the New Testament on the 5 loaves and 2 fishes.  The Savior walked among the people and taught them all that long day.  To be in His presence as part of the multitude. 
I would have liked to see His face and participate in His miracles.  I wonder what that would have been like?  To hear His voice, and listen to His words, to watch Him as he taught.  After he walked among them for the day, He turned to His disciples and asked where they could buy bread to feed the multitude.  The disciples must have been surprised.  I know I would have been.  They did not travel with much, nor did they have much money.  So they turned to a young boy who carried their stores and found that he had for them five loaves and two fishes. 
Imagine, five small loaves of barley bread and two small fishes to feed 5000 people.
Now, I don't know how the people in your house eat :-), but the ones in my house would eat it all and there would be none to spare.  Yet, somehow, when they finished, there were in the hands of the twelve apostles, twelve baskets full. 
None of us know the answer of how the miracle happened.  None of us can explain it, but we know it happened and that the people that day had an abundance of food.  Enough and to spare for their needs.  The dictionary defines abundance as "An overflowing fullness; ample sufficiency; great plenty; profusion; copious supply; superfluity; wealth: -- strictly applicable to quantity only, but sometimes used of number."
I like the phrase, an overflowing fullness.  I may not have been there, to be part of those very blessed 5000 people, but I am here now and I have His teachings and influence in my life today.  I can still partake of His abundance if I strive to make His teachings a part of my life.  This morning we were reading in 2 Nephi and we were talking about knowing for your self through study and prayer. 
One of the examples used in the scriptures is to feast upon the scriptures.  We compared it to Thanksgiving dinner and feasting at the table.  We asked the girls what feasting meant.  One of the things that makes it possible is when we have great plenty.  In short, an abundance of food. We used Thanksgiving as our example of an abundant feast.  If you compare it to the scriptures and feasting on the Word of God, it puts the word abundance in an entirely new life. 
I wonder, do we have an Abundance of the scriptures and the word of God in our home?  Or are we simply starving ourselves by turning away from the abundance of the Lord's table.  Are we partaking of the abundace of God, or are we simply nibbling at the edges? 
I read a quote this morning from Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, "The acquisition of understanding and enthusiasm for the Lord comes from following simple rules.  One of those rules is to read the word of the Lord.  I know that with the demands of your studies there is little time to read anything else.  But I promise you that if you will read the words of that writing which we call scripture, ther will come into your heart an understanding and a warmth that will be pleasing to experience.  Let the Lord speak for Himself to you, and His words will come with a quiet conviction that will make the words of His critics meaningless."
That sounds like abundance to me.