…live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you. (Alma 34:38)
First of all, I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving day. I thought it would be appropriate to speak of gratitude on Thanksgiving day! What other time of the year do we take one whole day to celebrate all that is good in our lives, all of our many blessings?
If you have read much of my blog, then you already know how important journals are to me. And my favorite of all the journals that I write in, is my gratitude journal. It doesn’t have to be a big expensive journal with a fancy cover. It can just be a notebook that you can keep inside your purse if need be.
The important part is that you write in it. Not just periodically, but daily. It’s similar to being consistent that we talked about here.
“Gratitude is a Spirit-filled principle. It opens our minds to a universe permeated with the richness of a living God. Through it, we become spiritually 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.” Bonnie D. Parkin
A few weeks ago we talked about joy and I believe that one of the ways that we can find true joy is through living in thanksgiving daily as stated above.
Today you will gather with family and friends to celebrate your love and relationships and all that you have to be grateful for. You will eat a lot of good food, watch football, play games, sleep and love on each other, build on current relationships and maybe start new ones.
I hope that you will take a few minutes at some point during your day to write down all of the many blessings you have in your life.
While everyone’s Thanksgiving might not be perfect, it can be filled with love and happiness. That really depends on you. Sure you could give away your control when one of your siblings or parents says or does something inappropriate. But how much better will your memories be if you can just be filled with gratitude.
I’m not sure who, but someone shared this with me one day, and because I live far away from my family it really stuck with me.
Think about the people in your life, not those you live with daily, but those that you may only see a couple of times per year. Now think about how many times you will get to see and be with them in their lifetime. Usually that’s only a couple of times per year for most people. If it’s a parent, and say they have roughly 10 years more of living, that’s only about 20 more times in YOUR life that you will get to spend with them!
So today, try to make the most of the time you get to spend with all of the important people in your life. Because you just never know when that might be your last time.
And if you live far away from family, CALL them or FaceTime them. It would mean so much to them.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
XO Wendy
Share this:
Pointing Toward Hope 