Gratitude!

'Tis the season to be grateful!

Fa la la la laaaaa, la laaa, laaa, laaaaa!

Okay, let's be honest. It's always the season to be grateful. Gratitude isn't something we should be thinking about only one month a year. It's something we should strive to have in our hearts, and lives, at all times.

I'm giving the lesson to the ladies at church on Sunday, and I'm going to be talking about gratitude. In my research for the lesson, I came across some great quotes from several of our church leaders. Here are a few I really liked:

President J. Reuben Clark said: “Hold fast to the blessings which God has provided for you. Yours is not the task to gain them, they are here; yours is the part of cherishing them”

      “We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that “gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” - President Thomas S. Monson 

 

“Gratitude is a Spirit-filled principle. [It] 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, 'for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.'” - Sister Bonnie D. Parkin

   President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “When you walk with gratitude, you do not walk with arrogance and conceit and egotism, you walk with a spirit of thanksgiving that is becoming to you and will bless your lives.”

Those are some awesome quotes, right? I really liked this one from my husband, too:

"I know we are happier when we're grateful. And for what it's worth, I'm almost certain that's a scientifically proven theory."

Cute and smart. My husband is a double threat guy!

And it's true. Being grateful makes us happier. Instead of seeing all the bad stuff around us, our focus is on our blessings. And that's just a better way to live! 

It's not always easy, and it can be a challenge to recognize our blessings during our bleakest times, but if we work at it, we'll get better at it. And someday it will become second nature. 

So, I'm reinstating my annual tradition of blogging each day from Nov. 1st to Thanksgiving about something for which I am grateful. This is a long stretch this year, with Thanksgiving being on the 28th, so there may be some fluff in there. But that's okay, because I'm thankful for the fluffy stuff, too. :)

For today, I'm grateful for gratitude. It may sound silly, but it's true. I love that I have the capacity to recognize the blessings in my life. I'm glad that I can appreciate the good things I have. And it makes me happy to do so. 

God didn't design us to be mindless animals. He gave us the capability to love, to think, to rejoice, to empathize, and to be grateful. I think too many people nowadays prefer to revert to their more bestial nature, taking what they want; angrily competing with each other; being selfish; lacking empathy; and believing they are entitled to whatever it is that they desire. Gratitude, I think, puts us on a higher plane. It makes us more human, while simultaneously making us more Christlike. 

So there you have it. Gratitude is great. Maybe we should call it "greatitude." 

Or maybe not. Either way, I'm thankful for it. :)