How Gratitude Can Change Your Life

Instead of being at church, I'm at  home with my sick boys, I can't help but think about this Thanksgiving season and the importance of gratitude. I have to be honest and inform my readers that gratitude is something that does not come easy for me. Too often in my life, I dwell on the negative and what I want instead of what is positive and what I have been blessed with.

Former General Relief Society President, Bonnie D. Parkin, stated,

 "Gratitude requires awareness and effort, not only to feel it but to express it. Frequently we are oblivious to the Lord’s hand. We murmur, complain, resist, criticize; so often we are not grateful." (gratitude - a path to happiness). 

When I reflect my life, I realize how much I have complained and murmured. It is truly saddening how often I don't recognize the Lord's hand in my life. I have noticed that when I'm not grateful and when I'm full of anger and frustration, my mind is clouded with all that has gone wrong. Once I take a step back and start identifying the blessings I have, I immediately recognize how much the Lord has blessed me.

It is easy for me to get caught up in all the things I don't have. And, saddly, I sometimes feel that it is these material things that will make me happy. President Thomas S. Monson said:

"Do material possessions make us happy and grateful? Perhaps momentarily. However, those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us. Unfortunately, these are some of the things we allow ourselves to take for granted" (divine gift of gratitude).

I don't like being negative and ungrateful so it is something I have been steadily improving upon every day. I have noticed that when I start to look at all I have been blessed with, my attitude changes and I am a much happier person.

Why should we have gratitude?

 President James E. Faust said,

"It seems as though there is a tug-of-war between opposing character traits that leaves no voids in our souls. As gratitude is absent or disappears, rebellion often enters and fills the vacuum. I do not speak of rebellion against civil oppression. I refer to rebellion against moral cleanliness, beauty, decency, honesty, reverence, and respect for parental authority. A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being.(gratitude as a saving priniciple)

Gratitude establishes the ground work for good qualities. Gratitude helps us to stop thinking about ourselves and start thinking of others and what others have done for us. Doctrine and Coventants section 78 verse 19 states, "He who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious".

In times of happiness, gratitude is easily found. We can readily see what we have because it is easy to see the beauty in life. However, when tribulation arises, it is much harder to see the good and the beauty of life. What do we do in those situations? What is our first response?

Bonnie D. Parkin continued in her address by saying,

The kind of gratitude that receives even tribulations with thanksgiving requires a broken heart and a contrite spirit, humility to accept that which we cannot change, willingness to turn everything over to the Lord—even when we do not understand, thankfulness for hidden opportunities yet to be revealed. Then comes a sense of peace.

When was the last time you thanked the Lord for a trial or tribulation? Adversity compels us to go to our knees; does gratitude for adversity do that as well?

This concept of being grateful for tribulations is one where I am working on. It is too easy for me to complain and ask why me. With the help of God and my husband, I am starting to identify what is right in my life instead of what is wrong.

President Thomas S. Monston stated,

 "My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven." (divine gift of gratitude).

 I want to touch heaven and I want a part of heaven in my life now.

Here is a list of some of things I am grateful for:

• My health problems for they allowed me to see what it is truly important in life and to slow down in my busy life so I could meet my husband
• My husband who constantly supports me during all my good and bad moods
• My two sons who show me how life is beautiful and to enjoy the present
• My Savior, Jesus Christ,who made it possible to return back to Heavenly Father by atoning for my sins.
• Working vehicles to make transportation to and from destinations easy
• Being a stay at home mom
• Family
• A home to raise my family in
• A yard to plant a garden and play with my family
• The gospel that brings me peace and happiness

 I encourage everyone (including me) to establish goals to become more grateful in life. Maybe try to do a gratitude journal, a gratitude board, etc. I know that when we practice the principle of gratitude, then we find true happiness. I know that being grateful allows us to see how God has blessed our lives. I know that gratitude erases the feelings of sadness, anger, and hurt.

So what are you grateful for?