I’d
like to begin by asking a few questions:
Have you thanked anyone today? If so, did you feel genuine gratitude
toward that person, or were you merely being reflexively polite? If you haven’t thanked anyone today, is there
something that you could’ve thanked someone for that you failed to notice in
the moment? Have you prayed today? What
have you thanked your Heavenly Father for today.
There’s
an old saying that it isn’t happy people who are thankful, but rather it is
thankful people who are happy, and I sincerely believe that is true. I believe gratitude is one of the first and
most vital steps in a virtuous and happy life.
How do we become more grateful?
What should we be grateful for?
I
think all of us could easily list a dozen or so things that we are thankful
for. Our lives are filled with blessings
large and small, and though sometimes the smaller ones are easiest to miss,
they can be just as important. But
today, I’d like to speak about some of the “biggest” things we should be
grateful for. To that end, I’ll be using
some stories that aren’t the ones that usually come to mind when we think of
gratitude, but please bear with me, I promise I have a point, and I will try to
make it as clearly as possible.
In
the New Testament, we read about a woman who had an issue of blood for 12
years, who pressed her way through a thronging crowd to touch the Savior’s
robe, certain that this act would heal her.
Under Mosaic Law, a woman with an issue of blood was considered unclean,
and had to undergo ritual cleansing in order to participate in routine life
again, as would anyone she came in contact with during her confinement—they
would also be considered unclean. If she
had had a husband, its likely he would have divorced her, as she would’ve been
unable to care for him or any children without them also being considered
unclean. It was unlikely that she
would’ve been allowed to attend any
worship services, much less the temple, for all of those years. She probably lived somewhat apart from the
rest of society—an outcast in her pain.
Financially, she was completely broke from seeking treatments that did
not work, and to top it all off she was essentially, and agonizingly slowly,
bleeding to death.
So
for this woman to reach out to touch the Savior was not just an act of faith,
it was a very bold one. When the Savior
sensed power going out of him and turned to figure out who was responsible, she
was afraid to come forward because she knew that many would see this act as her
making this man unclean, for her own selfish purposes and there could be stiff
consequences for that, especially for a man they believed to holy. But the Lord did not rebuke her. He turned to her and said, addressing her
lovingly, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole
of they plague.” And she was. From that hour, she was whole. Her entire
life would’ve changed.
The
Lord did not put her away because of her weakness. He recognized her bold faith in reaching out
to him to be healed. When others may spurn
or criticize or lose patience with us because of our weaknesses, the Lord instead
reaches out to heal and comfort us. In
the most recent General Conference, Elder Scott said, “When the Lord speaks of
weakness, it is always with mercy.” How
often do we feel and express our gratitude to the Lord for that marvelous gift? How often do we thank him for offering
freely his power to heal us, especially when all other types of healing fail
and we are utterly spent? How often do
we thank him for those simple words, “Go in peace. . .be whole” when he speaks
them to our broken hearts? Through the
Atonement, all personal plagues—whatever form they may take in us as
individuals—can be healed. How often do
we thank the Lord for his mercy and comfort in our weaknesses? In Ether we read, “I give unto men weaknesses
that they may be humble. . .my grace is sufficient for all men that humble
themselves before me. . .have faith in me, then will I make weak things strong
unto them.” When was the last time you
grumbled at your weaknesses? When was
the last time you thanked the Lord for the opportunity to lean on and better
know his strength, in order to build
your own?
Next,
I’d like to talk about Jonah. Jonah gets
a bad rap—as well he should—for running away.
But let’s have some compassion for Jonah: Nineveh was not an easy mission call. The people were quite wicked, and he wasn’t
optimistic about being successful there.
So Jonah directly disobeyed a commandment from the Lord and got on a ship
going the opposite direction. How often
have we done that? Ignored the Lord’s
clear standards and commandments, and, for one reason or another, run the other
way? When a terrible tempest arose and it looked like everyone on his ship was
going to die, Jonah finally revealed himself.
His shipmates were quite frightened when Jonah explained to them what
was going on. He told them that God
would probably be appeased and leave them be if they threw him overboard. They didn’t seem to hesitate with carrying
out that plan. Instead of being lost to
the sea, however, Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Its easy, in retrospect and knowing how the
story ends, to see that as an act of mercy.
But I submit that it may not have initially appeared that way to
Jonah. Instead of a quick and relatively
painless death in the waves, it probably now seemed likely that he would
instead suffer a slow, painful starvation inside a whale, where it must’ve been
utterly dark and lonely. Jonah described
his ordeal by saying, “The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the
depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped around my head.”
Jonah
didn’t immediately recognize the mercy of having been stopped in his tracks. It
merely seemed he’d been thrust into a dark, lonely punishment. How often do we fail to recognize the Lord’s
mercy when we have been rebellious, because we are still too prideful to
recognize that when we were on the wrong road, a somewhat imposed “stupor of
progress”, if you will, was an act of grace?
There are times when we feel that those around us have thrown us overboard
because we made some bad decisions, and that we are being punished by dark
loneliness. The Lord let Jonah sit inside that whale for a few days not just to
save his life, but to save his soul. Alone
in the darkness, Jonah started to do something he probably hadn’t been doing
nearly enough of: he prayed. And in praying, he found hope: “I am cast out
of thy sight,” he said, “yet I will look again toward the holy temple. . .When
my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord.” Jonah’s life was spared, his spirit was
renewed, and he was able to fulfill his assignment. Not only that, the Lord blessed him with a
great deal of success in Nineveh—the city and its people made a remarkable
change. That is grace. In mercy, we find that we don’t get what we justly
deserve. In the Lord’s grace, we find
that not only do we not get the punishment we deserved, but in fact he gives us
another chance to do it right, and then another, and another, and rewards us
for those efforts. How often do we thank him for that
grace? How often do we show gratitude
for it by extending that same mercy and grace to those who trespass against us?
Repentance is an act of humility, and it ought to also be a reverent expression
of gratitude, for Lord’s tremendous grace for mistakes big and small. We should be grateful when the Lord puts
impediments in our way that make it harder to do the wrong thing, and we should
be extraordinarily thankful for his mercy and grace we have persisted in doing
the wrong thing anyway. When we are in
the darkness, when we are consumed by the pain of sin, when our souls “faint
within us”, we ought to follow Jonah’s example and pray, “remember the Lord,
look toward the holy temple” and express our gratitude for the Lord’s mercy.
Finally,
I’d like to talk about the people of Alma.
There is no doubt that their circumstances were difficult: they were slaves, horribly mistreated by
those who held them in bondage. They
cried to the Lord in their afflictions, and he offered these simple but
powerful words of peace: “Lift up your
heads and be of good comfort. . .I will covenant with my people and deliver
them out of bondage. And I will also
ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, even that ye cannot feel
them upon your backs. . .that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do
visit my people in their afflictions. . .the Lord did strengthen them that they
could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with
patience to all the will of the Lord.”
It is
not coincidental that one of the crowning characteristics of both faith and
gratitude is cheerfulness. The three
are inseparable. As we develop more
faith in our Father in Heaven and in Jesus Christ, we are better able to see
all the things that they do for us, and become more grateful. And as we feel more gratitude, our ability to
trust in a loving Father and a selfless, redeeming Christ increases.
The
Lord kept his promise to the people of Alma and delivered them from bondage,
but that deliverance did not come right away. In the mean time, they felt the strength of
the Lord literally helping to carrying their burdens and make them lighter, so
they were able to cheerfully carry on, trusting that one day the Lord would
fulfill his promise and set them free.
They were grateful and happy, even in their trial.
That
is the same promise that the Lord makes to each of us—if we will live
obediently and patiently, someday the burdens will be lifted entirely, but in
the mean time, he will help us to bear them so that they aren’t so heavy. For that, we should be continually
grateful. As we exercise faith in God,
we will more readily see His hand in our lives, and be more grateful for all
that he does for us. We will come to
know him not as some distant figure, but as a loving, attentive Father who is
deeply invested in our progress and happiness, and we will feel more gratitude
for the many opportunities he provides for improvement and learning, and for
the many blessings—large and small—that he showers down on us. In turn, we will more consistently see those around
us as brothers and sisters, and more readily recognize our common Father
reflected in their countenances and actions, and we will be more grateful for them
and all that they do and are.
Elder
Jeffrey R. Holland once said, “There is one commandment that we may unwittingly
violate almost more than any other. . .and that is the commandment the Savior
gave to be of good cheer. We’re supposed
to hope, we’re supposed to be believing, we’re supposed to know it’ll get
better. It will get better, it does get
better. ‘These things,’ he said, ‘I have told you that ye might have
peace. In the world ye shall have
tribulation, but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.’ The victory has already been won. . .He is
the light at the end of the tunnel. I
have great hope.”
I
bear my testimony that as we come to believe in the Savior, in his Atonement,
and the grace, mercy, and hope inherent therein, we will feel more grateful for
every moment of our lives, for every tender act of love and little blessing
along the way. And because we are
grateful, we will be happy. The best way
to show that gratitude is to model our lives after the Savior’s as best we can: serving others and showing to them the most
patience, mercy, cheerfulness and kindness we can possibly muster. Elder Neal A Maxwell once said, “When, for a
moment, we find ourselves not being stretched on a particular cross, we ought
to be at the foot of someone else’s, full of empathy and proferring spiritual
replenishment. On the straight, narrow
path which leads to our little Calvarys, one does not hear the serious traveler
exclaiming, ‘Look, no hands!’”
Or as
Elder Holland said in a recent General Conference, “Be kind, and be grateful
God is kind. It is a happy way to live.”
