Gratitude for Blessings - a talk

I was asked to give a talk in church around Thanksgiving time, so of course the topic was Gratitude for Blessings. And I wrote this talk:

Gratitude for Blessings
11/28/2004

This time of year is a good time to reflect upon our many blessings. It is a time we can unabashedly show gratitude for those blessings in our lives. Over this last week, this talk has helped me think about all these things, and we’re going to talk a little about it today.
When we look at our lives for blessings, what are we looking for? The blessings of material belongings and comfort are nice, but can often be missing from our lives. And things we maybe don’t like—trials, pain, suffering—can turn out to be blessings, despite the temporary discomfort they cause.

When I was trying to think of what a blessing was, I asked myself a question I had never contemplated before: What is the OPPOSITE of a blessing? … I’ll let you think on that for a moment. The opposite of a blessing.

At first I thought it could be a trial, but so many trials have a refining influence that is a great blessing—one that helps prepare us for eternity. I came up with several other answers, but they all seemed to miss the mark. I started asking people. Their answers, though insightful, also seemed to be lacking. Finally I pulled out a Thesaurus. It said the opposite of a blessing is an obstacle. And that’s how I’d like to approach this today: a blessing helps us, an obstacle hinders us.

My brother brought up an interesting point to me. Our perspective determines entirely our idea of what a blessing is. There are those who see everything in their lives as hurtful, maybe not meeting up to their expectations of what they deserve, or who see things in their lives as theirs—they’ve earned it, so it is no blessing.

Conversely, there are those who choose to see everything they have as a blessing: their material belongings, meager though they may be, their health, their very lives.
Which is the better way?

The more spiritual-minded we are, the closer to God we become, the more likely we are to see things as blessings. And, on top of that, we will be better able to take our obstacles, our disadvantages, and turn them into advantages and blessings.

We have this promise in Ether chapter 12, verse 27:
“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

To put that in the language of my talk, “If men draw closer to God, then God will make obstacles in their lives become blessings unto them.”

Part of this becoming more spiritual and humble should include gaining a greater sense of gratitude. As we are able to identify more and more things in our lives as blessings, so should our gratitude for those blessings increase.

Gordon T. Watts, of the 70, said in the 1998 October General Conference:
“Notwithstanding all the “precious gifts and privileges” spoken of by our prophet, ofttimes we fail to recognize our abundant blessings. More importantly, some expressions of gratitude fall short of the Lord’s expectations. [Doctrine and Covenants 59:21 states:] “And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.”

Elder James E. Faust says, of this same scripture:
“It is clear to me from this scripture that to “thank the Lord thy God in all things” is more than a social courtesy; it is a binding commandment.”

“Gratitude begins with attitude,” and we can all improve our attitude. A good place to start is in prayer. If we ask for our hearts to be opened, the Holy Ghost will be able to then open our eyes to our many blessings, and fill our hearts with gratitude.

I’d like to talk a little bit about expressing gratitude. Obviously we should be expressing gratitude to our Father in Heaven constantly, but we should also be expressing gratitude to others in our lives. Let me start with a little story.

When I first moved in, I said a prayer in my heart that I would not get a calling until 2 things were done: My house was put together and a class I was working on was finished. Well, my house got put together to an acceptable level to me. And then I finished the last assignment in my class. I thought, Well, my class is over except for the final. Now I will get a calling. A calling didn’t come. I was driven to take my final because I wanted a calling. I took the final. Still no calling. I was starting to think that I wouldn’t get a calling for a while. I got the official piece of paper that told me my grade. Still no calling. I thought, Well, I didn’t ask for a calling IMMEDIATELY after my class was done. I decided to sit down and write my parents an e-mail telling them my grade and also that I was grateful that they financed the class for me. Within 2 hours of writing that e-mail, I got a call from our lovely Executive Secretary and we set up an appointment to see the Bishop, when I received my calling.

Now, that’s just a cute little story, but it taught me that nothing is truly finished until gratitude is expressed to the people who made it possible. Incidentally, within another week after that, I was called upon to make dinner for someone, help out at Enrichment, and give this talk. So my prayer for involvement in the ward was truly answered.

There are people in my life who have blessed me and my family so abundantly, that I am constantly in their debt. I rarely speak to them on the phone or write them a letter or card without expressing that gratitude to them. They are doing nice things for us that often.

One such person is Rob’s aunt. She is well-off and is often helping people out because she has the means to, and the heart to. She has helped us well past what we have the means to repay. And what do you give someone who has the means to get themselves anything they ever wanted? We gave her and her family our gratitude. We made them dinner as an expression of love and gratitude. She broke down and cried, telling us we were the only people to ever make her dinner. I found out from others that we were one of the only ones who have said thank you to them at all. And, interestingly enough, the more we said we were sincerely grateful, the more they were apt to help us. This, of course, was not our goal. In fact, I told people that I almost felt bad that I said thank you, because it seemed that because I did, they were more likely to do nice things for us. She wrote me a thank you note for our thank you dinner. We could never get ahead! Is this not how we are with the Lord?

There are other people in our lives that have helped us this much. Other relatives and friends. If I were to tell them thank you for every moment in my daily life that they have helped me, I would never stop saying thank you. In fact, I could get nothing done. I would be constantly on the phone or writing notes. For these people, an occasional sincere and heart-felt thank you is always appreciated.

I would suggest that this season, as you contemplate what you have to be grateful for, find time to tell people in your life how grateful you are for them. They will treasure your sincere gratitude more than any material gift you could give them. Let us all open our eyes to the blessings in our lives, and our hearts to be filled with gratitude.