The bishopric asked us to speak on the topic Thanks be to God. To enter this topic, I would like to tell you about an old friend of mine. She was an atheist and one of the nicest people I’ve ever come across. Several years after we had drifted apart, I decided to call her, but was unable to get a hold of her. I later learned that she ended up pregnant from a man that wasn’t her fiancé and had an abortion. The abortion led to depression, which then led to an eating disorder and hard drugs. She lost her fiancé, her job and her apartment. She lost almost everything.
When I finally did get a hold of her, she was living with one of her friend’s parents with no idea what to do next. Because we had discussed religion many times in the past, as it wasn’t uncommon in the Bible Belt, I asked her if she had given thought to turning toward religion and asking God for help. Her response was this: “Elisabeth, I don’t believe there is a God that will listen to my prayers and actually answer them. I’ve tried. I wish I could believe like you do.”
After I got off the phone I couldn’t help but think about my friend and compare her life to mine. At that moment I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the gospel in my life and my belief that God takes an active role in our lives. I knelt and gave thanks to God.
In the last General Conference, Elder Russell M. Nelson said, “How much better it would be if all could be more aware of God’s providence and love and express that gratitude to Him” (Russell M. Nelson - General Conference April 2012).
It took a defining moment to move me to my knees, but gratitude to God is a commandment. While in D&C 46:32 it says, “And ye must give thanks unto God in the Spirit for whatsoever blessing ye are blessed with,” I prefer D&C 59:7, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” Sometimes it is hard to remember that our trials are also blessings, so it is easier for me to remember that we should thank God for all things. When we thank our Heavenly Father for all things, including our trials, it helps us to have an eternal perspective.
In our home growing up, my mom was the one who always reminded us to thank God. Even when I call home now with good news, my mom’s first response is always, “Did you remember to thank your Heavenly Father?” Although sometimes it gets annoying and I brush it away with, “Of course, Mom,” her desire to give thanks to God and teach her children to be thankful has helped me build my testimony of thanksgiving.
It first takes knowledge of God’s hand in our lives and of His love for us and then living the gospel in order to express that gratitude, but without the gratitude so many blessings are kept from us.
Without a doubt, due to God’s providence and love, we are blessed. The scriptures contain lists of spiritual gifts and our bodies are evidence of the physical ones. But these are just the beginning of his gifts.
The scriptures state, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The whole Plan of Salvation was given to us so that we could be like him. He doesn’t need it. He already has a body. He is already perfect. The atonement is evidence of his hand in our lives right now. It was not just an event that happened thousands of years ago. It is a process in which we come to better know and build a relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ so that we can be like them. It is for us.
So our job is to appreciate these blessings by using them, and thanking God for all things. Our job is to teach our children not only to remember God in all things, but to thank him for them. In fact, because the best way to teach someone is through example, the process of teaching our children will bring more blessings into our lives.
In the story of the ten lepers, one out of ten came back and gave thanks to Jesus Christ. After expressing disappointment that the other nine did not come back, he blessed the one who returned to give thanks.
President 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” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley).
So how do we get this attitude of gratitude?
Due to the circumstances life has given us, for some it is harder than for others to feel thankful. But regardless of our trials, expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father requires conscious effort.
President Joseph F. Smith said that a prayerful life is the key to possessing gratitude. My dad is the most grateful man I know. He also gives the longest prayers I’ve ever sat through. Because it’s not uncommon for someone to fall asleep during his evening family prayer, there’s a joke in our home that you can wake anybody up by just saying, “Amen.” But if everyone were as thankful as my father, how much better it would be.
Elder Nelson taught, “Our degree of gratitude is a measure of our love for Him.”
Jesus asked Peter, “Lovest thou me?” Peter answered, “Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee” (John 21:15).
When the time comes, Jesus will ask us, “Lovest thou me?” Hopefully, we will have lived a life so full of gratitude and thanksgiving, that we can answer, “Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.”
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.