Chapter 36: The Power in ThanksGiving
Giving thanks is a commandment: “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God: (Thessalonians 5:18). “Give thanks in all things” (Mosiah 26:39). “Receive it from the hand of the Lord, with a thankful heart in all things” (D&C 62:7). As with every commandment, ripple effects bless the obedient physically and spiritually. They accrue in the present and in the future. “Father, thy children to thee now raise Glad, grateful songs for thy love and grace” (Hymns, 91). The addiction recovery manual emphasizes the importance of keeping a daily gratitude journal, calling it “a powerful tool.” Individuals who keep a gratitude journal find it easier to identify evidences of the hand of the Lord in their lives. The manual explains that keeping a gratitude journal is more than making a list of blessings received. It becomes a compilation of “self-expression and appraisal…. of thoughts and ...