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.
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 feelings, impressions of counsel, comfort, and wisdom that come through the Holy Ghost.” Awareness of subtle, delicate, peaceful, thankful thoughts promotes healing, and the journal also becomes a record of progress along the road to recovery. Keeping a gratitude journal helps those overcoming addiction and everyone else.
In 1976 I wrote: “Even though today dawned cloudy and cold, Richard and I decided to bundle up and take the children on our annual Thanksgiving hike. Just as we got to the overlook, the sun parted the clouds and shone with light and warmth directly on us. We felt tangibly loved. We knelt and poured out our grateful hearts to a gracious Father in Heaven.” Forty Thanksgivings have come and gone since I wrote those words. The children we took on Thanksgiving hikes have children of their own with their own Thanksgiving traditions. But the memories of that particular Thanksgiving can be relived and relished now because of what I wrote then.
Psychologist Brené Brown studied the relationship between joy and gratitude for twelve years. She said: “I did not interview in all that time a person who described themselves as joyful or their lives as joyous who did not actively practice gratitude.” The findings were counterintuitive because she thought feeling joy preceded feeling gratitude, but it is the other way around: “Practicing gratitude invites joy into our lives.” She said that as a family they practice (that is, put into practice) a time for family expressions of gratitude. Every night at dinner, after they say grace, they go around the table and each one says something he or she is grateful for. She said it has changed the atmosphere of their home. They are more aware of each other’s needs, bringing love and unity into family life.
David Steindl-Rast said: “Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted…. Everything is a gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is a measure of our gratefulness, and gratefulness is a measure of our aliveness.”
Richard Romney, my former bishop, wrote an Ensign article, “1,000 Things to Be Thankful For.” The article tells about his daughter’s school assignment to write an essay that included 100 things she was grateful for. Charlotte was twelve years old at the time.
Her list began with Heavenly Father, the Savior, the Holy Ghost, the plan of salvation, the Atonement, the scriptures, prayer, Church meetings, family, home, food, clothing, and pets. When she realized that was only thirteen, “she began to itemize. Rather than writing just ‘the gospel,’ she also included temple covenants, missionary work, baptism, and service. Rather than saying ‘my family,’ she listed people individually—name after name, starting with her mother, who passed away when Charlotte was just eight years old, then her father, her brothers, her sister, her sister-in-law, her cousins, aunts, and uncles… grandparents both living and dead. That led her to gratitude for all the journals and photo books her mother left behind. Soon the list included memories, birthdays, weddings, youth conferences, the For the Strength of Youth booklet, refrigerators, cinnamon rolls, breakfast, and choir practice. But by bedtime her list was still short of 100.”
The next day, Charlotte began asked her siblings for ideas and her list grew: sunglasses, teddy bears, can openers, gelatin desserts, education, home-cooked dinners, flowers, gentle rain, and happy music. Ultimately, as the title suggests, they found over 1,000! This is another example of a family practicing gratitude.
Richard concluded: “The week spent searching for things to be thankful for changed our family. Charlotte completed her assignment with a nice two-page description of thankfulness. She attached a list that finally totaled 1,213…. But the total wasn’t important. What mattered was that, long after Charlotte’s essay was written, the attitude of gratitude lingered” (Ensign, September 2013).
Nicole (not her real name) has a son who lives in Florida. Recently he changed jobs and was moving three hundred miles north from Miami to Tampa. They thought their home is Miami was sold and purchased another in Tampa. Then the Miami sale fell through and hurricane Irma came. Nichole spent frantic, sleepless nights, stressing about two homes and six family members in Irma’s path.
Instead of imagining the destruction of both houses and loss of her family, she could have counted her blessings and relieved memories of happy times. The power of gratitude was available to her, but she chose anxiety and no sleep over practicing gratitude. President Uchtdorf taught that gratitude is always available in his talk titled: “Grateful in Any Circumstances.”
It is unfortunate that Nicole didn’t have President Uchtdorf’s talk cued up on her phone to listen to. It is unfortunate that she had not posted Deepak Chopra’s quote on her refrigerator: “The best use of imagination is creativity. The worst use of imagination is anxiety.”
President Henry B. Eyring’s visited the Caribbean Islands after the hurricane. He said: “I was with some people [today] who lost a great deal. I looked in their eyes and I could see that these apparently ordinary people were on the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. They saw the light even in the darkness. And so, things for them will work out. Whatever it takes, they will rebuild. And they will not just rebuild their houses and their businesses. What they will build is a love of the Lord Jesus Christ and a feeling that no matter what comes, they will feel cheerful and confident"
The HeartMath Institute which helps individuals combine gratitude with health benefits posted this counsel: “When you face setbacks and crises with… gratitude, it does not mean you deny the situation. It means calling forth your creative powers, and being open to an epiphany, so that you can transform your crisis into an opportunity.”
Besides rhyming with attitude, gratitude is much more than a state of mind. It is power. When the commandment to “live in thanksgiving daily” (Alma 34:38) is practiced, attendant blessings come. A gratitude journal generates power to fight addiction, lift mood, and preserve memories. Grateful thoughts combat negative thoughts decreasing the urge to complain, find fault, or criticize. Gratitude builds confidence and increases the urge to congratulation, compliment, express appreciation, and thank. Gratitude increases physical, spiritual, and emotional health by decreasing worry, anxiety, and stress. In gratitude the power of creativity is unleashed.
“Gratitude can help us transform our fears into courage, our anger into forgiveness, our isolation into belonging and another’s pain into healing. Saying “Thank you” every day will create feelings of love, compassion, and hope” (The Gratitude Power Workbook: Lesowitz and Sammons, 2011, viii).
(c) Marilynne Todd Linford, 2018
“Father, thy children to thee now raise
Glad, grateful songs for thy love and grace” (Hymns, 91).
“Sing praises to his name” (Hymns, 93).
In 1976 I wrote: “Even though today dawned cloudy and cold, Richard and I decided to bundle up and take the children on our annual Thanksgiving hike. Just as we got to the overlook, the sun parted the clouds and shone with light and warmth directly on us. We felt tangibly loved. We knelt and poured out our grateful hearts to a gracious Father in Heaven.” Forty Thanksgivings have come and gone since I wrote those words. The children we took on Thanksgiving hikes have children of their own with their own Thanksgiving traditions. But the memories of that particular Thanksgiving can be relived and relished now because of what I wrote then.
“Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise” Hymns, 92).
Psychologist Brené Brown studied the relationship between joy and gratitude for twelve years. She said: “I did not interview in all that time a person who described themselves as joyful or their lives as joyous who did not actively practice gratitude.” The findings were counterintuitive because she thought feeling joy preceded feeling gratitude, but it is the other way around: “Practicing gratitude invites joy into our lives.” She said that as a family they practice (that is, put into practice) a time for family expressions of gratitude. Every night at dinner, after they say grace, they go around the table and each one says something he or she is grateful for. She said it has changed the atmosphere of their home. They are more aware of each other’s needs, bringing love and unity into family life.
David Steindl-Rast said: “Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted…. Everything is a gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is a measure of our gratefulness, and gratefulness is a measure of our aliveness.”
“Father, turn thine ear to me;
Let me offer thanks to thee” (Hymns, 306).
Richard Romney, my former bishop, wrote an Ensign article, “1,000 Things to Be Thankful For.” The article tells about his daughter’s school assignment to write an essay that included 100 things she was grateful for. Charlotte was twelve years old at the time.
Her list began with Heavenly Father, the Savior, the Holy Ghost, the plan of salvation, the Atonement, the scriptures, prayer, Church meetings, family, home, food, clothing, and pets. When she realized that was only thirteen, “she began to itemize. Rather than writing just ‘the gospel,’ she also included temple covenants, missionary work, baptism, and service. Rather than saying ‘my family,’ she listed people individually—name after name, starting with her mother, who passed away when Charlotte was just eight years old, then her father, her brothers, her sister, her sister-in-law, her cousins, aunts, and uncles… grandparents both living and dead. That led her to gratitude for all the journals and photo books her mother left behind. Soon the list included memories, birthdays, weddings, youth conferences, the For the Strength of Youth booklet, refrigerators, cinnamon rolls, breakfast, and choir practice. But by bedtime her list was still short of 100.”
The next day, Charlotte began asked her siblings for ideas and her list grew: sunglasses, teddy bears, can openers, gelatin desserts, education, home-cooked dinners, flowers, gentle rain, and happy music. Ultimately, as the title suggests, they found over 1,000! This is another example of a family practicing gratitude.
Richard concluded: “The week spent searching for things to be thankful for changed our family. Charlotte completed her assignment with a nice two-page description of thankfulness. She attached a list that finally totaled 1,213…. But the total wasn’t important. What mattered was that, long after Charlotte’s essay was written, the attitude of gratitude lingered” (Ensign, September 2013).
“Hear thou our hymn, O Lord,
With thankful hearts we pray” (Hymns, 222).
Nicole (not her real name) has a son who lives in Florida. Recently he changed jobs and was moving three hundred miles north from Miami to Tampa. They thought their home is Miami was sold and purchased another in Tampa. Then the Miami sale fell through and hurricane Irma came. Nichole spent frantic, sleepless nights, stressing about two homes and six family members in Irma’s path.
Instead of imagining the destruction of both houses and loss of her family, she could have counted her blessings and relieved memories of happy times. The power of gratitude was available to her, but she chose anxiety and no sleep over practicing gratitude. President Uchtdorf taught that gratitude is always available in his talk titled: “Grateful in Any Circumstances.”
It is unfortunate that Nicole didn’t have President Uchtdorf’s talk cued up on her phone to listen to. It is unfortunate that she had not posted Deepak Chopra’s quote on her refrigerator: “The best use of imagination is creativity. The worst use of imagination is anxiety.”
President Henry B. Eyring’s visited the Caribbean Islands after the hurricane. He said: “I was with some people [today] who lost a great deal. I looked in their eyes and I could see that these apparently ordinary people were on the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. They saw the light even in the darkness. And so, things for them will work out. Whatever it takes, they will rebuild. And they will not just rebuild their houses and their businesses. What they will build is a love of the Lord Jesus Christ and a feeling that no matter what comes, they will feel cheerful and confident"
“Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom his earth rejoices” (Hymns, 95).
The HeartMath Institute which helps individuals combine gratitude with health benefits posted this counsel: “When you face setbacks and crises with… gratitude, it does not mean you deny the situation. It means calling forth your creative powers, and being open to an epiphany, so that you can transform your crisis into an opportunity.”
Besides rhyming with attitude, gratitude is much more than a state of mind. It is power. When the commandment to “live in thanksgiving daily” (Alma 34:38) is practiced, attendant blessings come. A gratitude journal generates power to fight addiction, lift mood, and preserve memories. Grateful thoughts combat negative thoughts decreasing the urge to complain, find fault, or criticize. Gratitude builds confidence and increases the urge to congratulation, compliment, express appreciation, and thank. Gratitude increases physical, spiritual, and emotional health by decreasing worry, anxiety, and stress. In gratitude the power of creativity is unleashed.
“Gratitude can help us transform our fears into courage, our anger into forgiveness, our isolation into belonging and another’s pain into healing. Saying “Thank you” every day will create feelings of love, compassion, and hope” (The Gratitude Power Workbook: Lesowitz and Sammons, 2011, viii).
“Count your blessings; Name them one by one.
Count your many blessings;
See what God hath done” (Hymns, 241).
(c) Marilynne Todd Linford, 2018
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