I have been contemplating starting a blog- mostly for myself- because the need for a gratitude journal is weighing lightly on my mind. How hard can it be to find something every day to be grateful for? Expressing or giving words to the feelings will be more difficult. I also give myself permission to go back and forth in time for things to be grateful for, as I remember them or as the need arises. I think I am basically a simple happy grateful person but lately there is an emphasis to take it a step further and write it down.Jennie D. in RS gave a wonderful lesson on gratitude and reminded us of Stake Conference and President McCauley's talk. That's a good place to start!
"I hope we will leave today with a feeling of gratitude. Stop and look around us. We do not see the rocket’s red glare nor do we hear the bombs bursting in air. We live in an area of peace where there are no armies forcing us evacuate our homes and leave all that we have and flee into the unknown. There is order and structure and the rule of law. So long as we live within the rules of those laws we can predict stability.
"We have food in our houses and a bounteous supply of good, nutritious, safe, healthy food to choose from in the grocery stores. We have air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. We have a constant and dependable supply of electricity every day. We have closets full of clothes to choose from every morning. We live in an area relatively free from natural disasters. We have farms and gardens and mountains and streams and lakes and recreation everywhere around us. We have been educated and can read and do math. We can travel at will without papers and permission to come and go. Our youth have opportunity to learn whatever they want and to become whatever they choose. And whenever that does not work out for us the way we had it planned, we have opportunity to change and develop ourselves in a completely different area. We have a church building to meet in and the right to assemble there. We are free to choose to worship or not. We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with the keys of the priesthood in full operation among us. We have the blessings of the temple at our doorsteps. We of all people are most blessed." James R. McCauley August 2008 Stake Conference
"We have food in our houses and a bounteous supply of good, nutritious, safe, healthy food to choose from in the grocery stores. We have air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. We have a constant and dependable supply of electricity every day. We have closets full of clothes to choose from every morning. We live in an area relatively free from natural disasters. We have farms and gardens and mountains and streams and lakes and recreation everywhere around us. We have been educated and can read and do math. We can travel at will without papers and permission to come and go. Our youth have opportunity to learn whatever they want and to become whatever they choose. And whenever that does not work out for us the way we had it planned, we have opportunity to change and develop ourselves in a completely different area. We have a church building to meet in and the right to assemble there. We are free to choose to worship or not. We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with the keys of the priesthood in full operation among us. We have the blessings of the temple at our doorsteps. We of all people are most blessed." James R. McCauley August 2008 Stake Conference
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