Thankful #3

 I think recording our thanks and gratitude and expressing it are so important.  President Gordon B. Hinckley in his book Way to Be!  9 Ways to be happy and make something of your life lists Be Grateful as his #1 thing to be.  He says 

"There are two little words in the English language that perhaps mean more than all others.  They are "thank you."'

"The habit of saying thank you is the mark of a cultivated mind."

"Be grateful.  Count your blessings and gifts and privileges and see just how long that list is.  I imagine that each of you will have difficulties ahead of you.  None of us can avoid them.  But do not despair.  Do not give up.  Look for the sunlight in the clouds.   And be grateful for what you have."

 

Every November we make a "tree of thanks" to put on our wall.  We draw a tree on a big piece of paper or poster board, then we cut out leaves and write on them what we are thankful for.  

We hang it up in the kitchen and add more leaves to it each day.  On Thanksgiving we have extra leaves for our guests to write on and add to it.  Here is our tree so far.  By the end of the month it should be overflowing with leaves and thanks.

This year I also wanted to really focus my family on our blessings and being grateful.  At the beginning of the year we made these daily blessing books.  I wanted 2013 to be our year of Gratitude.  The post about them is here.  Each night we were to write 5 things in our books that we were grateful for that day--5 blessings we saw in our lives that day.

"We live in a unique time in the world's history.  We are blessed with so very much.  And yet it is sometimes difficult to view the problems and permissiveness around us and not become discouraged.  I have found that, rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings, we can find greater happiness.
     ". . .take an inventory of our life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small, you have received."

President Thomas S. Monson

The above quotes are the inspiration for our daily blessings/gratitude journals and for 2013 to be our year of Gratitude.  It has helped me a lot so far this year to look for my blessings especially when I become discouraged.  I am so grateful for this inspired counsel and for all the blessings, large and small, that I have received.  

Consider your blessings.

We had done pretty good.  These are the state of our books mid-November.  We haven't written every single day, but a lot of days we have, and it was been wonderful for our family to consider our blessings and be grateful.  Recently my girls were telling some friends about our 'blessings books.'  They said as they go through the day and see something good they think "I need to remember that to write it down.  I am grateful for that."  I wanted to stand up and cheer. :)   We do have so much to be grateful for, and we really do need to take the time to say thank you and count our blessing and now is the perfect time to do it.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!