The month of November contains the national holiday of Thanksgiving. How many of us see it only as an extra day off from work-likely a four-day weekend-an opportunity for family gatherings with an array of foods? How many of us fail to give thanks for the many things that have been bestowed upon us? Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: "In every thing give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
Most of the time we do not hesitate to ask our Heavenly Father for help-to overcome illness or disease, to find a job, to be protected and kept in safety,, to successfully pass a test, to be inspired in our callings, etc. These requests are appropriate because He desires to bless His children. He, of course, wants us to do our part.
After receiving His help, do we show the appropriate thankfulness? The Lord has declared through revelation: "Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things" (Doctrine & Covenants 59:7). those who fail to properly give thanks for the blessings will suffer the consequences, also recorded in Section 59 (verse 21): "And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things...".
President Gordon B. Hinckley noted: "Our society is afflicted by a thoughtless arrogance unbecoming those who have been so magnificently blessed. How grateful we should be for the bounties we enjoy. Absence of gratitude is the mark of the narrow, uneducated mind..." (Ensign, August 1968).
Ingratitude is not a new problem. consider these words written by Abraham Lincoln: "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth, and power as no other Nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God... We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too proud to pray to God who made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." (Abraham Lincoln, Man of God, John Wesley Hill, p. 391).
Those words were written in 1863, almost 150 years ago ! Has there been change? Whatever our circumstances, we have much for which to be thankful, including: we have been born in the latter days when the kingdom of God has been restored to the earth; temples dot the earth so that we might bind our families for eternity; and there are living prophets to guide and direct us in what the Lord would have us do.
And what would the Lord have us do to show Him how grateful we are for our abundant blessings? He has provided the answer in John 14:15- "If ye love me, keep my commandments." One of those commandments is to give thanks-not only on this month's holiday, bu always for all things.
Sister Val Walsh
Secretary
Centralia Stake Relief Society
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