So we all know about gratitude, we all celebrate Thanksgiving--a holiday dedicated entirely to Gratitude...
and eating great food...
but why?
Why is gratitiude of such paramount importance?
In my personal life, I've found that I don't realize how much I've been blessed very often. I may take the time to stop and smell the roses, but do I ever move on to admire the geraniums and the plumeria? No, I don't. Not very often anyway.
It's hard to take the time to do this. Especially considering that we often have to search these beatiful intricate pieces of our lives out.
Even when I try to realize how much I've been blessed, I have to really focus to make it happen. So why is gratitude so important if deep gratitude is so hard to find?
Gratitude Just Plain Keeps Us Humble.
Think, Just for a moment, about the humblest people you know. You respect them, you admire them. Why do they keep so humble? HOW?
The magical power they seem to have harnessed is called Gratitude. They recognise that what they have has been given to them by a loving and charitable God.
This keeps them Humble...
But of course we all knew that, so on to the next point.
"And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is His wrath kindled, save those who confess not His hand in all things, and obey not His commandments"
There are clearly a few easily available, basic answers to this question; "He gave me my life, my mind, my heart..." but President Uchtdorf, in the April 2014 General Conference explained an expanded concept of gratitude...
"I don't believe the Lord expects us to be less thankful in times of trial than in times of abundance and ease. In fact, most of the scriptural references do not speak of gratitude for things, but rather suggest an overall spirit or attitude of gratitude. It is easy to be grateful for things when life seems to be going our way. But what then of those times when what we wish for seems to be far out of reach?
"How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God there is rain?"
We can be grateful for blessings, TRIALS--for the chance they give us to become better--and service opportunities afforded to and for ourselves.
If you're having difficulty, perhaps begin with the attitude of appreciation that can be gained from learning about our Savior's atonement, the greatest blessing of them all, and it's consequence, our ability to repent, one of our hardest trials in life.
As a result of having gratitude, our vision is broadened. We begin to see a bigger picture.
All this means that in the end, having gratitude brings us closer to the divine.
