Daily Gratitude

In Sacrament meeting today, one of the speakers talked about the importance of being grateful for everything we're blessed with. The message was echoed in today's Priesthood lesson as well. In both cases, the speaker referred to an address given by President Henry B. Eyring in October General Conference. In his remarks, President Eyring talked about how he has kept a journal for years, each day writing down the blessings he has seen in his life:

I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

Later in his talk, he made this comment as well:

My point is to urge you to find ways to recognize and remember God’s kindness.

As I thought about what I was hearing, it occurred to me that I could do a lot better where gratitude is concerned. It seems that my normal reaction is to complain if things don't go exactly the way I want them to. I've noticed that I've become a lot more cynical over the past few years. It seems that I've adopted this kind of an attitude:



When did this happen? 2004, the Year of the Divorce, comes to mind. But maybe it just intensified during that year. Maybe I've always needed to be a little more grateful than I am.

So I thought I'd give President Eyring's idea a shot. I'm going to start keeping what I'll call, for lack of a better term, a gratitude journal. And I may not write in it every day. (Truth is, I'm pretty sure I won't write in it every day. I know my self well enough for that.) But I'll try to make it a point to write in it at least every week, and especially on those occasions when I have been particularly blessed or when I have something specific for which to express gratitude. And I expect that President Eyring is correct: identifying blessings and expressing gratitude, even if only on paper and only to myself, will probably help me realize just how good I've got it.

Now obviously I won't be doing all of that here. There are some things that are just too personal, some blessings to sacred, to broadcast out on the blogosphere. But I thought that I'd at least put a few of today's thoughts up here.

I'm grateful that we got to spend the Christmas holiday with my family in Colorado. I'm grateful that my parents are in a position where they were able to get us the tickets so that we could fly instead of driving. I'm grateful that Nancy's Mom was able to take us to the airport and pick us up when we got back.

When we left for the airport Monday afternoon, it was snowing pretty hard here. But the snow lifted once we got there, and the sky was clear by the time we took off. We were delayed only for a few minutes while they de-iced the plane. On the way back, we flew out of Denver with cold but clear skies. We had some snow on the descent to Salt Lake last night, but the landing itself was smooth, as was the ride home. We got a lot of snow while we were in Colorado, and we got a lot of snow here today. So I'm grateful that we missed all this blizzards both ways on our trip.

I'm grateful that Sam and Kendra are getting married in June. I'm grateful that my brother found her and that she is so good to him (and to the rest of us).

I'm grateful that my brother A is doing so well. We got to see him yesterday, and though he's still got a long road ahead of him, I think it's fair to say he's come a lot farther than any of us dared to think he might.

I'm grateful to have Nancy in my life. She is so good to me. It's hard to remember a time when I didn't know her. It's like I wasn't truly alive before that.

And I'm grateful to have been reminded of all of these things today.

There are many other things I'm grateful for. But this is a good start for now. More tomorrow, perhaps.