Thankful, Grateful

 Happy Thanksgiving...

Today is a quiet day around here, a perfect day for reflection.  Last week, our Prophet challenged us to show more gratitude.  Almost immediately the social media channels blew up with expressions of thankfulness.  I did not participate in the challenge but I did reflect every day on what I was thankful for.  

I am deeply thankful for the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Without this selfless gift, my fears and worries would be ten-fold.  In the scarred hands of the atoning one, lies prayer.  The second thing I am thankful for.  Prayer, with the knowledge that we can be forgiven, find our purpose, live forever in love, peace and joy is what helps me get up everyday.  Without these two gifts from a loving Heavenly Father, my life would be much different than it is.  

Although my third thankful note is my family, the one I was raised in and the one I bore, it does not pale because it did not come first.  My greatest desire is to live with these loved ones forever but without the atonement and prayer, an eternal family could never happen.  

We are so imperfect.  So flawed.  So full of struggle.  

Everyday, in a multitude of ways, we are faced with the difficult choices in this mortal life.  Choices that change us and change those around us.  We can so easily be overcome and overwhelmed; misguided and fooled into thinking there is something better besides this.  Everyday, I beg and plead to the Lord that my family will 'stay'.  Stay in the struggle of these mortal shortcomings,  despite the hurtful words and actions of others, the challenges that beset the day, the fear that God has forgotten about us, never listens, and answers from Heaven are just a pipe dream. Everyday, I ask them to stay in the hands of our Savior to see what wonderful thing can happen next.  

This year, I have watched so many people I care about, and love, wrestle with a crisis of faith, and leave the safety of a gospel that brings so much more than we can even fathom.  It hurts in the depths of my soul like no one can ever imagine.   So, I pray and hope and love.  Because of my faith that God will do what God does and bring every single one of his children safely back home, in truth and peace, I give thanks.   

Beyond my top three...it's all the other usual and customary things to be thankful for...a warm home, reliable car, food in the pantry, a job, sunsets of rest and a sunrise of hope.  I'm thankful for laughter and fun and adversities, the thick and thin things, agency and freedom, rights and responsibilities.  I'm thankful for all the things...

In an effort to make this week into something more; more gratitude,  I chose to take 7 things I was thankful for, and act on them in tokens of gratitude.  For each thankful thing, I did an act of kindness for a stranger to show my Father in Heaven that I was filled with more than just words.  Just small and simple things done in quiet to bring people closer to their own families, to let them know they weren't alone, or help them see they matter.  It made this week of thankfulness and gratitude that much better! 

This week, the kids have been gone on a trip with their dad.  All of them together and that makes me happy.  Holidays will now be much different with married kids and in laws and time spent shared.  It's a big year of change and finding new ways to exhaust the little moments.  

Happy Thanksgiving.