Choose to be Grateful

Monday night was a typical night.  My daughter had voice lessons, we did homework, and ate dinner as a family.  After dinner on Mondays we have Family Home Evening. Our oldest son taught a wonderful lesson.  Before going to bed that night I said my prayers and thanked Heavenly Father that I have everything that I ever wanted.   I have a good husband and wonderful children who are learning and growing.  My heart was so filled with gratitude.  

The next morning I attended an exercise class and we started visiting about what we wanted to get our kids for Christmas.  After the class the little kids and I ran errands.  As I shopped I started to think about all the things we don't have and all the things we want.  Suddenly, I realized how discontent I am when I focus on all the worldly things we lack: flat screen TVs, lap tops, and new clothes in the latest fashion. 

We are approaching Thanksgiving, a time of year to realize how blessed we are.  It seems Thanksgiving is being overshadowed by the glitz and glamor of Christmas; not the focus on Christ Christmastime, but the commercial craze of "I want."   I don't want to forget to be grateful for what really matters.  I don't want to forget to focus energy and effort on what will last.  When we are chasing the latest and greatest in "worldly stuff" we find ourselves chasing our own tail.  You can never catch it.  

I love these quotes from President Thomas S. Monson's talk, "Finding Joy in The Journey":

This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now.

Said one well-known author: “Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.” 

(Sarah Ban Breathnach, in John Cook, comp., The Book of Positive Quotations, 2nd ed. (2007), 342.)