Wednesday with Naqvi--Herceptin #30

I am often asked something along the lines of, "How are you doing?"  Often, my response is something like, "I'm doing okay.  We could be better; we could be worse."  Sometimes, I even answer, "I'm doing well, all things considered."  Don't get me wrong.  There is a long list of difficulties I could explain each time someone asks me that "how ya doing?" question.  But, I don't want to complain or focus on what's wrong in the world.  I would much rather focus on the good. I'm not trying be to fake or cover up how hard 2013 has been for me and my family, but cultivating gratitude, especially in difficult times, helps us grow happiness.  "Sucking it up," as Stephen would say, "Not shrinking" in our trials, shifts our focus and helps shed light on all for which we can truly give thanks.  

Did you know It is actually a commandment to show gratitude?

Come before his presence with thanksgiving: Ps 95: 1-2

• Be thankful unto him, and bless his name:Ps 100: 1-5
• Cease not to give thanks: Eph. 1:15-16 
• Be ye thankful: Col 3:15 
• In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.: 1 Thes 5:18
• O how you ought to thank your heavenly King: Mosiah 2:19-21 
• Live in thanksgiving daily:Alma 34:38
• When thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God:Alma 37:37
• Ye should do all things with prayer and thanksgiving:D&C 46:7
• Ye must give thanks unto God:D&C 46:32
• Giving thanks is a commandment, a virtue, a spiritual gift, and yet, it often does not come naturally.  It must be cultivated and practiced.  Gratitude can be learned and strengthened by simply expressing it, focusing on the good over the bad, by serving others, and showing our love.  All good things come from God, so our gratitude should being with him.  Russel M. Nelson said, "Our degree of gratitude is a measure of our love for Him."  How well we keep the commandment of thanksgiving measures our love for our Savior.  {Isn't it interesting how much of the world these days skips straight from Halloween into Christmas, with little thought on Thanksgiving, and that little thought often focuses on food and shopping and AWAY from Him from whom all blessing flow?}

Don't get me wrong.  Gratitude can be given for the smallest tender mercies, for parents, for children, for our jobs, our homes, our clothes, food, cars to drive, friends, weather, electricity, and so on, but all that good comes from God, so it's fitting that it begin there.  It's also fitting that we focus on Thanksgiving immediately before focusing on the celebration of His birth.  We give thanks for our blessings, and then share those blessings--in the form of gifts--with others.  

Thomas S. Monson, gave a talk called, "An Attitude of Gratitude."   He said, "A grateful heart comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives."  This is the spirit of Thanksgiving!  President Monson continues,  "This {gratitude} requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. Often we feel grateful and intend to express our thanks but forget to do so or just don’t get around to it. Someone has said that 'feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.'"  The season of Thanksgiving flows so perfectly into the joy of Christmas.  We reflect upon our blessings, wrap up that "thankfulness," and give it out.   And the amazing thing is that the blessings often pour back to us.  "Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love." {Monson}

What about when we have trials and developing that attitude of gratitude is difficult?  Perhaps we've lost a loved one, or a job, or a home, or don't have enough food to feed our families.  Perhaps it's too difficult to heat our homes, our cars have broken down, we don't have our health, we're out of touch with friends or family members, or we are just feeling the heavy burden life sometimes places on our shoulders.  The hard times make the virtue of gratitude that much more challenging as well as necessary.  There is always, always, always something to be grateful for.  There is always a silver lining, if we can just train our eyes and hearts to search for it.        

"When we encounter challenges and problems in our lives, it is often difficult for us to focus on our blessings. However, if we reach deep enough and look hard enough, we will be able to feel and recognize just how much we have been given."  {Monson}

Sometimes we have to literally pull ourselves out of those dark places, those sad and depressing moments, or rely on being lifted up by others.  It can be done.  I am here to tell you that it can be done.  Somewhere within each of us lies that strength to turn to the light, to reach for the hands that are yearning to help, or to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps {or pink ribbons, as the case may be} and keep on going.  

 Even while still in the midst of a marathon of a trial, or just a sad moment in a day, we can find much for which to be grateful.  We can smile and express our thanksgiving to others.  We can focus on the positive and all that is good in the world.  We can live in a way that encourages others to be more positive about the hard things with which they are silently--or opening--living.   “We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude.  If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues." {Monson}

Everyone is dealing with something that is hard.  At any given moment, each of us could be sucked into complaining about our lot in life, becoming upset at the unfairness of it all, or succumbing to that dark place where sadness overwhelms and crushes hope, faith, light, and gratitude.  Let us not give up on the good.  Let us see the hard parts for what they are and let them help us to become even more thankful for our many blessings. President Monson gave us a 3-step process to cultivating this attitude of gratitude.  First, express it to Heavenly Father and others.  Then, "enact" it.  I like to think of this as performing acts of gratitude.  Finally, we get to the point where we always live with a spirit of thanksgiving.  I love how he explains it.  "To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."

Let heaven touch your heart in the spirit of thanksgiving, and share that spirit with others.