Isn’t it interesting that sometimes those who have the least are the most grateful, and yet there are others who seem to have everything—except gratitude? As religious leader Henry B. Eyring observed: “We so easily forget that we came into life with nothing. Whatever we get soon seems our natural right, not a gift. And we forget the giver. Then our gaze shifts from what we have been given to what we don’t have yet.”[1]
Gratitude—for life, for blessings, for the Giver of this beautiful world and everything in it—is a timeless and timely virtue. People like to be around grateful people. They like to help grateful people. They don’t soon forget grateful people.
One woman fondly remembers an elderly friend named Dorothy, whom she visited to help her with some tasks that age had made difficult. After each little act of service, Dorothy would say, “Do you know how grateful I am?” During the visit, the power went out, and when Dorothy looked out the window and saw the workers restoring her power, she said, “I hope they know how grateful I am.” When it was time for Dorothy’s friend to leave, she whispered the prayer she learned from Dorothy: “Do you know how grateful I am?”[2]
It’s worth pondering—do others know how grateful you are? Better yet, do you know? Many express their thanks in gratitude journals, counting their blessings as they respond to the prompt “How did God bless me today?”
“If you do that long enough and with faith,” Henry B. Eyring taught, “you will find yourself remembering blessings. And sometimes, you will have gifts brought to your mind which you failed to notice during the day, but which you will then know were a touch of God’s hand in your life.”[3] And think of the joy your family will someday feel as they look at this record of thankfulness.
So many other virtues we seek flow from gratitude. Without gratitude, we become self-focused and insecure, wondering if someone somewhere has more or better. Gratitude, on the other hand, opens our hearts to God and to others. It blesses us in seasons of scarcity and seasons of plenty. Indeed, gratitude is a virtue for every season of life.
[1] Henry B. Eyring, “Remembrance and Gratitude,” Ensign, Nov. 1989, 12.
[2] See Sherri Heider Wright, “Do You Know How Grateful I Am?,” Liahona, Oct. 2021, 34–35.
[3] Henry B. Eyring, “Remembrance and Gratitude,” 13.
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November 21, 2021
Broadcast Number 4,810
The Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
Bells at Temple Square
Guests: Gabriel Trumpet Ensemble
Conductor
Mack Wilberg
Organist
Andrew Unsworth
Host
Lloyd Newell
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Edward Kremser; arr. Nathan Hofheins
For the Beauty of the Earth
John Rutter
Prelude on “Simple Gifts”
Shaker tune; arr. Franklin Ashdown
I Think the World Is Glorious
Alexander Schreiner; arr. Mack Wilberg
Home Is a Special Kind of Feeling, from The Wind in the Willows
John Rutter
Now Thank We All Our God
Johann Crüger; arr. Mack Wilberg
Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
George J. Elvey; arr. Mack Wilberg