Giving the Present

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it, is like wrapping a present and not giving it."

~William Arthur Ward~

Thanking God

"What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?

How to Have Enough

"Gratitude turns what I have into enough"

~Unknown~

Enjoy the Little Things

I heard this quote in RS today, and I LOVE LOVE LOVED it!

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you make look back and realize they were the big things.” 

~Robert Brault

Be Thankful

"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough."

Oprah Winfrey

Rise Up and Be Thankful

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful".
- Buddha

Today and Tomorrow

Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow.

~Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros~

Look Back and Thank God

Look back and thank God. Look forward and trust God. Look around and serve God. Look within and find God.

God closes doors no man can open and God opens doors no man can close.

President Monson.

Sand & Stone

"When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

~ Unknown

Thankful by Josh Groban

Great lyrics. So much to be thankful for.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Well, I am thankful to all of you who stop by my blog, you definitely spur me on to keep posting, and some of your comments on here have really made a difference in my life. Thanks for being AWESOME!!

Here's a great video on thanksgiving:

Seven Times More Graves

I read this quote yesterday and it really made me think....

"The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving."

 ~H.U. Westermayer

Isn't that striking? And maybe those of you who have grown up in America are familiar with the Pilgrims sufferings, but I'm from Britain and we never learnt about this at all. What a great example to remember to recognise our blessings. No matter what we are each individually going through, if we think long enough about it, we will realised how many blessings we do truly have.

Disappearing Like Frost

James E Faust:
"I have now lived long enough to know that, whatever our situation, our troubles melt and disappear like frost in the morning sun when we dwell upon our blessings rather than our disappointments. No matter how pessimistic one's view may become of the times and the seasons, we can always fall back on special friendship, on faithful, personal love, and on simple, true dealings in our own personal lives"
("Married or Single: Look beyond Yourself," Ensign, March 1980).

Who has Lighted your Flame?

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us".

Albert Schweitzer

Who has done that for you, and do they know????

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Secrets for a Happy Day

2 Nephi 9:52

"Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice."

Reprise Quartet - Because I Have Been Given Much

Sufficiently Remembering

Alma 5:6: "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And more over, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?"

In the Book of Mormon there are 240 references to 'remembering'. In all the things we are to remember, the most important to remember is the Lord and what He has done for us through His matchless atonement. Fleeting thoughts are no good however, we are to 'sufficiently retain in remembrance'. Our remembering must lead us to love the Lord more and to purify ourselves in Him, if it is to be sufficient.

President Kimball said, "Those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives". Seems like a good place to start.

What would you record today if you could?

En-route Thanksgiving

In 1 Nephi 2 the Lord commands Lehi to take his family from Jerusalem, leaving behind their inheritance, gold & silver and go into the wilderness, to the promised land. They come to the edge of the red sea, and after traveling for three days, pitch their tents. I love what happened next:

“And it came to pass that he built an altar of stones, and made an offering unto the Lord, and gave thanks unto the Lord our God.”
(1 Nephi 2:7)

I love that. Lehi didn’t wait to give thanks until he had ‘arrived’ at his destination, but stopped en-route regularly (see 1 Nephi 5 & 7), to give thanks. I am sure when we are promised something or are seeking for a particular blessing or gift, when it is finally received we give thanks, but how many times do we stop en-route to give thanks for the journey we are taking – I know I need to do sooo much better with that. There are always offerings of a broken heart and contrite spirit to give along the way, and figurative altars to build, where we can stand still and thank the Lord for being with us on the journey.

So much to be thankful for, and thank goodness we have today to remember our blessings.

Another Journal Entry - Happiness!

I just re-read this that I had written from September 2005. As I read it it reminded me that I need to do that again, to take joy in the little things that happen all the way throughout the day, and record them, because it is so easy to not even recognise how awesome your life is! Here it is:

“And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.”
(2 Nephi 5:27)

I thought about that scripture when I woke up yesterday, and made it my goal to ‘live after the manner of happiness’ that day. So as I lay in bed coming around to consciousness (which sometimes takes me a while!) I decided to count the number of times I felt happy that new day - after 200 times I stopped counting, but kept feeling happy. I had counted things like:

Singing in the shower, hugging a stranger in the supermarket, pointing the shower head the wrong way and spraying myself in the face (which I have done umpteen times before!), skipping and running through the park with the kiddies, jumping up and down on the bed and then falling off because I was laughing so hard (which also kept me laughing for hours after!), remembering ‘June memories’, driving with the windows in the car down and singing at the top of our voices and seeing other drivers laugh at us, seeing the sun shining on a beautiful flower, smelling freshly cut grass, flopping on my bed with fresh crisp sheets on, reading my Book of Mormon, having a gospel conversation, doing research for something I’m writing, getting an email from a friend, feeling needed, receiving a thank you from a stranger, remembering my testimony, making a present for someone, basking in the sun, looking at a picture a young woman painted of me, reading a card another young woman had sent me, wearing a yellow t-shirt that reminds me of my mum, finding a pair of trousers which I thought I had lost as they were too small – only to discover they now fit:), wearing some fluffy socks, feeling peace, looking at a bag I had made on Saturday night (it's sooo lush!)and laughing at fighting with me friend over bits of material for it, reminiscent of my mum:), counting the flowers in my bedroom, doing a handstand (which is something that you all would’ve found very funny if you had seen it too!), saying my prayers, praying sincerely for a couple of people and feeling how much Heavenly Father loves them, pretending to conduct an orchestral piece for my sister & dad, finding accommodation near to the temple in Denmark for me to stay in, cleaning my sisters room, doing a boy push-up, seeing if I could walk from the lounge to end of the garden with my eyes closed, playing songs on the piano, meeting a baby's gaze, oh oh oh, and I went in a shop yesterday and there was some music playing in the background, and there was a baby boy, about 18 months old, whose head was bobbing in time to the music, with the kind of rhythm I could only dream of having:).

Well, those are just the ones which came to mind first off – so you can see how I got to 200 so quickly. I suspect that is normal, but I certainly didn’t recognize how many happy moments I had each day until I counted them.

I read this somewhere yesterday:
“First, we must visualize our objective. What is our purpose? The Prophet Joseph Smith counseled: “Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God”
(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pages 255–56).

I hope that happiness will be yours today also:)