Gratitude

Talks

Quotes

“Some people call the glass half empty, some call it half full. Some people are just happy to have a glass.”  – Savannah Williams

Frank and Earnest cartoon, “I would count my blessings, but I’m no good at fractions.” 

Just once I’d like to get a blessing that’s not in disguise!

“Just because God is smiling on someone else doesn’t mean He is frowning on you.” – Becky Young Fawcett (Ensign September 2015 pg 24) 

You are very blessed.  Think of all the things you don’t have that you don’t want.

May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live. – Irish Blessing

“Brothers and sisters, there are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets an unexpected blessing or receives some special recognition.  May I plead with us not to be hurt – and certainly not to feel envious – when good fortune comes to another person?  We are not diminished when someone else is added upon.  We are not in a race against each other to see who is the wealthiest or the most talented or the most beautiful or even the most blessed.  The race we are really in is the race again sin, and surely envy is one of the most universal of those.” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  “The Laborers in the Vineyard,” Ensign, May 2012, 31.)

It’s not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving. – W.T. Purkiser!

We as parents expect our children to thank us for everything we do because as human beings, we need their praise and gratitude.  Unlike us, our Heavenly Father asks us to show gratitude to Him not because He needs to hear it, but because we need to say it. 

Gratitude is the greatest antidote for pride. Consider the pride cycle in the Book of Mormon.  The people were righteous, and the Lord blessed them.  They became prideful, became wicked and were punished.  The cycle repeats itself over and over again.  Gratitude is the element that stops that cycle.  When we are righteous and the Lord blesses us, we have two options.  We can say, “Wow, look at what I’ve become!  Look at what I’ve done!” and allow pride to fill our hearts.  The wickedness and destruction soon follow.  However, if after we receive blessings from the Lord we feel gratitude instead and say, “Thank you Heavenly Father for blessing me with all these things; thank you for making me who I am,” we are filled with humility and reverence for him.  We have the desire to serve him and obey his commandments, which allows us to stay in the righteous/blessed part of the cycle forever. – Shannon Williams