Sabbath Devotional :: Gratitude

photo of a rare rainbow in our drought-inflicted area

I live in a rural area in the American West. Last spring, our stake president talked about the severe drought conditions. He said the stake presidency and high council had discussed whether to call for a stake-wide fast to pray for rain. He wondered if it was selfish to ask others to pray for rain. He is a farmer, so would it be like asking everyone to pray that his business was successful? But then he remembered that people like to eat. He made me laugh. We all depend on farmers to eat. I am happy to want anyone working in agriculture to be tremendously successful.

As they prayed and counseled, they decided that instead of asking us to fast for rain, they needed to ask us to fast and pray in gratitude for all of God’s blessings. The stake president felt inspired that if we turned to the Lord in gratitude, He would bless us.

I thought that was a particularly powerful approach.

Last November, President Russell M. Nelson spoke about the “many spiritual woes and maladies that we face.” He said, “There is, however, a remedy — one that may seem surprising — because it flies in the face of our natural intuitions. . . . I am referring to the healing power of gratitude.”

He challenged us to “unite in thanking God through daily prayer. Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray by first expressing gratitude to God, and then petitioning him for the things we need. Prayer brings forth miracles.”

I decided to follow the counsel of the prophet by creating daily gratitude posts on social media. This wasn’t easy for me at the time. From my perspective, there was a lot amiss in my life. Every post required a lot of thought and introspection to be sincere. A year later, as I reread those posts, I can feel the pain and sorrow through my own words of searching gratitude.

But it helped me.

A few weeks later, I studied and prayed to try to understand how to have hope while still accepting the realities of the parts of life I can’t control. The answer I was given was to be grateful. I started to keep a personal gratitude journal and deliberately tried to offer more prayers of thanksgiving. Focusing on gratitude has brought new light into my daily life and started me on a path to healing my heart.

Gratitude is healing.

My stake president asked us to unite in fasting and prayer to express gratitude in the context of asking the Lord for relief from the drought. President Nelson’s challenge last year was given in context of asking the Lord for relief from societal wounds: “I hope you will feel inspired to . . . [pour] out your heart in gratitude for the countless blessings God has given you, and [petition] him to heal our hearts, our families, our societies and the world at large.”

In pondering these two inspired teachings, I considered the power of gratitude to heal our land and our nation, our communities and our families.

Gratitude is a form of worship and worship requires both faith and works. In no way am I suggesting that our collective wounds can heal if we continue in our same destructive habits and simply thank our way out. That isn’t how life works. However, we should not underestimate the power of prayer and the healing power of gratitude.

“Live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.” (Alma 34:38)

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

As we begin our Christmas celebrations, let’s remember to do so with gratitude for the gift of his Son.

“May each Christmas season remind us to lift up our eyes to heaven and fill our hearts with joy and gratitude that Christ the King has come! Christ lives! He is real. He is our Redeemer at Christmas and always.” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf)