I will use this blog to document each day the things that I am grateful for. By so doing, I hope to accomplish two things: Joy and direction. A Jesuit priest by the name of Brother David Steindl-Rast once said, "For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful. It is very easy to go through the daily grind of our lives and experience many different feelings and emotions, but how often do we allow ourselves to experience pure joy? "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy!" (2 Nephi 2:25) I want to experience the blessing of joy everyday of my life. In order to do so, I am going to practice gratitude each day. One way to practice gratitude is by learning to acknowledge God's hand in all things. By doing so, we recognize His goodness in every detail of our lives and in turn experience gratitude for Him and His divine love. In the Proverbs of Solomon we discover an important truth and promise: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him , and he shall direct thy paths. (Prov. 3:5–6.) We acknowledge the Lord by expressing our gratitude to Him. He in turn will grant unto us the direction we seek. I love this promise! If there were ever a need for direction in my life it is now.
Our family is right in the middle of making some very important decisions regarding our entire future! No stress or pressure right? Haha! I have been trying extra hard to be worthy of having the guidance of the Holy Ghost in helping make these important decisions. One thing that has really helped is how I have changed the way I pray. I recently noticed how the majority of my prayers were filled with complaints and requests, and only a few lines of gratitude were included. I decided about a week ago to switch it up. In fact, I have made a complete reversal. The majority of my prayers are now filled with expressions of gratitude. I can't even begin to tell you what a difference this has made. One thing that I have discovered is that by praying with expressions of gratitude my faith and trust in the Lord has become more evident. For example, instead of praying in a manner of asking the Lord directly for the things that I need, I have learned to ask in faith through expressing gratitude. For example, the other night I really wanted to ask the Lord to fill my heart with peace over some things that I was struggling with at the time, but instead I phrased it this way, "Heavenly Father, I am so grateful that thou wilt bless me with the feeling of peace that my heart so desperately needs at this moment." Can you see the difference in the level of faith that is exhibited? This has become my new favorite way to pray. It is fun to come up with ways to rephrase the things that you need to ask Heavenly Father for into expressions of gratitude. And just in case you are wondering, I truly have experienced more joy in the past week than I have in a very long time. I challenge you to try it. Let me know how it works out for you!
Today I am grateful for a wise and loving Heavenly Father, and I acknowledge His hand in all the wonderful blessings in my life.
We Choose Joy by Practicing Gratitude
Joyful moments are made possible through trust, gratitude, inspiration, and faith!
Today I am also grateful for the twinkling lights of Christmas - these are certainly a perfect metaphor for joy! (I am so grateful for Carter and Dallin helping me hang them and that they all turned on when I plugged them in.)
