Day two: Get Grateful

When you are GRATEFUL you cannot be...

• Bitter
• Resentful 
• or Mean-Spirited

There is so much to be grateful for!!

Anyone who has ever been on a pioneer reenactment comes back and is grateful for a toilet and a shower.  Those are blessings indeed!  Did you know that back in the day, they only took baths once a week??  Yes, I am grateful that I don't have to smell like rotten berries for a week.  That is a blessing.  How about music!?  I LOOOVEE Music- and especially today as we celebrate the birth of Christ we get to sing!  JOY TO THE WORLD!!!  OH COME LET US ADORE HIM!  I love it.  Music brings joy to my heart, and it is a way to worship the Lord.

My family has been one of my greatest blessings! Don't you even worry, my siblings and I did a fair share of fighting and throwing things (and punching holes into the wall....that's normal right?) But now that we are older, we have really come together in Christ.  We are all VERY different, but we love each other.  WHAT A BLESSING it is to have families.  A wonderful father, and a dear sweet mother, with crazy fun siblings.

Then there are the SIMPLE things

Scriptures, finding thank you notes, and giving them away.  I am grateful for the feeling of gratitude.  It truly has a power within a person. 

This morning I studied gratitude, and I couldn't help but think about my Heavenly Father.  God has given us so much, and to think that he sent a special little baby to the world, who would grow up and prepare a way for us to have a hope in our fallen state.  What a wonderful blessing!

In True to the Faith it says "The atonement is the supreme expression of our Heavenly Father's love for us." (pg15).  He loves us so much that he prepared a plan, and sees that plan through every single day!!  Think of it! "...The Lord is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture (Psalms 100:3-4)  And he is "preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath..."(Mosiah 2:21).

 He has a plan for me, and I know that, but to think not only am I working day to day to become closer to him, but he is working day to day to bring me unto him.  He has brought people into my life that have strengthened my testimony, people that have helped me when I was hopeless, and he does this on a daily basis.  My mom JUST CALLED ME!  I could have been lonely this morning, but no, The Lord sends us blessings all the time!!  If we just recognize them, we can change the world. 

Have you read on facebook anything that was bitter, resentful, or mean-spirited lately??  It is all around us, it is in us ourselves, but with a little gratitude, we can change that.  We won't sit and stew, we will go and do!  The Lord might need you to be an angel in someone's life today.  So as you are busy buying last minute things, remember
Be Grateful
and be part of God's plan.