Josh's Talk

 Gratitude

Good morning brothers and sisters! My name is Josh Pace and I will be talking about gratitude. I know most of us are already thankful towards God for what he has done, as we should be, but are we thankful for everything? D&C 78:19 states that, “He who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious”.  Do we “receive ALL THINGS with thankfulness? Or are we only thankful for the few blessings we actually see as blessings? As D&C 59:7 states, “Thou shalt ^athank the Lord thy God in all things.”

  We should be thankful for all things that come into our lives, regardless if they are good or bad, because no matter how bad things may seem, there is always at least some good in it. Even in the midst of our trials, we should praise and thank God, because trials bring us strength “For it must needs be, that there is an ^aopposition in all things” according to 2nephi 2:11

So instead of taking challenges and adversity with sadness and despair, let’s be happy and grateful! And take life’s daily hardships with a spring in our step, whistling a tune! Because we all have many wonderful things to be grateful for.

 Moving on to the next part of my talk, one thing that I have seen in my own life, is a confusion between trials, and blessings! For example, teenaged kids complaining, “I don’t want to eat that for dinner!” while kids in much poorer areas would say to that “you get 3 meals a DAY?!?!” Kids would also complain, saying “I don’t want to clean my room!” again, children in poorer areas would say, “you have your own room?!?!”

 Really quick I would like all of you to think, are there any blessings you aren’t counting as blessings? And hardships you should be really thankful for?

 The main part I wanted to address in this talk, was how thankful are we?  How thankful are we that the Lord atoned for our sins? And made repentance possible?  

There was a Korean War veteran who came to my school one day, and shared his experiences. He, at one point in the war, got captured by the enemy. And was marched northward. Now, at this time, it was winter, and it was terribly cold. Now, there were many countries participating in the Korean war, and one such country, was Turkey. There was one Turkish soldier who was also captured, and because of the extreme cold, his feet had swelled. They swelled up to the point where his feet didn’t fit in his boots. Now, the vet who came to our school had some over boots on. These are boots that fit over a regular pair of boots. The Turkish soldier came over to him, and asked for the over boots. The vet gave up these boots, and the Turkish soldier bent down and kissed this man’s feet out of gratitude. Being so grateful that the pain and suffering in his feet were over.

 I felt that this story demonstrates our relationship with the savoir. He suffered for us, so our pain might be avoided.  How grateful are we for this? If you feel that you could be more grateful for anything, learn more about it! Study it! Ponder and pray about it.

During Jesus’ ministry, there were 10 lepers who were healed by him, and only one returned to Jesus to thank him.

We must always be giving thanks to God, for daily are we healed by him and are indebted to him and not to forget our lord as the 9 other lepers had done. Because as we learn from the nephrites of old, we tend to be slow to remember our God when times are good for us. Because sometimes, we get so caught up in life and what we need to be doing, that we forget all the Lord has done for us.

I know that the Lord has given all of us so much, and have so much to be thankful for, and what better time to thank him than today being Easter? And so, I have a challenge for you all. Throughout the day, be thinking of things you are thankful for. And try to find things you are not usually thankful for! And then include your thanks for these items in your next prayer. I know as we give thanks to God, we will be uplifted! And that we have so much to be thankful for! And I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.