More Gratitude Give Me

More Gratitude give me.  An attitude of gratitude. (President Monson, General Conference Talk, April 1992.)

A popular refrain from the 1940s captured the thought:

Accentuate the positive;

Eliminate the negative.

Latch on to the affirmative;

Don’t mess with Mr. In-between. ¹

Good advice then. Good advice now.

We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. 

Gratitude can lift our lives as we see the wondrous world that was created and families and friends that help us get through the hard days, and most of all our Savior who loves us most.

HAPPY DAY


BLOG'nGRM 

More Purpose In Prayer

Purpose means more deliberate, more meaning, more thoughtful,  simply more.   Like it says in the manual, Preach My Gospel, "He (Heavenly Father) wants to communicate with us, and we can communicate with Him through sincere prayer."  (Chapter 3, Lesson 1)  The most important word is 'communicate'.  We can talk to Heavenly Father.  Actually.  Sincere Prayer.  

President Hinckley said:  "The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the telephone and ordering groceries--we place our order and hang up.  We need to meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as one man speaketh to another." (Gordon B. Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 469).

That is the way to pray with purpose.  Then we need to listen.

HAPPY PRAYERS


BLOG'nGRAM

More Joy In His Service

Deuteronomy 10: 12  And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Appropriate for Valentine's Day.

And from the stick of Joseph:  Mosiah 2: 17:  And behold I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when you are in the service of your fellow beings ye  are only in the service of your God.

Enjoy your service and it will count toward you as good and bring blessings to those you serve and to yourself.

HAPPILY SERVE


BLOG'nGRAM

More Sense of His Care

Last week I got off track on the subject of Faith In My Savior.  I found a Relief Society Article that mentioned faith in the Savior as women.  Then I went off on one of my favorite subject:  Unity in RS for women.  I may fix that or come back to the subject of faith at another time.

I have thought about today's words:  More Sense of His Care. It is wider and deeper than simply acknowledging that he cares for us or that we need to be more dependent on Him.  The words 'sense of' brings another feeling to my mind, but the thoughts will not coalesce into the appropriate words.

Our physical senses are the ability to see, hear, smell, taste and touch or feel.  What is a spiritual sense?  See and hear are used by the scriptures often; he that can see or hear, let him see or hear which indicates another level, a spiritual level to sight and sound.  There is a spiritual level to feel, something akin to love, compassion and joy that supersedes the physical realm. 

A Sense of His Care could be an augmentation to need.  It may be that special bond that comes from awareness and feeling that 'His Care' is The Pure Love of Christ.  

The best words of wisdom come from the line from the Hymn 124 Be Still My Soul:  "Leave to thy God to order and provide."  How better can we acknowledge and tap into the 'care' that he freely gives? 

At times there are thoughts going through my head that I cannot explain. Perhaps none of this makes sense to anyone; I thought about it a lot and may be way off.  Please share your thoughts

 Some words from the prophets: (with transfer errors intact)

I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Savior of the world when he finds that his people do not feel confident in his care or secure in his hands or trust in his commandments.

Listen to this wonderful passage from President George Q. Cannon teaching precisely this very doctrine: “No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. He is an unchangeable being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come. We have found that God. We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments” (“Freedom of the Saints,” in Collected Discourses, comp. Brian H. Stuy, 5 vols. [1987–92], 2:185; emphasis added).

Elder Talmage used the word succor. Do you know its meaning? It is used often in the scriptures to describe Christ’s care for and attention to us. It means literally “to run to.” What a magnificent way to describe the Savior’s urgent effort in our behalf! Even as he calls us to come to him and follow him, he is unfailingly running to help us.

 He wishes us to come unto him, to follow him, to be comforted by him. Then he wishes us to give comfort to others. However halting our steps are toward him—though they shouldn’t be halting at all—his steps are never halting toward us. May we have enough faith to accept the goodness of God and the mercy of his Only Begotten Son. May we come unto him and his gospel and be healed. By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland  

The quotes say there is more to His care than we can see on the surface.  Learning to 'sense' this is the tie that binds us to him spiritually.  Make sense?  

HAPPY THINKING


BLOG'nGRAM