Thanksgiving Message

Throughout this year, I have had occasion to ask my children what they are thankful for.  The purpose for  this exercise was primarily to help them have ideas of what to be thankful for in their prayers.  Additionally, my hope was to help them see how much they have been truly blessed.  After the first few moments of "I don't know" (the first required response by all children to their parents), I would then start to get varied responses.  As a parent, your hope is that the answers will be ground breaking and full of deep meaning.  My hope is always that they will pontificate on the blessing of the gospel and the scriptures in their lives.  Also, that they are grateful for the education they have and the blessing it is to live in a free land.  However, the actual answers vary from "cinnamon toast crunch" and "leaves" to things as amazing as "family" and "shelter" (they often say those kinds of things because they think that is what I am hoping they will say).  But, when I listen to their sincere prayers, they are thankful for things like the fact they got to play with friends that day and they are glad they got to jump on the trampoline or they were grateful they got to paint pictures.  Initially this is most frustrating, because they obviously don't see the bigger picture.  That's when I realized I wasn't seeing the bigger picture.

As we get older our view of the world gets broader.  We worry about the big things in life.  As an example, I use the following illustration.  The other day I was mountain biking in Price, UT with Andrew.  I was looking forward to the time we would be spending together.  I wanted to make sure he had a good time.  As we got heading up the trail, I was worrying about whether he would be able to make it okay, and how long we were going to be gone.  I was, in the back of my mind, worrying about all the things I still needed to do that day.  Then Andrew pointed out a grasshopper.  Where and who cares I thought.  It was tiny.  But in some strange way it was actually beautiful.  This tiny insect which I had difficulty even seeing, Andrew had seen while we were moving.  Andrew was less intrigued with the beautiful scenery below us as we stood on the mesa.  Rather, it was this really neat insect that drew his attention.  Our journey elicited many more findings such as this. 

The point I would like to make in this season of Thanksgiving, is that we are blessed with so many beautiful things in our lives.  Many of these blessings may be so small that we fail to see them.  As I deal with the big picture, I often forget what a blessing it is to be surrounded in a ward and neighborhood, by people who truly bless my life.  I recall in a recent conference, being told to recognize and be grateful for the small things around us.  As I pondered this, I realize that it is the small things like cinnamon toast crunch and playing with friends that really put the joy in my life.  It is those small moments like a testimony shared by someone at church that lifts my heart and gives me the hope to carry on through another big picture week.  I am grateful for every week of Church and the testimonies that help lift me up, and the taking of the sacrament.  It is my hope that each of us may take an opportunity to really look at those small things the Lord has blessed us with that bring us so much joy.