THANKSGIVING STIMULATED THOUGHTS

I think I have set a near impossible goal for myself. I have been determined to live a life of Thanks Giving every day of my life, but no matter how hard I try, my normal attitude of Thanks Giving never comes up to par with the feelings I have each year on the fourth Thursday in November.

This week’s thoughts will, I am sure, feel very random as you read them, but this is the way they came to me.

My mother who lived a very full, active and righteous life still expressed in her waning years, regret for not having done more and better. As I think upon her faithfulness and these feeling she expressed when she was into her nineties, I am grateful for the knowledge that I have of a loving Heavenly Father who is full of grace and mercy, who will welcome us all back home, as returning prodigals and then continue to add upon us until His work and glory are complete in our behalf. This knowledge helps me understand that we can never do all there is to do in this life.

Likewise, I am grateful for the understanding that only our Savior Jesus the Christ grew in perfection without having to retrace and redo wrong actions, but grew perfectly in wisdom, stature and with favor unto God, until he reached the state of Glory where he could perform the marvelous work of the Atonement on behalf of all of us.

Not too long before this year’s Thanks Giving Day, I was telling someone about the wonderful General Conference talks Kathleen and I had enjoyed. During this conversation I asked if they had been able to listen to any of the talks. When the response was negative, I spewed out one of those replies which probably would have been better left in the chambers of my mind, but in retrospect contained a great deal of wisdom. My comment was, I admire you for being such a wonderful person and not one who is weak like me, that you can govern your life without the aid of living apostles and prophets.

I really am grateful that my days on the earth have been when there are living apostles and prophets of the Lord Jesus the Christ who can give us continued counsel as they receive it from the Lord. I am grateful for the pits they have kept me from falling into and the ladders they have made me aware of when I choose to stumble into pits. I am grateful for the knowledge of the eternal meaning of father and mother hood of which they have helped me gain an elementary understanding.

Since my intent is not to make this Thought about the need I have in my life for living apostles and prophet, I let these few comments suffice for now on this area of my Thanks Giving.

During the last 11 years since I have been able to pass the majority of my days at home, one of the things I have Thanks Giving for is the added number of times Kathleen and I are able to verbally exchange expressions of our love for one another. She even came up with a wonderful little zinger where she charges me a toll fee when we pass one another during the day. The toll is a warm and wonderful hug with an accompanying kiss. My Thanks Giving for the increased love quotient with which I continue to be blessed is definitely centered in Kathleen, but has not been limited to her.

Throughout the majority of my life I was in positions which dictated that it would be inappropriate to express my feelings for others by hugging. I have Thanks giving that these shackles have been removed from me during the final chapter of my life and I can now freely show my affection for others with a hug.

My Thanks Giving extends to the cyber world we live in which has allowed me to reconnect with thousands of un-hugged friends who have been so dear to me throughout my life. Even though they aren't quite as warm and fuzzy as an actual physical hug, they do add to my quotient of love. It has been marvelous as, almost on a daily basis, I am able to reunite through technology with friends from all the decades of my life.

I frequently check the happenings of what is going on in the sports world on the computer and the television. On Thanks Giving Day one of the feeds had a tour of the mansion which belongs to one of the successful athletes, who had been richly rewarded because of his God given talents and physical bearing. Strange as it might sound, the thought of Thanks Giving which went through my mind was that I was grateful that for us sufficient was enough.

My Thanks Giving in this area includes being grateful that I have lived a life free of starvation and nakedness and that I have always had a home to return to every day. Some might think it strange, but now that I can look back upon life much further than I can look forward, my Thanks Giving includes having had a life which has always included sufficient for my needs, but has never burdened me with too much excess.

I intentionally will close this thought long before I exhaust my list of things for which I could express Thanks Giving, in the hope that this shortened list will give you the opportunity to ponder upon your own list of things for which you can offer Thanks Giving.