The Power of Gratitude

A couple weeks ago, I had a Relief Society lesson on gratitude. I immediately thought of the quote that Heather had put up on her blog months ago by Melodie Beattie:

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."

I should have written it down when I first read it, but I have now. I continued to think about this quote ever since that lesson and especially the past few days. The past few days, I've been focusing about what I want and what I don't want, rejecting the fact that I have a genuine opportunity to accomplish something important for myself. Having this attitude blinded me from seeing what a gift and blessing this might turn out to be. I've failed to be grateful that this opportunity has pretty much fallen into my lap. Even though I'm not sure yet if this will actually work out, I should really be grateful that I have a chance at all.

It's so tempting to be grumpy when I don't want things to change or things aren't changing fast enough for my liking. I do tend to get grumpy when things don't go the way I envisioned and when I forget to be patient and grateful for what is going right. When I'm grateful for the things that I have, and the opportunities I have, it's easier to see the Lord's hand in my life. I realize that things generally happen when they're supposed to, although it's not a perfect formula for everything in life. (There are some things that I believe should never happen and that aren't supposed to happen, but because of choices people make, they do. The only thing we can do in those circumstances is to try to overcome those consequences.) Coming to these realizations are never easy. It's not easy to look back over the past year, admit that my way probably wouldn't have worked at all, and to be grateful for the way it did work out, but when I get to that point, the journey ahead appears easier.

President Thomas S. Monson, quoting Sarah Ban Breathnach, said in November 2008, "Said one well-known author: 'Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend...when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present -- love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness] -- the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.'"

I love this quote. It's so true that we have the choice to decide. It really becomes a conscious choice when I catch myself being negative, because I have the chance to turn my thoughts around. It's amazing what we are capable of doing when we put our minds to it. Besides, who doesn't want to experience heaven on earth? If all it takes is some gratitude, I'm all for it.