Grateful Hearts and Fertile Ground

We start most of our Thanksgiving celebrations with a game of flag football followed by donuts and hot chocolate. Then home to prep the meal. 

The side dishes that are Thanksgiving to me are my dad’s stuffing (I’m so glad I made this with him several times so I know how to do it), creamed onions (add homemade cheese sauce to pearl onions — perfect companion to turkey breast) and strawberry pretzel squares (really a dessert, but we serve it as a salad).

After dinner, we each add a page to our Great Big Book of Gratitude. It’s fun to reread our blessings and remember who has been with us through the years. 

Some years we celebrate Thanksgiving in the Sonoran Desert of California, which is what we did this year. We gather on family land outside of Palo Verde, CA (pop. 171) and ride 4-wheelers, jeeps, side-by-sides, and dirt bikes.

Besides feeding the masses, our main job is to gather firewood for the biggest bonfire we can muster. It really is nature’s TV. 

Thanksgiving dinner is usually pretty simple and we eat outside on picnic tables. It’s kind of a side note though because GramTuff makes turkey tostadas with the leftover turkey and those are more highly anticipated than the big dinner.

I love Thanksgiving. Expectations are toned down. It’s nearly year-end. We can look back and remember blessings. I’m learning that gratitude is more than counting your blessings. It is an attitude, a deliberate choice, an intentional act.

My friend, who is in the middle of a major family crisis that could easily pull her under is learning to ride the wave. To accept that she is at a low point. To remember she wasn’t always there. To hope she won’t stay there. She is not fighting the force but riding swell after swell with the help of God.

One of the lifelines to which she clings may surprise you. 

She practices a morning meditation based on this scripture. “…when thou risest in the morning, let thy heart be full of thanks unto God…” (Alma 37:37)

While in bed, she centers on her own breath. She notices her senses – the feel of the sheets, the weight of the blanket, the sound of her husband’s breathing, the light shining through the window. She chooses to see things for which she is grateful. She thinks of the roof over her head, the pie that she made the night before, the support of her sisters, and her Savior who is the source of peace and hope and direction. 

She is doing more than counting her blessings. She is shifting her focus.

The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.

Russell M. Nelson

Maybe this is when we need gratitude the most. When all we can see is darkness. When we have to work to see the light. 

Being grateful in our circumstances is different from being grateful for our circumstances. Dieter F. Uchtdorf calls this gratitude “…an act of faith in God. It requires that we trust God and hope for things we may not see but which are true.” 

Gratitude to our Father in Heaven broadens our perception and clears our vision. It inspires humility and fosters empathy toward our fellowmen and all of God’s creation. Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christlike attributes! A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Thanksgiving, with its focus on family and gratitude, may be the perfect preparation for Christmas.

Grateful hearts are fertile ground for humility, love, and joy.