Thanks

This week I am giving a talk in church on gratitude. I am focusing on living our lives gratefully by serving those around us.

Today is Thanksgiving and I have SO much to be thankful for. However, there are a couple less than obvious things I would like to be thankful for here.

Mike and I have been watching WWII in HD on the History Channel and I am SO grateful to all those THOUSANDS of young men and women who put their lives in harms way to protect America for generations. They did it to protect their families, friends and people they did not even know. I feel indebted to such brave people. I am thankful to live in a free land where I am free to raise my children the way I choose.

I am grateful I woke up next to my husband this morning. I know there are many who did not wake up with their spouse because they are off fighting where they were asked to fight, doing what they were asked to do. They're missing their families and their families are missing them and I am aware of their trial and grateful for their sacrifice.

I am thankful to have two healthy children. They are both little miracles and I am so grateful I was blessed to keep them.

I am thankful for a table full of food. While I have had a few moments of sadness that there are only four of us around our Thanksgiving table and am missing all of our family and friends so terribly. I cannot discount that my table is spread with more than we really need and that is nothing to be sad about. My children have never known a moment of hunger in their lives and we have all been tremendously blessed with plenty.

Last but not least I am thankful for all of those- close to me and strangers who have preformed acts of kindness to me in my life. There are countless. This story really struck a cord with me today. I have felt like this boy on more than one occasion in my life. I hope and pray I can live my life long enough and in such a way I am able to bless those around me as I strive to be grateful through service.

This story was told at General Conference by Henry D. Taylor in 1959.

“The District of Columbia police auctioned off about 100 unclaimed bicycles one Friday. ‘One dollar,’ said an eleven-year-old boy as the bidding opened on the first bike. The bidding, however, went much higher. ‘One dollar,’ the boy repeated hopefully each time another bike came up.
“The auctioneer, who [had] been auctioning stolen or lost bikes for 43 years, noticed that the boy’s hopes seemed to soar highest whenever a racer was put up.
“There was one racer left. Then the bidding mounted to $8.00. ‘Sold to that boy over there for $9.00,’ said the auctioneer. He took $8.00 from his own pocket and asked the boy for his dollar. The youngster turned it over—in pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters—took his bike and started to leave. But he went only a few feet. Carefully parking his new possession, he went back, gratefully threw his arms around the auctioneer’s neck, and cried” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1959, 57).


Happy Thanksgiving!