December 2011 First Presidency Message (with commentary)

[_Darth J]

The Choice to Be Grateful

Henry B. Eyring, December 2011 Ensign

Our Father in Heaven commands us to be thankful in all things (see 1 Thessalonians 5:18), and He requires that we give thanks for the blessings we receive (see D&C 46:32). We know that all of His commandments are intended to make us happy, and we also know that to break commandments leads to misery.

So to be happy and to avoid misery, we must have a grateful heart.

This is not talking about gratitude that is freely given. It is talking about divine extortion. God says we have to be thankful, and we will be miserable if we are not. What exactly is so righteous and heartfelt about heaping praise and flattery on God for fear of the misery that will ensue if we don't thank Him like He tells us to?

We have seen in our lives the connection between gratitude and happiness. All of us would like to feel gratitude, yet it is not easy to be consistently grateful in all things in the trials of life. Sickness, disappointment, and the loss of people we love come at times in our lives. Our sorrows can make it hard to see our blessings and to appreciate the blessings God has in store for us in the future.

It looks like we're about to get some inspired insight from a living prophet, seer, and revelator about the Problem of Evil.......

It is a challenge to count our blessings because we have a tendency to take good things for granted. When we lose a roof over our heads, food to eat, or the warmth of friends and family, we realize how grateful we should have been when we had them.

Likewise, sometimes I don't feed my kids, or I make them sleep outside, or I break their toys. That's because I want them to appreciate what I have done for them.

Most of all, sometimes it is hard for us to be sufficiently grateful for the greatest gifts we receive: the birth of Jesus Christ, His Atonement, the promise of resurrection, the opportunity to enjoy eternal life with our families, the Restoration of the gospel with the priesthood and its keys. Only with the help of the Holy Ghost can we begin to feel what those blessings mean for us and for those we love. And only then can we hope to be thankful in all things and avoid the offense to God of ingratitude.

But President Eyring just said that losing our blessings helps us realize that we should have been grateful for them. So, following his reasoning, maybe we should leave the Church for a while, so that we learn not to take the Church for granted.

And since he is saying that it takes a revelation from God ("the help of the Holy Ghost") to feel what the Church means for us, we can see that the blessings we get from the Church are not self-evident.

We must ask in prayer that God, by the power of the Holy Ghost, will help us see our blessings clearly even in the midst of our trials. He can help us by the power of the Spirit to recognize and be grateful for blessings we take for granted.

Synthesizing President Eyring's statements, apparently God is going to take things away from us, and then the Holy Ghost will help us notice what is now missing.

What has helped me the most is to ask God in prayer, “Wouldst Thou please direct me to someone I can help for Thee?”

That's because God lives in Elizabethan England, so I need to talk to Him in a way that He will understand.

It is in helping God bless others that I have seen my own blessings more closely.

I think we should also follow God's example by demanding thanks and praise from the people we help, and make them miserable if they do not adequately express their gratitude to us.

My prayer was once answered when a couple I had not known before invited me to go to a hospital. There I found a little baby so small that she could fit in my hand. In only a few weeks of life, she had undergone multiple surgeries. The doctors had told the parents that more difficult surgery would be needed for the heart and lungs to sustain life in that little child of God.

At the request of the parents, I gave the baby a priesthood blessing. The blessing included a promise of life being extended. More than giving a blessing, I received the blessing myself of a more grateful heart.

Notice the premise that God made a tiny baby and his/her parents suffer so that President Eyring could learn about being grateful.

With our Father’s help, all of us can choose to feel more gratitude. We can ask Him to help us see our blessings more clearly, whatever our circumstances. For me that day, I appreciated as never before the miracle of my own heart and lungs working. I gave thanks on the way home for blessings to my children that I could see more clearly were miracles of kindness from God and from good people around them.

This is the "sucks to be you" theodicy. God brings misery and suffering to others so that we appreciate how much better we have it than they do. By witnessing the misery of others, we find joy in knowing that God has made things better for us. See: Schadenfreude

Most of all, I felt gratitude for the evidence of the Atonement working in the lives of those anxious parents and in mine. I had seen hope and the pure love of Christ shining in their faces, even in their terrible trial.


And I felt the evidence you can feel if you ask God to reveal to you that the Atonement can allow you to feel hope and love.

Truly, the Lord visiting misery and terrible trials upon us teaches us to love Him. See: Stockholm syndrome Go thou and do likewise. Abuse your loved ones, and cause problems for them, so that they will learn to depend on you for comfort and will express gratitude to you.

We all can make the choice to give thanks in prayer and to ask God for direction to serve others for Him—especially during this time of year when we celebrate the Savior’s birth. God the Father gave His Son, and Jesus Christ gave us the Atonement, the greatest of all gifts and all giving (see D&C 14:7).

Yes, we can all come to be grateful that the Lord will fix the problems He gave us in the first place. And then the Lord will answer our prayers and teach us to have gratitude by causing problems for other people. See Broken window fallacy

Giving thanks in prayer can allow us to see the magnitude of these blessings and all of our other blessings and so receive the gift of a more grateful heart.

Because you have to, and the Lord will make you miserable if you don't.

[_consiglieri]

It is in helping God bless others that I have seen my own blessings more closely.

I think we should also follow God's example by demanding thanks and praise from the people we help, and make them miserable if they do not adequately express their gratitude to us.

In an absolutely hilarious commentary, this line had my sides hurting the most!

[_Jonah]

Wow. After reading the First Presidency Message I once again realized how miserable I was as a TBM member and how extremely grateful I am to have ended my 40 year affiliation with the church. Without that experience, I might not have known such gratitude. Life is so much better after dumping the game playing Mormon god.

[_schreech]

[_Molok]

Oh well done

[_Equality]

The OP is absolutely full to overflowing with WIN.

[_Aristotle Smith]

That's because God lives in Elizabethan England, so I need to talk to Him in a way that He will understand.

Actually, God lives in Jacobean England. It's a common mistake, so don't feel bad.

[_schreech]

My favorite OP of the holiday season...Thank you lord vader, Thank you.

[_Darth J]

That's because God lives in Elizabethan England, so I need to talk to Him in a way that He will understand.

Actually, God lives in Jacobean England. It's a common mistake, so don't feel bad.

Huh?

[Guest]

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