Gratitude

I was told of a story that took place on a train in New York City. A woman walked onto the train and a man stood up to give her his seat. This woman was so surprised by the gesture that she fainted. She came to and thanked the man. He was so surprised by her gratitude that he fainted.

It is no secret that the growing sentiment of ingratitude and entitlement has borrowed the reigns of our political process, dominated a growing share of the world’s thinking, and has robbed every of its victims of the possibility of contentment and happiness.

But how can I say you should be grateful? Could it be that someone has nothing good in their lives?

Gratitude doesn’t come from having something in our lives worth our gratitude. Instead, gratitude is a state of spiritual health, in which we understand the origin of every good gift. Ingratitude, on the other hand, is an egregious form of blindness.

It should be said, gratitude, throughout the scriptures, has accompanied the times when men are closest to God. In the same way, the level and sincerity of our own gratitude is a good measure of our closeness.

I want to offer three simple insights that have helped me receive answers to prayers, overcome trials, and become whole through gratitude.

First, Gratitude opens the windows of revelation swells the power of our prayers.

1 Tim 4:4 reads “Nothing is refused [to] him [that] receive[s] with thanksgiving.” Nothing is refused to him. Our prayers are answered much more liberally when we are grateful. Why is that? Perhaps you have noticed, as I have, that sometimes I pray for something, like help on an exam. When the result comes, I mark up the success to hard work on my part, increasing my pride and distancing me from God. Imagine if you were in God’s position, judging whether to answer such a prayer. If that help on the exam would increase your pride and thus distance you from God, answers may be rare. However a grateful heart disarms pride and miracles become stepping stones to God, as each convinces us of our dependence on God; thus God is willing to shower on us all gifts “as soon as we are able to receive them.”

Gratitude disables our ability to perceive revelation or blessings in a way that stimulates our pride, enabling God to liberally and powerfully answer our prayers.

Second, lenses of Gratitude are the proper spectacles through which we come to understand our trials

The Lord to the early saints said “Give thanks in all things.” All things, including our trials.

But how can we be grateful for thorns, and weeds, and deaths, and illness, and personal pain?

In The Wizard of Oz, citizens of the Emerald city wear green glasses which color their vision of the world, interpreting every object through that lens. [People are noted for looking through rose-colored glasses if they perceive their surroundings too positively. The rosy lens colors their interpretation of circumstances.]

The lens of gratitude, however, is the only one through which we can correctly perceive and understand our trials.

When we see the good things in our lives through the lens of gratitude, we see them for what they are—blessings. When we see trials and obstacles through the lens of gratitude we see in them the purpose, the meaning, of the trial.

The trials of our lives are the ones with messages that we are missing. And that is something to be grateful for. Understanding, as Nephi said, that “God doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world,” helps us understand that his allowing a particular trial is the product of His love, not His condemnation. When we understand that, it is much easier to see and then understand the lessons, which lessons are the purpose and meaning of the trial itself. Remember, “All things are done in the wisdom of He who knoweth all things” (2 Nephi 2:24).

Elie Wiesel was a survivor of the concentration camps. He wrote a book called “Man‘s Search for Meaning” and became a Nobel Prize winner back when that meant that you had really done something.

He wrote: “Suffering ceases to be suffering when it finds meaning.”

After World War II, Elie started his psychiatry practice again. A medical doctor came in and told him that he had been paralyzed by grief for months since his wife had passed away. He described that he couldn’t eat or sleep or work. Elie asked the man what would have happened to his wife if he had died before her. The man pondered and explained that she would be experiencing the same pain he did now. Elie said, “in outliving her, you have spared her that anguish.” The doctor thought on that and his whole demeanor changed. His trial found meaning. The pain dissolved and he left, having been cured of the soreness of that trial. In our lives there is profound meaning to our trials. When we discover the meaning, the pain relieves and we have become fit to overcome the trial. Gratitude allows us to see the good of the trial; as with all lenses, gratitude improves our vision.

Third, Gratitude as a gateway principle to our salvation

Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest virtues, but the parent of all others.” [(A philosopher that predated Christ by about 60 years and whose books were secondary only the bible to the Founders of the country. They say that George Washington maintained a simple room with just a copy of the Bible and a copy of Cicero‘s Cato by his bedside; and that was his nightly read. John Adams said of Cicero, “there was no greater philosopher and statesman.”)]

Section 78:19 reads, “He who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him.” No other qualifications? No caveat? You and I have both read the verses in the Book of Mormon that say if you do the following five or ten or twenty things you will be saved at the last day. Yet here, the same blessing is promised on the existence of gratitude.

It is because gratitude is a gateway virtue that nurtures all saving virtues.

It engenders humility for we see that we are the recipient of a miracle, and not the manufacturer. It nurtures faith because we can see the gift giver in everything we do and the grand design behind our trials. It grows within us true charity as the self dissolves to be able to see others as God sees them.

[Gratitude is a healthy immune system to arrogance, a wall that keeps its prisoners from all saving virtues.]

Christ, told ten lepers to return to the priest, [because in those days the priest had to authorize the re-integration of lepers into society once they had been healed]. One turned back on his way, “when he saw that he was healed,” First, the man realized he was healed, while the other nine were lost to the fact that a miracle had taken place. We can’t be grateful for things we ignore or are ignorant of. Gratitude requires us to realize the miracles that surround us.

The verse continues: “and with a loud voice [he] glorified God, and fell down giving him thanks” (Luke 17:15-16). Christ asks the man if there were not ten cleansed. He then tells this grateful man that he was “whole.” Ten were made clean and one was made spiritually whole. A distinction is made between the cleansing miracle of lepresy and that the gratitude in this man made him spiritually whole, complete. Should we be healed of a life-threatening condition and yet not be spiritually whole, that shortcoming leaves us worse off than the cancer itself.

We all have leprosy of the spirit in some sense. The Savior has sacrificed his entire existence to the healing of our souls. What will we do? Are we grateful? Could you tell by reading the log of our lives?

It is my confession that I am insufficiently grateful for the atoning love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I know that gratitude grounds us to humility and builds our faith in God. I know gratitude makes us happy—somehow in relinquishing the ownership of our accomplishments we become happier, and I don’t understand why that is. I love this gospel and the meaning that it imbues in my life.