I am thankful to be alive at a time when I get to see the Church build temples all over the world and gather Israel in. I am thankful for my family and for me friends. Most of all I am thankful for the Atonement.
Stealing this from another thread. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the things I am thankful for:
“And I’m grateful for Team Reality, independent researchers, doctors who prescribed early treatment, Governor DeSantis, embalmers, Elon Musk (for freeing Twitter), the Great Barrington Declaration, small firm lawyers, open beaches and gyms, citizen journalists, moms, the human immune system, and everyone who yelled at school boards.
And I’m especially grateful for a holiday without double-masks, lockdowns, shutdowns, travel restrictions, inter-family acrimony over medical status, visor-style face shields, efficacy ratios, being “non-essential,” constant Fauci news bulletins, viruses dominating the headlines, “experts,” breakthrough infections, arrow-directed supermarket aisles, sand-filled skate parks, beach cops, cashiers cowering behind plexiglass plates, virtual school, curbside delivery, temperature scans, prison-style visits with elderly relatives in care homes, Coast Guard paddleboard seizures, designer hand sanitizer, bleach-sprayed groceries, crime-scene police taped-playgrounds and padlocked basketball courts, KAREN, daily death tickers, drive-through church service, extra-wide news desks to accommodate social distancing, kids eating lunch outside in snowstorms, medical TikTok dance routines, Twitter’s previous management, rapid tests, sold-out comedians pushing vaccinations, and halfwitted, cuckoo-brained, and literally brain-damaged politicians calling me ‘dangerous to society’ every ten minutes.”
Love that second list! (Embalmers?). Very grateful for these things – although there should never have been any reason to need to be grateful for them, given that they never should have been things we might go without; but it’s a good reminder that things have been worse, very recently, and are not as bad as that anymore. I can definitely feel grateful for that. (It’s also a gentle reminder that there are people in countries where some fundamental aspects of these things are the norm.)
I struggle a lot with circumstances – and personal weaknesses, as we all do – that I hate, which makes it hard to feel grateful when I’m really feeling the discouragement and unpleasantness associated with them. But even in that state, when the things I usually feel gratitude for aren’t doing it for me, the Gospel is the single greatest gift I could ever have – that anyone could have – and I have it. It will always weigh more than any bad or unfair thing; than all of them put together. I know why I’m here; I know God lives; I can pray to Him and know that He listens; I know that He loves me – I know this personally and surely, not just because I believe it and it’s nice; I know what the possibilities are for the future (after this life); I know that I have a Saviour, that His grace is sufficient – for me, with everything that I am and am not and that I have and don’t have; I know – basically, although not experientially, since that’s the hardest part and I’m in the process still – what is needed to gain eternal fulfillment; I know what really matters in this life; I have the counsel and comfort of wise, loving Church leaders in the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve who actually communicate with the Lord and share His will and message; and I have the Gift of the Holy Ghost, which is the most priceless gift I could have to get through this life. No matter what, these things are, and will not change.
I am thankful to be alive at a time when I get to see the Church build temples all over the world and gather Israel in. I am thankful for my family and for me friends. Most of all I am thankful for the Atonement.
Stealing this from another thread. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the things I am thankful for:
“And I’m grateful for Team Reality, independent researchers, doctors who prescribed early treatment, Governor DeSantis, embalmers, Elon Musk (for freeing Twitter), the Great Barrington Declaration, small firm lawyers, open beaches and gyms, citizen journalists, moms, the human immune system, and everyone who yelled at school boards.
And I’m especially grateful for a holiday without double-masks, lockdowns, shutdowns, travel restrictions, inter-family acrimony over medical status, visor-style face shields, efficacy ratios, being “non-essential,” constant Fauci news bulletins, viruses dominating the headlines, “experts,” breakthrough infections, arrow-directed supermarket aisles, sand-filled skate parks, beach cops, cashiers cowering behind plexiglass plates, virtual school, curbside delivery, temperature scans, prison-style visits with elderly relatives in care homes, Coast Guard paddleboard seizures, designer hand sanitizer, bleach-sprayed groceries, crime-scene police taped-playgrounds and padlocked basketball courts, KAREN, daily death tickers, drive-through church service, extra-wide news desks to accommodate social distancing, kids eating lunch outside in snowstorms, medical TikTok dance routines, Twitter’s previous management, rapid tests, sold-out comedians pushing vaccinations, and halfwitted, cuckoo-brained, and literally brain-damaged politicians calling me ‘dangerous to society’ every ten minutes.”
Love that second list! (Embalmers?). Very grateful for these things – although there should never have been any reason to need to be grateful for them, given that they never should have been things we might go without; but it’s a good reminder that things have been worse, very recently, and are not as bad as that anymore. I can definitely feel grateful for that. (It’s also a gentle reminder that there are people in countries where some fundamental aspects of these things are the norm.)
I struggle a lot with circumstances – and personal weaknesses, as we all do – that I hate, which makes it hard to feel grateful when I’m really feeling the discouragement and unpleasantness associated with them. But even in that state, when the things I usually feel gratitude for aren’t doing it for me, the Gospel is the single greatest gift I could ever have – that anyone could have – and I have it. It will always weigh more than any bad or unfair thing; than all of them put together. I know why I’m here; I know God lives; I can pray to Him and know that He listens; I know that He loves me – I know this personally and surely, not just because I believe it and it’s nice; I know what the possibilities are for the future (after this life); I know that I have a Saviour, that His grace is sufficient – for me, with everything that I am and am not and that I have and don’t have; I know – basically, although not experientially, since that’s the hardest part and I’m in the process still – what is needed to gain eternal fulfillment; I know what really matters in this life; I have the counsel and comfort of wise, loving Church leaders in the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve who actually communicate with the Lord and share His will and message; and I have the Gift of the Holy Ghost, which is the most priceless gift I could have to get through this life. No matter what, these things are, and will not change.