With American Thanksgiving being tomorrow I’ve been bouncing around an article idea that focused on how the day isn’t a holiday because holiday, coming from the phrase holy day, are days that commemorates things of a religious nature – such as days relating to specifically holy people, that memorialize the performance of great miracles, that recognize moments in time when the hand of the Divine has been obvious in the flow of history, etc. Holidays remember holy events and give people a break from their normal lives to celebrate those holy events. Thanksgiving, of course, does none of these things.
Thanksgiving isn’t a holy day, nor a holiday. It is a nationalist propaganda tool the American government uses to legitimize itself by stealing the glory and meaning of events that came before its founding. It is based on a myth and that myth is told to legitimize the government by promulgating the idea of “America” as being a place and a nation unique from all others in the world as being founded in freedom. Of course this ignores that the first English settlement in North America wasn’t Pilgrim Plymouth but Jamestown. And Jamestown was founded with the specific purpose of plundering the New World of as much wealth as possible and which maintained itself by becoming one of the largest drug dealers in the world when it began growing and selling tobacco, which was tied directly with the start of slavery in the English Colonies. Then there is the fact that the Pilgrims weren’t really all that enamored with religious freedom, either. They wanted to have a place where they were the dominant religious group and could practice their version of Christianity without legal restriction while, at the same time, creating laws that would prevent others from doing the same. They weren’t interested in either tolerance or religious freedom, but religious purity.
Telling the truth about the history and purpose of Thanksgiving could easily take up a whole article. The ideas above are merely the tip of the iceberg. And, perhaps next year, I will do so. But this year, I have decided to take a different tack. The reason for this is simple; I’m trying to follow the counsel of the Prophet. Last Friday (Nov. 20th, 2020) Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Prophet and Apostle of God, released a very unique message to the world in which he gave us counsel about how to confront the very real problems of the world without losing hope and with faith. Watch it below for yourself.
In the video, President Nelson asks us to do three things:
- Turn social media into a gratitude journal
- Say a prayer of thanks to God for all we have
- Build our relationships with Christ
I am going to attempt to that in my own way here below.
An Expression of Gratitude
Obviously this isn’t social media. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t express my gratitude for all the blessings in my life, and they are numerous and probably numberless.
Out of a desire to maintain my privacy I will forego any explanation of my family life with any detail. But I will say that I am extremely thankful for my family. My wife and children bring me more joy in my life than I can express. My wife is my bestfriend. I love being around her and with her. Merely being in her presence is like standing around a fire on a cold night; she radiates light, warmth, and power. Whether I am laughing or crying she is my constant and dearest companion. In times of trial and tribulation, as well as times of serenity and peace, she is at my side and we come through the storms together. Her insights into people and society are incisive and more profound than she gives herself credit for. More than once wisdom and observations gained from conversations with her have found their way onto this sight in one form or another. The work she does as a mother, wife, friend, and woman are without compare and this work would be impossible without her aid, encourage, and labor. In moments of clarity I can almost see the goddess within her and it is awe-inspiring.
Likewise, my children are wonderful. I have never experienced a purer love than when one of my little ones wraps his/her arms around me and says, “Daddy, I love you.” I have never experienced a purer forgiveness than when one of them has told be that they forgive me of something I have done wrong and then showered me with kisses of love and joy. Having my children has taught me to truly understand why the Savior taught that if we want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven then we must become like little children and that the Kingdom belongs to those like little children. (See Matthew 18:3; 19:14) Every day my little ones teach me about what it is like to be a Christian in word and deed.
I am grateful for the work I do. The various state mandates and governor’s dictates (not laws) issued regarding the pandemic have played havoc with everything, but I still have a good job doing work that I love. It allows me to provide for my family and for us to afford to fulfill our wants and needs in ways that many people across the world do not have. It allows us to give to those in need and to help those we can help. The Lord has blessed us and provided for us so that we can care for ourselves and others. This is a great gift.
I am grateful for this site. It allows me to give voice to many things that I otherwise would never be able to explore in any depth. It allows me to explore the truths I know, the wisdom I have discovered, and the insights I have been blessed with. It helps me to counter popular but false understandings of history, politics, and scripture found among the people of the world. It allows me to counter the false traditions of our fathers and to stand, as I can, for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God on Earth. It allows me to follow my heart and my faith and hopefully take part in the changings of hearts and minds around me so they, too, will stand for the liberty and humanity of their fellow man. God willing, it will be a vehicle for His work as one of His “small and simple things” which brings great things to pass. (See Alma 37:6)
Picture: The First Visions by Anthony Sweat.
I am thankful for the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and His church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every good and noble thing in my life has come from this church. I met my wife at church. I studied history philosophy at BYU. The church has helped me care for my family, provided us food, paid our rent, repaired our car, given us a place to lay our heads when homeless, and so much more. The material blessings alone have been incredible. But the greatest blessings lay beyond those of the world; the spiritual blessings have been immeasurable. More than what I have, it is who I am that I owe to Christ. His Gospel has given me the the eternal truths upon which my life has been founded. Indeed, my wife and I have only been able to weather the aforementioned trials and tribulations because when those storms arose we had Christ as our shield and His Gospel as our foundation.
The Restored Gospel teaches that all men and women – no matter who they are, where they are from, what they look like, what language they speak, or what they believe – are literally Children of God, His spiritual sons and daughters. This simple truth has transformed everything I knew about the world, the people in it, and my relationship to them. I know who I am and I know who you are and that makes all the difference about who we should be to one another. I do not care what side of an invisible and made up line you were born upon. You are my family, by blood through Adam and by spirit by God. Furthermore, the Restored Gospel answers the questions about our purpose in life, who we are, and what happens after death. It transforms the heart, expands the spirit, and, unlike anything else in all of history, actually and truly transforms the nature of man from fallen to divine. Or, perhaps, it allows men and women to break through the accumulated morass of worldly sin and allows us to fulfill our inherent divine potential through the grace of God. For such truth and transformation, for such purpose and meaning, I am eternally thankful to the Lord Almighty.
Concerning Prayer
I am not going to sit here and write out a prayer. That would, at best, be really presumptuous on my part to think that you would want to read a prayer or say a prayer that I have written. I will share some thoughts on the purpose and power of prayer though.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “If we start right, it is easy to go right all the time; but if we start wrong we may go wrong, and it will be a hard matter to get right.” And in no more place is this truth more obvious than in the way so many of us approach prayer. Prayer is one of the most powerful things that I think most of us, including myself, often get incredibly wrong. Often we treat God as if He is a magical sky genie who is just waiting for us to petition before He grants our wishes. Then, when He doesn’t, we get angry, declare the whole thing a lie, and stomp off into the corner to pout like children and call anyone who disagrees with us liars and deluded idiots. This is because we are ignorant of the purpose of prayer and being so wrong about it we end up in the totally wrong place, a place which, after we have invested so much time and pride in, is incredibly difficult for us to come back from. So let us here start off with the right understanding of prayer and go from there so we can end up in the right place.
The Guide to the Scriptures teaches this about prayer:
The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that we must ask for in order to obtain.
We pray to the Father in Christ’s name (John 14:13–14; 16:23–24). We are truly able to pray in Christ’s name when our wishes are the wishes of Christ (John 15:7; D&C 46:30). We then ask for things that are right and thus possible for God to grant (3 Ne. 18:20). Some prayers remain unanswered because they in no way represent Christ’s desire but spring instead out of the selfishness of man (James 4:3; D&C 46:9). Indeed, if we ask God for unrighteous things, it will turn to our condemnation (D&C 88:65).
Picture: Not My Will But Thine by Walter Rane
The purpose of prayer is not to get all the stuff we want from God. Rather, the purpose of prayer is to unite our hearts to His, to submerse our will in the Divine Will, to declare along with Christ that it is His will, not ours, that should be done. In doing so we may gain blessings from God that He has made dependent on our asking, but we will not alter His course if He has already decided it. We do this through the Holy Spirit. As we become more familiar with the spiritual practice of prayer we will become more familiar with the will of God and thus more able to achieve the greatest goal, to become One with the Father. (See John 17) This can be a difficult doctrine to understand because, sometimes, God’s will is that we suffer and even die, as He has said:
And whoso layeth down his life in my cause, for my name’s sake, shall find it again, even life eternal. Therefore, be not afraid of your enemies, for I have decreed in my heart, saith the Lord, that I will prove you in all things, whether you will abide in my covenant, even unto death, that you may be found worthy.
D&C 98: 13-14
Intellectually this is easy to understand. If life weren’t hard it wouldn’t be much of a refiner’s fire. Emotionally this can be devastating. But that devastation is exactly what matters. It is the proving ground where you develop the kind of heroic faith that will always turn you towards Christ and will prepare you for godhood or you shrink away from valiancy and choose the lesser part. To some this may be cruel and they ask why God wouldn’t create another way. The answer to that is there is no other way. The only way to be proven and made worthy is to face suffering and failure and be proven by them. You cannot be tried without trials.
It is through prayer, by learning to discern the Spirit and unite ourselves to the Lord, that our hearts and minds are soothed and healed, that we are brought through our trials and made whole. It is through prayer that we can access the power of Christ’s Atonement in our individualized, personal way. It is through prayer that we can and are transformed by communion with God. This I know from personal experience. From the pains and loss in my own life I have been often driven to my knees in sorrow. It was not always easy to hear Him either. Sometimes your own emotions are shrieking at such a loud level that you can’t hear anything else – your own pain or anger driving out the voice of the Spirit.
This is why the lifelong practice of prayer is so important. Through such dedication we can keep the faith, even when we cannot hear or understand God’s voice until our hearts and minds are able to hear Him, until we can bring ourselves in tune with Him and be filled with His Spirit. Through a lifetime of prayer we are healed and perfected and prepared for what comes next. And as we are so perfected we naturally start to uplift the world around us, we naturally begin to form Zion. I know I have been made better, made more, through the power of prayer. In the darkness of the world, prayer is what gives me Light. The church offers more counsel and guidance for how to make prayer more meaningful here.
A Relationship With Christ
This world is one full of much darkness. Corruption runs amok in society. Violence runs rampant. Wars turn civilizations millennia old into smoking craters and millions into refugees. People are raped and murdered for little or nothing at all. Everywhere we look it seems, in the words of the Poet, that “Hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!” But all is not lost. There is Light. There is Hope. There is Christ. Below is a video of a young woman by the name of Ally talking about when she was sexually abused and how she has been able to find healing.
Ally’s story is powerful for many reasons. One of the ways it is most important is the testimony it shares about the healing power of Christ. It was through her relationship with Christ that Ally has experienced that deep mental, emotional, and spiritual healing that she has needed to renew herself. It is the same for all of us. In this world we need Christ more than ever, especially in the midst of the worst evils we face, the things that shatter us and make us feel like there is no point to anything anymore. More than ever it is in “this world of sin” that we need for “the dear Christ” to enter in to our lives and heal us in a way that can be found nowhere else.
We have not been abandoned and we are not alone in our pain and trials. Christ Himself suffered not only the punishments for our sins, but the “pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; [and] the pains and the sicknesses of his people.” (See Alma 7:11) Christ doesn’t just know generically what it is like to suffer as you have. he knows your specific pains, your specific illnesses, your specific temptations, your specific afflictions. Because of this He doesn’t just know how to heal people who have been abused, for example. He knows how to heal you when you have been abused. He knows what it is like for you to have cancer, for you to be raped, for you to get AIDs, for you to lose your child, for you to lose your spouse, for you to be driven from your home, for you to be tortured, for you to be spit upon, ad infinitum.
Whatever you can imagine, whatever you will suffer, He knows exactly what you have suffered because He has suffered your pain and, having suffered that pain, He can heal it forever. He can heal it so powerfully and so completely that all scars from it, whether they emotional, mental, physical, or spiritual, all of them will be wiped away without losing any of the personal development gained from it. And this healing power, this healing relationship, is built and maintained as all other relationships are – through communication, through prayer.
Where there is healing there is also hope. The prophet Ether taught that “whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world …which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God..” (Ether 12:4) This has often, correctly, been seen as the promise of a better world in the next life, to be able to dwell with God and those we love in His celestial kingdom. But I believe this also applies to our lives right now. It is by building our relationship with Christ and through Him with God the Father that we develop the hope not only for a better afterlife , but for a better life now.
On the personal level our hearts are uplifted, our natures are changed, our spirits are cleansed, we are renewed and made better. When the storms of life rage we are anchored in the safety of God and are able to ride out the storm knowing that He is with us and will bless us. Our little part of the Earth is made better by our faith and trust in Him as we are made better by our relationship with Them.
Yet, this is not all. Because we know the Gospel of Jesus Christ we also know the template for bettering the world. As we become steadfast and immovable in God and glorify Him through our good works, by following and implementing His teachings and His Gospel in our lives and the world around us, the world itself is made better. We are kinder, more loving, serve and help each other, stand for righteousness, reject violence, theft, or doing anything else that would harm those around us. there is less violence and less evil in the world as we strive to follow Christ and our example becomes one that others will follow. The world itself, right now, in this mortal life, is made better, and thus we have hope for a better world right now by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have proof of the ultimate possibility of this in Moses 7 and 4th Nephi with the establishment of Zion and Zion-like societies anciently. When we build our relationship with Christ individually, and through our works build a Christian community – not a community of nominal Christians but a community where Christ is first and foremost in all things – then the world is made better and better until, through the process of time (and it took Enoch centuries to do this) Zion is established as the natural result. Thus, the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to establish a truly universally prosperous and peacefully society.
The natural outcome of believing in God and following Him and serving Him is a better self and a better world. As we build our relationship with the Savior it brings us hope, teaches us the eternal truths that we can build our lives upon, helps us gain the gifts of revelation, helps us gain guidance from Heaven, teaches us the purpose of our life and all Creation, guides us in how fulfilling our life’s purpose, and helps us to make the world around us a better place for all. Having a relationship with Christ doesn’t just change us, it changes everything. It has been my relationship with the Savior that has helped me to be the father, husband, and friend that I am. If there is anything of good report within me it is because of Him and the impact of His presence within my life. You cannot be my friend or love me and despise Mormonism because everything likeable and loveable about me, the good part of who I am, is due to the faith I follow and the Master that I serve. He is the Exemplar and Pattern for my life. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. To Him I owe all thanks, render all praise, and give all glory.
Final Thoughts
The act of actively counting your blessings and seeing how the Lord has blessed you and sharing that is a powerful testimony builder and sharer. It is easy to get lost in the morass of the world’s problems and let despair and despondency take over. But remembering Him, enunciating all that He is doing to bless our lives, and testifying of those blessings to others makes us bearers of His Light to the world. And when the world seems darkest, when we most want to hide away, to crawl under the bushel as it were, is the time when we can least afford to do so. Now is our moment to shine His Light to the World and to demonstrate the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to heal the broken hearted, to lift up those who have fallen, to bring joy to the despondent, and to transform the world. That we can do so merely by expressing our gratitude for His blessings in our lives testifies to the power of gratitude as a way to change the hearts of minds of those who experience it, including our own.
The much beloved Fred Rogers once said, “The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.” As we thank Him in prayer for all that He has done we will build a more powerful relationship with Our Father and His Christ and better be representatives of the Gospel, better in tune with the Spirit, and better worshippers of our God. This in turn will help people see not only the value we see in them, but also the worth that God, whose representatives we are, finds in them. This in turn will draw them to Him. As President Thomas S. Monson taught:
My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven.
…Let us follow Him. Let us emulate His example. Let us obey His words. By so doing, we give to Him the divine gift of gratitude.
In return, we will find joy. In his 2023 General Conference talk, Hallmarks of Happiness, Elder Gary B. Sabin, a General Authority Seventy, taught:
That brings me to my fifth and final observation, which is you will never be happier than you are grateful.
The Lord declared, “And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious.” [D&C 78:19] Perhaps this is because gratitude gives birth to a multitude of other virtues.
How our awareness would change if every morning we awoke with only the blessings we were grateful for the night before. Failure to appreciate our blessings can result in a sense of dissatisfaction, which can rob us of the joy and happiness that gratitude engenders. Those in the great and spacious building entice us to look beyond the mark, thereby missing the mark entirely.
In reality, the greatest happiness and blessing of mortality will be found in who we have become through God’s grace as we make and keep sacred covenants with Him. Our Savior will polish and refine us through the merits of His atoning sacrifice and has said of those who willingly follow Him, “They shall be mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewels.” [D&C 101:3]
Hallmarks of Happiness
