Gratitude

On Sunday, Adam and I had to speak about safety in following the prophets, and while I won't post my entire 18 minute talk, there are some thoughts I'd like to share.

Wikipedia defines this way:
Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be considered non-desirable.

Something I’ve noticed about President Monson is that he is also very much concerned with how we THINK—or, our psychological and emotional safety.

I looked through all of the General Conference talks President Monson has given since becoming the president of the Church. We’ve had a total of 6 Conferences, and he has given 24 talks. And I noticed at least four of those talks have been directly related to our emotional and psychological well-being.

One, given at a Priesthood session, titled “School Thy Feelings,” was about not getting angry and being peacemakers, which certainly is good for our emotional and psychological safety. The other three were about finding joy in the journey and developing an attitude of gratitude in our lives.

In his October 2008 talk “Finding Joy in the Journey,” President Monson encouraged us to find joy now and to show love to others by recognizing what is truly important in life and what we have to be grateful for. He said, “Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family.” He also quoted, an author, saying, “Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”

Then in April 2009, he gave a talk called “Be of Good Cheer.” He mentioned some of the struggles going on in the world and then said, “It would be easy to become discouraged and cynical about the future—or even fearful of what might come—if we allowed ourselves to dwell only on that which is wrong in the world and in our lives. Today, however, I’d like us to turn our thoughts and our attitudes away from the troubles around us and to focus instead on our blessings as members of the Church.”

He shared three stories of people with serious struggles—a family immigrating to Zion who had a child die along the way, a man who went blind and desired to have his sight restored, and a young widow who lost all four of her children as she was forced to walk across Germany following WWII. Each faced dark and dreary days, but each pressed forward trusting in God, and President Monson encouraged us to the do the same, saying: “I testify to you that our promised blessings are beyond measure. Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments. There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us. My beloved brothers and sisters, fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith.”

This past General Conference, President Monson gave a talk titled, “The Divine Gift of Gratitude.”
Here are some of the thoughts he shared in that talk:
“My brothers and sisters, do we remember to give thanks for the blessings we receive? Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love. My beloved friend President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “When you walk with gratitude, you do not walk with arrogance and conceit and egotism, you walk with a spirit of thanksgiving that is becoming to you and will bless your lives.”

He also said, “We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude.”

President Monson reminded us, “Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings. This is a wonderful time to be on earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good. There are marriages that make it, parents who love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach. Our lives are blessed in countless ways.”

So, over these past few General Conferences, President Monson has repeatedly tried to lead us to psychological and emotional safety by helping us change our perspectives, to focus on the blessings. This is something that our Savior wants for us. He doesn’t want us to be lonely and miserable and unhappy. He has always wanted our happiness—enough that He atoned for it and died for it. As we listen to President Monson and try to be happy, we become safe psychologically and emotionally. We become less susceptible to Satan’s murmurings of doubt and his attempts to drag us into despair. And we have the opportunity to lift those around us as well so that they can be safe from the darkness and misery Satan tries to spread.

We live in a world that can be pretty dark and scary and dangerous. We are fighting a terrible adversary. It’s not a coincidence that Satan is called the Destroyer. He seeks to destroy us, to keep us from anything and everything that will make us happy and especially to keep us from being safe. But we have a Savior who loves us, and His Atonement provides the way for us, and President Monson has especially talked about having gratitude for our Savior. Surely as we do this, we become safe—because we realize just Who is on our side and what He has done for us. As we look at our lives and express gratitude, we can see the Savior’s hand in our lives and how He has blessed us and cared for us in the past. We see how those unbearable situations have been borne and how the Savior’s Atonement really works in every situation. Does the Savior’s atonement cover speaking in church, even if we pass out or say something wrong? Yes. Does the atonement cover failing a class or being out of work or a death of a loved one? Yes. We always have a reason to be grateful, because we always have our Savior. We don’t need to be caught in Satan’s pit of misery and endless wo.

As we follow our prophet, President Monson, and express gratitude to our Savior, our perspectives change, and we allow ourselves to be gathered into the arms of the One who loved us enough to bleed at every pore and die on the cross for our happiness and our salvation. A savior, by definition, is a person who saves, or keeps safe. There is safety in following the prophets because they will ALWAYS lead us to our Savior.

The Lord loves us and because He loves us, He speaks to us through prophets. We have a great opportunity coming up this week to watch General Conference and learn from the prophets. As I mentioned before, we’ve had six Conferences since President Monson became the president of the Church. Well, in those six Conferences, I found SEVEN instances when he instructed us to listen to, study and learn from the General Conference talks—and to apply the teachings in our lives, and I know that as we do this, we will be protected from Satan, who seeks to destroy our happiness, our homes, and our futures.

In the October 2010 General Conference, President Eyring promised, “If you trust God enough to listen for His message in every sermon, song, and prayer in this Conference, you will find it.” I want to add my testimony to that. I know God wants to speak us to us and that He calls prophets to teach us His words, to give us His messages and guidance. I testify that the Lord knows our needs, that He loves us and wants us to be safe and happy, and that as we listen to the Lord’s chosen prophets, they will lead us to Him. President Monson and the other members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are prophets, seers, and revelators, and while they have never promised that following them will mean we never have adversity, we have been promised that following the prophets will keep us safe. They are not merely grandfatherly figures, up there giving us some good advice. They are direct lines to our Savior, speaking for Him and providing the way for us to overcome the Destroyer. I am so grateful for them and for our Savior.