The Spiritual Necessity of Gratitude
The Spiritual Necessity of Gratitude
Jonathan Skalski, Carrollton Ward 11/15/2009
Introduction
Dear Brothers and Sisters of this wonderful Carrollton Ward, thank you so much for accepting me and my wife as your family. We have felt your love, and we are so grateful to be here. I want to tell you that I love you and we love you.
I am grateful for this opportunity to be with you this morning, and I pray that the Holy Spirit will be with me and you as I speak with you about the spiritual necessity of gratitude.
What is gratitude?
Gratitude, thankfulness, or appreciation is a positive emotion or attitude that comes from acknowledgment of a blessing or benefits that one has received or will receive [repeat?]. In this definition we see that gratitude is defined by what it comes from. Gratitude comes from acknowledgement, or in other words awareness… Gratitude comes from and is really an awareness of God and His benevolent influence. This awareness is like a remembering because we become aware of something we already know: The great truth the God is in all things. As we see in Chapter 88 of the Doctrine & Covenants, God is, “in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever.”
Gratitude is a commandment
Since God is in all things, we are instructed to acknowledge him in all things. The Lord tells us Chapter 59 of Doctrine and Covenants, “And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man… And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things” (20-21).
Gratitude has been an important teaching of the gospel from the annals of time. In the Psalms we read, “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High” (50:14) and “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” (100:4).
The practice of thanksgiving or “giving-thanks” was a commandment under Mosaic Law as an express part of sacrificial peace offerings. We read in Leviticus 22:29 “And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at your own will.” Gratitude was a central part of Mosaic sacrifice, which was specifically instituted to draw our hearts to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I know that we should be most grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ! For the atonement of Jesus Christ enriches, adds hope, and sustains all things.
When the Nephites gathered to hear King Benjamin address the people, they also took of the firstlings of their flocks, that they might offer sacrifice and burnt offerings according to the law of Moses; And also that they might give thanks to the Lord their God (Mosiah 2:3-4).
For a moment, let us consider the symbolism of animal sacrifices. The animal symbolized the Savior. For example, the sacrificial lamb was to be 1) a first born male, 2) white and free from blemish, and 3) not have a broken bone. There was a “laying on of hands” in which the sins of the individual were placed upon the animal, the animal becoming the individual’s “representative and substitute”. Then the person who sinned had to slay the animal! Imagine the feeling!... The scriptures speak about a broken heart and a contrite spirit…
In the darkness the voice of Christ proclaimed his divinity and announced that the Law of Moses was fulfilled (3 Nephi 9:19-20):
And ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings. And ye shall offer for sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost
Part of a broken heart and contrite spirit involves an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the mercies of God through Jesus Christ.
We have so much to be grateful for
[Explain my interest in psychology, my studies at the UWG]… Psychology was originally focused on people in distress, but since the year 2000, psychology has started to focus on gratitude in the field of positive psychology. Positive psychology has helped us to understand how gratitude is experienced when people perceive the help they receive as (1) valuable for them, (2) costly for the giver, and (c) given for selfless reasons.
Maybe we are not as grateful as we should be for the atonement… I know that the atonement of Jesus Christ is of inestimable value. Maybe we do not calculate the cost for the Father and the Son… I know that the atonement was of incomprehensible cost. Maybe we do not fathom the love that they have for us.
In addition to the atonement of Jesus Christ, I know that we have so much to be grateful for. We should be grateful to our Father for creating a plan for our growth. In our premortal lives, we could not experience bodily sensations or have dominion over matter. We should be grateful for our bodies and our mortal lives. Now we are able to hug and be hugged, move around, enjoy the taste of food... We can even experience pain... We should be grateful for the fullness of the gospel and the associated blessings… We should be grateful for our families… President Monson said:
This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help.
Are we sufficiently grateful?
My dear friend do you acknowledge His hand in all things? Are you sufficiently grateful? Paul prophesized to Timothy, “That in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall beunthankful, etc.… Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.”
From President Benson we learn that “The Prophet Joseph said at one time that one of the greatest sins of which the Latter-day Saints would be guilty is the sin of ingratitude.” If gratitude is awareness and remembering, then ingratitude could be consider a lack of awareness, not seeing clearly, and forgetting. Consider how Bruce R. McKonkie writes in Mormon Doctrine how “Among all sins, none is so prevalent as the sin of ingratitude.”
Are we like the ten lepers in The Gospel of Luke (Luke 17:11-19)? Ten lepers were cleansed, but only one leper fell down on his face at the feet of Jesus and gave thanks. Maybe we are not like the nine and we are like the one that actually did return to give thanks, but then maybe we fail to tell others about how Jesus healed us?
Are we like the servant who was forgiven of his 10,000 talent debt (Matthew 18:23-)? He then failed to forgive an hundred pence. To this ungrateful servant the king said “Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant?” Do we easily forgive others? If we do not, then we are not as grateful as we should be for the atonement of Jesus Christ. For likewise, we have been forgiven and hope to be forgiven of an immeasurable debt.
It was the great King Benjamin who said:
“Oh how you ought to thank your heavenly king!” I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. Mosiah 2:19-21
We cannot possibly “pay-back” Our Heavenly Father. We are always indebted to Him. And we should be forever grateful. God has given us everything and He wants us to acknowledge him in gratitude.
How can we be more grateful?
President Monson tells us that an attitude of gratitude is something we should actively develop:
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. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. (Thomas S. Monson, "An Attitude of Gratitude," Ensign, May 1992, 54)
Gratitude can begin by expressing it. The gratitude salute…
We need to give prayers of gratitude. Ezra Taft Benson once said:
There is a great tendency for us in our prayers and in our pleadings with the Lord to ask for additional blessings. But sometimes I feel we need to devote more of our prayers to expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving for blessings already received. (God, Family, Country, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1974, p. 199) Ezra Taft Benson, quoted in Henry B. Eyring, "Remembrance and Gratitude," Ensign, Nov. 1989, 12-13
Have you ever said a prayer in which you only expressed gratitude?
Truman G. Madsen was revered as the most knowledgeable Joseph Smith scholar before he recently crossed over the veil. Brother Madsen affirmed that “Joseph was one of the most gratefulmen who ever lived.” I believe that he was grateful because he knew that God was there. Joseph Smith said that if you will thank the Lord with all your heart every night for all the blessings of that day you will eventually find yourself exalted in the kingdom of God. This is a powerful statement on the spiritual necessity of gratitude. In Doctrine & Covenants Section 78 verse 19 the Lord says, "He who receiveth all things with thankfulness [Notice the “all” in that statement… distresses, difficulties, setbacks] shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more."
Consider the spirit of the church pioneers as they “received all things with thankfulness” that is evident in the popular church hymn Come, come, ye saints, “And should we die before our journey’s through, Happy day! All is well! We then are free from toil and sorrow, too; With the just we shall dwell!
Do you somehow record your deep experiences of gratitude?
-When we found out that we were having a boy… we recorded our feelings of gratitude on our handycam video recorder…
-Writing is an excellent way of expressing gratitude because the expression is preserved. Barbara Ann Kipfer began the practice of listing things that she was grateful for each day. Eventually she decided to submit her list to be published and it became a best-selling book called 14,000 Things to be Happy About (over 1 million copies sold)… Consider the following excerpt:
Ice cream sandwiches, red leotards, a baseball game going into extra innings, a cat running 30 mph, wet babies, tobogganing, Bugs Bunny, Hawaiian shirts, the beach in the fall, your own rainbow, a real person answering the phone,
-My sweet wife loves to write thank you cards, and she has been an excellent example for me.
-A few months ago, I started writing a heartfelt letter of gratitude to a person that I wanted to thank every Sunday. After the first time I sat down and wrote, I felt so grateful that I had to write another letter. Expressing gratitude helped me to be more grateful and more aware of God’s blessing.
-Writing in a personal journal is an excellent way to be more grateful and aware. My journal entries since joining the church have helped me to see the hand of God in my life and to be more grateful. Please let me share with you one entry just after I was baptized on January 1st 2003:
I am now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. The joy of my soul cries out to God the Eternal Father. The Holy Spirit has descended upon me and resides in me as a warmth while the efforts to serve my Father and bring glory for the forces of all that is holy are constantly within my hear. Today is the greatest day of my life and I am eternally grateful and seek to honor God, the Church and Saints. I feel like a warrior knight strengthened and shielded with the Holy Spirit and armed with a weapon that surpasses all the riches of the earth.
Testimony and conclusion…
Again, he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious…
