We Give Thanks unto Thee

Subtitle: Making Every Day a Day of Thanks Giving

The following Sacrament talk was delivered to the congregation of the Annapolis Maryland Ward on Sabbath Day morning, 20 November 2005.

I would like to begin my remarks this morning with a story.

A long time ago in a faraway village lived a man who everyone did their very best to avoid. He was the type of person who believed that there was only one competent person in the world, and that one person was himself. Consequently, he was never satisfied with anything. His shoes never fit right. His shirt never felt comfortable. When his food wasn’t too cold, it was too salty, and when it wasn’t too hot, it was too bland.

If a field wasn’t sowed by him, it was not sowed well. If he didn’t close the door, the door was not closed properly.

In short, he made a career of frowning, lecturing, criticizing, and mumbling about the incompetence of every other person in the rest of the world.

The man was married, which for him, made matters all the worse. No matter what his wife did, in his eyes it was wrong. No matter what the unfortunate woman cooked, sewed, or cleaned—or even when she milked the cow—it was never satisfactory, and he let her know it.

She tried very hard to be a good wife, but it seemed the harder she tried, the less she pleased him. Finally, one evening she could take no more.

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” she told him. “Tomorrow I will do your chores and you will do mine.”

“But you can’t do my chores,” the man replied. “You don’t know the first thing about sowing, hoeing, and irrigating.”

But the woman was adamant. And on top of that, she was filled with a righteous anger that frankly astonished and frightened the man to the point where he didn’t dare disagree.

So the next morning the wife went off to the fields and the man began the domestic chores. After thinking about it, he had actually convinced himself he was looking forward to it. Once and for all, he would demonstrate to his wife how things should be done.

Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan. In fact, nearly everything the man touched turned into disaster. He spilled the milk, let the pig get into the house, lost the cow, burned the dinner, and ultimately set the house on fire, narrowly escaping with his own life.

When his wife returned, she discovered her husband sitting on a pile of ashes, smoke still rising from his clothes. But the woman wasn’t the type to rub things in. She helped him up, wiped the soot from his beard, fixed him a little something to eat, and then prepared a bed of straw for them to sleep on.

From that day forward, the man never complained about anyone or anything else for as long as he lived.

What do we learn from this story?

First, it teaches us that those who complain make not only their own lives miserable, but the lives of those around them miserable as well. The story is also a good lesson on humility. It reminds us of the words of Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” It also teaches us that we should not judge others until we have walked a mile in their shoes.

The story also illustrates a quality that the Roman orator Cicero claimed was “not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others” (Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Plancio, 54 B.C.). The virtue of which Cicero spoke is gratitude.

If I were to ask you this morning to define the word gratitude, each of you could probably give me a definition that best describes what being grateful means to you. That definition might include some of the things that you are most grateful for – for health and strength, for your employment, for family, for friends, for the Church, for Temples – and the list could go on. We all have things for which we are grateful and how we express that gratitude may be different for each one of us. President David O. McKay taught that “Thankfulness is measured by the number of words; gratitude is measured by the nature of our actions.” (CR, October 1955, p.4)

James E. Talmage once said, “Gratitude is the twin sister to humility: pride is a foe to both. The man who has come in close communion with God cannot fail to be thankful; for he feels, he knows, that for all he has and all he is, he is indebted to the Supreme Giver: and one would think that that there is no need of commandment in the matter of thanksgiving. Yet we find that because of man’s propensities toward forgetfulness and selfishness the Scriptures abound in admonitions to render thanks unto the Lord.” (Sunday Night Talks, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1931, p.483)

In Doctrine and Covenants 59: 5-7 we read, “Wherefore, I give unto them a commandment, saying thus: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  Thou shalt not steal; neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor do anything like unto it. Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.”

The Psalmist declared in Psalm 30:12, “To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent.  O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.” In Psalm 35:18 he declares, “I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people.” And in Psalm 119:62 the Psalmist declared, “At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.”

There are some who refer to Thanksgiving as a “season for giving thanks”. However, Thanks Giving knows no season. It is not an annual event like the celebrating of a birthday or a wedding anniversary – that once it is over, it is forgotten until the following year - but Thanks Giving should be an integral part of our lives.

The Lord has made it abundantly clear that Thanks Giving is an attribute He commands of all who would find favor in His sight. In Doctrine and Covenants 59:21 we learn, “And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.” Take careful note of that little word “all”. From these verses we learn that it is imperative that we remember our Heavenly Father in all things. It is He who is responsible for all of creation. It is He who is the giver of all life. It is He who woke us up this morning, enabled us to dress and feed ourselves, and enables us to carry out our responsibilities this day. That alone ought to be reason enough to pause and give thanks.

Yet, sad to say, there are still those who feel that they have nothing to be thankful for. For them, life seems to be nothing more than one woe after another. There seems to be no real meaning or purpose of life for them. They merely exist from day-to-day – seemingly living life just to live it – with no hope or vision of what the joys of life can bring and never realizing just how much they really need to be thankful and grateful for. Then, there are those who feel or believe that they have nothing to be thankful for because they have the attitude that “I am a self-made person. I am the one who worked hard and sacrificed to get where I am today. The only person that helped me was me. I do not owe anybody anything, especially thanks. Hey world, look at me and noticed what I have done.” Concerning this type of person, Marvin J. Ashton remarked, “How easy it is for a man to believe that temporal success has been achieved by his own skills. Everything good comes from the Lord . . .It pleases God to have us humbly recognize his power and his influence in our accomplishments rather to indicate by words or innuendo that we have been responsible for remarkable achievements. . .Humility must be our foundation if the goodness of the Lord is to continue to come to and from us” (Ensign, May 1990, p.66,67).

Both of these types of attitudes result from a spirit of ingratitude. W. Eugene Hansen once said, “It has been said that the sin of ingratitude is more serious than the sin of revenge. With revenge, we return evil for evil, but with ingratitude, we return evil for good” (Ensign, November 1982, p. 50).

Just how seriously God takes the failure of His children to say “Thank You” and mean it is described in Romans 1:21-32. Here in these verses we find a chilling downward spiral of a people who “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21). These verses in Romans illustrate what happens when a people blessed with abundance forget the source of the bounty they enjoy. It is when people fail to recognize that God alone is the giver of every good gift and every perfect gift, just as the nation of Israel, they begin to believe that contentment is in what they possess, and not who possesses them. “Professing themselves to be wise, they become [fools], and [change] the glory of the corruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man. . .” (Romans 1:23). When this occurs, there can never be enough. Therefore, both joy and contentment are lost, and ingratitude begins to reap a fearful harvest. President Ezra Taft Benson taught us that “We should confess His hand in all things. Ingratitude is one of our great sins.” (Ensign, May 1977, p.33)

President Marion G. Romney once defined gratitude as follows: “Gratitude is defined as a feeling of thankful appreciation for favors or benefits received. Gratitude is a sign of a noble soul. It has been said that an ungrateful man is like a hog under a tree, eating acorns, but never looking up to see where they come from” (in Conference Report, Bogotá Columbia Area Conference 1977, p. 28). Are we sometimes guilty of being like the hog under the tree – always partaking of the blessings that the Lord bestows upon us, but never looking up to acknowledge from whence those blessings come?

We best show our gratitude for the things that the Lord has done for us and continues to do for us through our acts of thanksgiving – by giving service to help others in need, by magnifying our callings, by being obedient to the doctrines of the Gospel, and by helping to strengthen families. These are only a few ways in which we can express our gratitude and put our thanksgiving into action.

Brothers and Sisters we have so much to be thankful for, and because we have so much to be thankful for, we should make every day of our lives a day of Thanks Giving, living our lives with an attitude of gratitude not ingratitude. May we learn to?

Count our blessings instead of our crosses;

Count our gains instead of our losses.

Count our joys instead of our woes;

Count our friends instead of our foes.

Count our smiles instead of our tears;

Count our courage instead of our fears.

Count our full years instead of our lean;

Count our kinds deeds instead of our mean.

Count our health instead of our wealth;

Count on God instead of ourselves.

Little or much is not the defining issue of life. It is “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;” (2 Corinthians 3:5). Therefore, we are commanded “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

President Joseph F. Smith taught, “Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of light, who is no respecter of persons, and in whom is no variableness, nor shadow or turning. To please him we must not only worship him with thanksgiving and praise but render willing obedience to his commandments. By so doing, he is bound to bestow his blessings, for it is upon this principle (obedience to the law) that all blessings are predicated” (IE, December 1917, p.104).

May we always take time to reflect upon the many blessings that our Heavenly Father has bestowed upon each and every one of us. May we echo in our hearts, the words of the Psalmist when he declared, “So we thy people and the sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations” (Psalm 79:13). This is my humble, sincere heartfelt prayer this day. In the sacred name of Him who is worthy of all praise and thanks giving, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Tags: Thanksgiving Gratitude Thanks Praise