As a teen I asked my Branch President to come up with an idea to help me get more value to my carrying a scripture in my wallet, I was memorizing and writing talk notes on the back. His plan was to focus on a virtue a month. After a couple of years he remembered his idea and I showed him my cards. He asked which one helped the most, gratitude.
It’s fall in the northern hemisphere, a season of thanksgiving. We remember Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin’s speech at BYU on October 31, 2000, inspiring us to “live in thanksgiving daily.” The text below is extracted from his full speech, available here.
Plus link to while speech.
You might be surprised to know that gratitude is a commandment of the Father. “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things” (D&C 59:7), the Lord has commanded in these latter days. Even further, He has admonished that “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” (D&C 59:21).In the Book of Mormon we learn that we should “live in thanksgiving daily” (Alma 34:38). Isn’t that a wonderful thought? To live in thanksgiving daily? Can you imagine how your life would improve if you lived in thanksgiving daily? Can you imagine how your life would improve if others did the same? Do you think the world would be a happier place? Less stressful? Less angry? More spiritual?