2.134 Ye Must Give Thanks

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry His flavor, His truth, and His love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.

Great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. We are reading Doctrine and Covenants Sections 46 to 48, as well as Mosiah Chapters 17 through 20 this week.

And I hope you've had some time to dive into the list of gifts. And I hope that that has led for you to a piece of awareness about what some of those gifts may be for you. And maybe even a bit of anticipation of other gifts that you could possibly develop going forward.

Our thought for today dives into one more verse inside of Doctrine and Covenants Section 46. And I'll let you know it is the second half of a sentence, so make sure that you read the first half of that sentence. But our verse for today is Doctrine and Covenants Section 46 Verse 32.

And it says this: "And ye must give thanks unto God in the Spirit for whatsoever blessing ye are blessed with." Now this one had me thinking a little bit, because I think about, you know, as we sit down and we do prayers, or whether we do prayers as a family or individual prayers, there's always the thank you section, right? We always include those inside of our prayers. And so what's the Lord maybe thinking about here when he says he must give thanks unto God in the Spirit for whatsoever blessing you are blessed with?

You know, this led me to an activity I used to do as kind of a training. So it was a secular activity. This wasn't a spiritual activity at the time.

But I think there's a spiritual component that we can put at play that might be worth doing for us today inside of this one. I want you to create a list of things you're grateful for. The thank yous for today.

I don't know, get seven to ten things that just those—those things that just the top of your mind. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. But then I want you to pause and ask yourself, what is it about those things?

Like what is it behind those? So those are cool and you're grateful for them. What's behind those?

And that may take a little bit of extra time to think about. And ask yourself, what's behind that thank you? So you got your list of 10, and then you would have this secondary list of 10—these behind the thank-yous, right?

And then you have the third list. I think when you start to get at that stage in this activity, you're going to start to experience what perhaps the Lord may be referencing in Verse 32, where He says, "Give thanks unto God in the Spirit." All right, allow the Spirit to help you kind of just have our quick list of thank yous, but then get behind those. What is it about those that we really are grateful to the Lord for?

I'll give you an example, perhaps, and I'm doing this on the fly, so maybe it's not a great example, but if I were to just sit down and say, "Hey, I'm grateful for my family," that may be the first thing on my list is "family." But then as I think about it, like what is it about family that makes me so grateful for it? And so then I think about the meaningful relationships that we have. So that's maybe the second thing on my list is a meaningful relationship that I have.

And then as I get thinking further into that, maybe it's actually that meaningful relationship. Maybe it's more about the one-to-one conversations that I get to have with my children. Maybe that's a component of it.

Now that's just a quick example. I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful for the meaningful relationships around my family.

I'm grateful for the one-on-one opportunities to talk with my children. That's something I can turn to the Lord and specify, be very clear, and perhaps maybe even give thanks unto God in the Spirit for that opportunity in my life. My friends, if you will take time, even one time, to consider your thankful list, and really what's behind them, I think you may change just a little bit in a deeper way—a connection to the things you're grateful for and thanking the Lord on a daily basis.

I'd love to hear what happens for you as you give that one a try. Let me know if you have any chance to reach out. Let me know how that one goes for you.

That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.