The Beginning

After yesterday’s group, I was inspired to start a new blog Holly’s Gratitude Project.  I had a blog in which each day, I wrote down some of my blessings that day.  Couldn’t find that one so I created a new one with the following address: hollysgratitudeproject.com

Why start this? What’s the point? Why now?

We talked a lot about trials and remaining steadfast by making the gospel of Christ the center of our lives and have it be our deepest root.  President Monson said a story about a wonderful faithful man Brother Brems who lost his wife and 2 of his children.  He was 105 years old when President Monson got a call from one of his granddaughters.  Brother Brems “could no longer see.  He could no longer hear.  He was confined night and day to a small room in a care center.  And yet the smile on his face and the words he spoke touched by heart.  ‘Thank you,’ he said.  ‘My Heavenly Father has been so good to me.’”

Brother Brems didn’t dwell on what he didn’t have or was lacking like missing his wife, or not being able to hear or see.  He focused on his many blessings and expressed gratitude often for those blessings.

President Spencer W. Kimball described that process of inspired writing: “Those who keep a book of remembrance are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives. Journals are a way of counting our blessings and of leaving an inventory of these blessings for our posterity.” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982, p. 349.)

My hope is that not only do I increase my awareness of the many blessings that I experience each day but help to improve my remembrance of my Savior and my Heavenly Father.  I know they have their hands in my life and I want to be more observant of those things.  I know that with gratitude, I focus on what I have been given.  There’s plenty of research out there proving that people are happier, more productive, healthier, and more resilient as they give thanks.