November offers an invitation to mediate on the virtues of gratitude. A first glance, I am thankful for all my blessings: family, friends, good health, Normal-Rockwell-celebrated American freedoms, paid work that I enjoy, relative economic comforts, access to a great public library, and the restored gospel.

If I forget to articulate such gratitude to my Creator, the account of the ten lepers in Luke 17 gives me an additional push.  How often am I inconsiderate, meaning failing to consider?  All too frequently, I am one of the nine who neglected to turn back and say, “thank you” for rich blessings.   Also, King Benjamin’s speech contains a reminder about gratitude.  He tells his subjects that they have a greater debt to acknowledge than thanking him for his regal service: “O how you should thank your heavenly King!” (Mosiah 2:19).

Being grateful does not just benefit our relationships with those who bless our lives. Articulating blessings also counts as an “individual sport,” meaning it can help increase our own happiness.  If we never practice gratitude, we focus only on our challenges.  This cloaks us in a little black rain cloud of pain and misery.   A beloved hymn asks me questions about self-pity before issuing a challenge about gratitude:

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings; ev’ry doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.

Even though I often forget to show gratitude for my blessings, I have a greater challenge to actually show gratitude for my trial.

I am not talking about being grateful despite our trials. (See Elder Uchtdorf’s April 2014 general conference talk for a very good description of that kind of gratitude.) Instead, I’m talking about taking things one step further and being grateful for the trial itself.  This is no easy task. I usually have to work myself through a couple of stages before I can get all the way to gratitude for a challenge.

First, I try to endure a challenge. Then I try to accept it, which makes it easier for me to make the final push to showing gratitude for the challenge.

For example, I was very upset when I was diagnosed as hypoglycemic about five years ago.  This required me to make substantial changes in what I eat and how often I eat. Slowly I began to accept that my body needs regular attention.   Now I am actually thankful at times that I am hypoglycemic.   I have greater body awareness, a greater enjoyment for low-glycemic foods, less stress from taking breaks throughout the day, and more compassion for others managing a health issue.

I was motivated to show gratitude in hardships by two sisters who were prisoners of war. Let me share their story about being grateful for fleas.

Corrie and Betsie ten Bloom were two Dutch Christian sisters, imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II.  This story is part of the book The Hiding Place, which is about their experience.  I actually haven’t read that book. But I have heard this account over the pulpit on a number of occasions. Also Andrea R. shared their flea story here at Segullah a few Novembers ago.

Briefly, the sister had been reading the Bible they managed to smuggle into prison. A verse in Thessalonians admonishing them: “in every thing give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:18).  And so they began to pray, offering thanks for as many things as they could see around them.  When Betsie suggested they offer thanks for the fleas, her sister Corrie was doubtful.  On Betsie’s insistence,  they thanked God for the fleas nonetheless.

Let me finish their story with a quote from a BYU Devotional, delivered by Sharon G. Samuelson on September 7, 2010:

“Weeks later Corrie was struck by the blessing that came from her obedience to thank God in all circumstances. Betsie had heard a supervisor say she wouldn’t step through the door of their cell because of all the fleas, and neither would the guards. It was because of the fleas that they were able to continue to keep their Bible without the guards finding it. They were also able to hold worship meetings and share Christ’s message with other prisoners. God asks us to give thanks even when there may seem to be little for which to be thankful. The ten Boom sisters fully understood this admonition.”

In the short term, we may not understand that our difficulties can actually be the conduit for blessings.   I do have to admit that my testimony of many gospel principles are gained by going through very difficult times.  As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20.  I’m more comfortable being grateful after the fact.  My next step might be showing gratitude during a trial. But I am not quite to the point of asking for hardships.

For now, I will do my best to be grateful both for blessings and for challenges.

 


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