I want to start this off today with a quick favor:
Last night, I learned about a young man named Nathan. He is thirteen years old and was born with a rare and often painful bone condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. This is also known as brittle bone disease. Nathan always has a positive attitude. His motto is “Every day is the best day ever.” He even does fundraisers to help the “unfortunate”.
He is now facing a difficult life threatening surgery. On Monday, August 3. He will have a trach placed in preparation for a huge neurosurgery procedure on August 10th. He’ll be in the hospital for a minimum of two weeks immobilized. Because of Covid, he is only allowed one visitor his mother.
Would you be willing to send him a letter or card of encouragement? Nothing would be more exciting to see this remarkable young man flooded with your love. If you could send it to this PO Box, his mother will deliver them to him. Could you imagine how cool it would be for his room to look the court room in the movie, Miracle on 34th street, where they bring in tens of thousands of letters? Think of the joy on his face as his mother reads them to him. Thank you so much for considering this, also if you could pray for him, that would be wonderful!
Letters to Nathan
PO Box 876
Midvale, UT 84047
As I learned more about Nathan last night, I was amazed. Richard Paul Evans shared with us that Nathan was praying and thanked Heavenly Father for his body. There are many others that if they were in his situation would yell at Heavenly Father and complain and get upset that they weren’t given a perfect body. And Sadly, there are many people that have much healthier bodies that still choose to complain.
This caused me to reflect on my own level of gratitude. I have been so blessed with incredible parents that love and support me. I have been blessed with a fairly healthy body. How often do I take time to say THANK YOU to Heavenly Father and thank him for the incredible life that I have been blessed with? The answer is not often enough, as I have shared with you guys before, my life has not turned out as I had wanted it to, and that really is okay. I don’t really complain to Heavenly Father as much anymore, I just simply try to handle them the best that I can.
However, there is an entire other level between not complaining and showing gratitude, and I have not been showing gratitude to Heavenly Father near like I want to be doing.
Just a few years ago, on Christmas morning, we had finished unwrapping our presents and I had been very content with what I had received and expressed gratitude to my parents and family for all the amazing presents. Then I walked into the family room to get something and I noticed, a large blanked that was covering some sort of box. Now I need to add, I’m not sure if you guys do this, but in my family if there is ever a larger gift that we receive that Santa wants to surprise us with, after all the presents are opened, it is often left in the family room.
I can’t recall exactly but I faintly remember a note on the blanked that said for Joseph, from Santa (Yes I’m 36 but I still have lots of nieces and nephews that are younger and love Santa.)
So I saw the sign and I threw off the blanket, and there was a full size standard Hockey Goal in a box. Now if you have known me for a little while, then you know that I LOVE ICE HOCKEY! I love to play it, I love to watch it, and now I had my own Hockey Goal to shoot pucks in my back yard.
I TOTALLY SCREAMED jumped up and down, and got so carried away in the moment, I think I even hugged my parents and said “THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for the gift that “Santa” had given me. It probably hadn’t been that much different from the first time Santa had given me a small hockey net 25 years earlier. And when I lit up, you should have seen the look on my parents face, you would have thought they had given me the moon! I was so incredibley grateful, and that made them so happy.
Have you ever given something to someone that you think they are going to love and they open it and say a cordial thank you and set it the side?
I have had times when I have sacrificed and bought super cool presents for my nieces and nephews that I think they will love. At times I get the simple cordial thank you before they tear open the next present, and other times I get the super excited happy look of their face and them saying “THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU uncle Joseph!
Which one do you think that I want to give more to? Of course the one that says is excitedly saying THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
The times I have been the most grateful to Heavenly Father and said that THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU prayer are generally the times when I am beginning to date someone that is amazing and things are going well, probably it is because I am getting just a bit closer to marrying the girl of my dreams and continuing with my progression.
However, most times, I don’t, and now as I’m writing I’m thinking, what if we could just say, “THANK YOU, THANK YOU , THANK YOU for even one thing each day that we are super grateful for”?
A scripture that I love in D&C 78:19 says
“And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold yea, more.”
Or in other words when we are that little kid that says “THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!” we will receive the things of this earth a hundred fold and more!
I think that maybe Heavenly Father knew that if someone were grateful, things would just work out so much better for them and they would just begin to attract the things of the world!
When we are grateful for ALL THINGS, yes the good, the bad, the challenging and even the tiny things; we will receive a hundred fold and more!
You may be thinking, I am going through this challenging thing right now, how can I be grateful? Remember, this is just one chapter of your life, and this could be the chapter that is really hard for you, but is the preparation for the next amazing thing that happens in your life.
If you haven’t shown gratitude lately try it! Think of someone that has done something for you lately or even a blessing that you have received from Heavenly Father and call and thank that person or say a prayer of thanks.
“Good things come to those that THANK!”
Try this week to be grateful for every little blessing that you see in your life and you will be amazed!
If we aren’t going to be grateful for the small things in our lives, we really aren’t going to be that much more grateful for the big things.
Maybe gratitude is just a choice, and maybe it’s the choice that helps us to be the happiest. Give it a try this week, show true honest gratitude when someone even does something as simple as holds the door open for you. It just may make your day and their day.
Just start now, because it’s always better now than never! When you start, you make the impossible, possible! Remember You’re okay. Start doing what’s possible in Your life and you will create miracles!
-The “It’s Possible” Guy
Joseph