My Week of Gratitude

For my Book of Mormon class I have Brother Todd Parker and I absolutely love him and all of his class lectures. One of the assignments that he has given to his classes is titled the "Application Paper". In this assignment we are all to choose a scripture each week and focus on living the message and doctrine that it teaches. We then must write a one page response describing how we applied this doctrine into our lives and what our thoughts on it were. This past week i choose to pick 2 Nephi 9:52 in which it says "...remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night..." I really enjoy this scripture because it focuses on how we should be grateful for all that we are given. So to apply this scripture I decided to make this last week my week of gratitude. I decided that when I prayed I would only pray about things that I was grateful for and not for things that I wanted or desired. I tried to have a positive attitude in everything that I did. Whenever something bad happened I tried to think of what was good about that situation or what I could possibly learn from it. At first this was difficult and I really had to focus on what I was saying, but I knew that it was be pleasing to the Lord so I decided to continue with it.

During my week of gratitude i specifically remember one event that really stood out to me and made me wonder how grateful I really was for everything. It occurred when I was, as always, dying, sweating, and struggling up that Freshman hill in between to Helamen Halls and the Tanner building (I am sure most of you know exactly what I am talking about). Then out of no where some guy walked past me whistling the song "Count Your Many Blessings". At first I was thinking, "Wow, this guy is really...interesting...", but then as I continued to trek up the steep daunting hill I started thinking about the words to the song. The words had so much more meaning to me as i realized how much God truly does for me on a daily basis and because of my dedicated week of gratitude I was able to see how much He really does love me. I am so blessed to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I am so grateful to know that if I live righteously I will be able to live with my family forever. I am so grateful to know that I am a daughter of God and that He loves me. So I guess you could say that I completely fulfilled my Book of Mormon class requirement and applied the scriptures to my life by making my past week my week of gratitude!