Thankful

When you pray, you are forced to think about all of the things for which you are thankful.  Your prayer may sound something like this:

Dear Father in Heaven,
I am so thankful for the blessings I have in my life.  I'm thankful for the gospel and for the church.  I'm thankful for my Ward and for the people in it, who teach me new things everyday.  I'm thankful for my children and for my husband and for their health.

You might continue by asking for something and then you close.

I went to a meeting for my dissertation the other day to meet with my research team.  We meet at USC Health Sciences Campus on the Neurology floor.  As I walked up to the building I saw a woman, mid 50s, sitting and writing something by hand.  When approaching her I noticed that she had two scars on her chest where they typically implant deep brain stimulation battery packs.  This is a good guess of why she had these scars, given that she was outside of Neurology/Neurosurgery (they're both on the 3rd floor).  They only implant deep brain stimulators in people who have severe movement disorders like Parkinson's disease, dystonia, etc.  I thought to myself about what a HUGE deal it was to that woman to be able to use her hands in order to write.

It's these little things that we take for granted.  We don't really appreciate our bodies or the little blessings in our life until something goes wrong.  I am thankful for my body and my ability to carry children, I am thankful for my vision and my teeth and my skin and my hair.  I'm thankful that my organs function as they should and I am thankful that I know that I need to be thankful for these things.  When we start to take life for granted is when we are at risk for something to go wrong.

Sometimes when I pray I feel like I repeat the same things over and over again.  I am truly thankful for these things, but I don't think I am expressing it in the most passionate way.  Tonight we were able to go to dinner with Hunter and his uncles because a friend took Landon so he could go to sleep on time.  This wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the church and the wonderful people I have met in my Ward.  Lately it seems that everything comes back to the church - so many blessings.

Don't forget to count your blessings and be thankful for the little things as well as the big.

Joining the church has been the second best decision I have ever made.  I am so happy that we have this huge blessing in our life that makes me feel such a sense of comfort and belonging.

If you're wondering what the absolute best decision I have ever made is, you probably don't know me very well because it's pretty obvious.  The best decision I ever made was to marry Brian.