Dear Family and Friends ~

A great man passed recently, one of the Lord's Apostles. Shortly before his funeral, BYU rebroadcast several of his talks. This one was from a BYU Devotional in 2000. As I listened to Elder Wirthlin speak, I was struck with the importance of his message to us all. It was entitled "Live in Thanksgiving." His words made me pause and reflect. So often we hurry through life and don't stop to consider our many blessings. Sure, we're thankful, but in the "busy-ness" of our lives our gratitude seems to get pushed to the back burner. After all, we have jobs to go to, mortgages to pay, children and grandchildren to provide for and teach, chores, church responsibilities, schooling, groceries to buy, yards to keep up, snow to plow, parents to care for, good neighbors and bad neighbors to interact with, civic duties, scriptures to read, bills to pay, ancestors to find, fellowmen to love and help, PTA meetings and socials to attend, home and visiting teaching, lessons to prepare, missionaries to write to, the economy to worry about, wars, earthquakes, famines---the list goes on and on an on and on . . .

Think about it. Are we grateful for any of the things I've just listed? We're alive, we have jobs, homes, family, friends, the Gospel, we live in a choice land . . .

In the 59th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord restates some of his commandments and then promises many wonderful blessings and warns us that in "nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled,save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments."