Thankfulness is Vital!

So I was at my parents ward today and this new family in the ward gave talks. Well at first I was just thinking it was going to be more of the 'introduction' to the ward type talks. Turned out that the kids talks were a little that way. But the mom ended up with lots of time and she actually gave this very profound thankful type talk. At first she was talking about how everyone has a story for their life and so she said that she had some stories to tell about her family. And so she told how when she was 7 or 8 her dad had died. But it was because they'd all been gone for Thanksgiving and her dad was the Bishop, so he came back early for some ward business. Well turned out that there was some poisoning or something like that coming out of the vent. So her dad was the only one poisoned due to being the only one who came back early. Which hugely affected her since she was only 8 when this happened.

The next story was about how her husband had gotten a job with the oil field out in the Uintah Basin and was commuting all the time from Ogden to Roosevelt. (3 hour drive at least) Well they were all going to move out to the Uintah Basin, but after saving for some time it was diagnosed that she had thyroid cancer. Luckily it is the easiest cancer to cure, so she was better within the year I think it was. Well before they could move something else happened, which was that her teenage son started having serious back pains. He wrestled and it seemed like it was connected to the wrestling. Well turned out he had to go to Primary Children's hospital and they found out he had bone infection in his back. (which is not common) So that took alot of time to get better from and then they had to start saving again to move. Well finally after 6 years they're finally moved and her husband doesn't have to commute anymore. (but he had been commuting for 6 years)

If you haven't noticed this seems like a depressing talk and not only that, but she also mentioned that her husband's sister died a year or two again. So yeah it was a pretty depressing talk, but actually the moral of the story wasn't to make everyone depressed.

Because then she went on to talk about how due to these terrible life events she started thinking about it. And came to realize that God isn't going to make everything be bad that happens, so that must mean there is at least a tiny bit of good happening. Well during the last 6 years she's started paying more attention to the good things that might be happening as well as the bad things. Apparently it was a pretty effective theory on life as well, because she managed to survive the terrible trials.

Well I think the reason why I really happened to notice this talk more then others was because I've actually been thinking about this same thing alot lately.

I tend to read alot of pioneer type books and a few years ago I read this book by Janette Okes. (or read it again after 15 years) But I was really surprised to read about how this girl married this guy and they moved west in their wagon. Well due to how far they moved she literally never saw her family again and all they could really do was write letters. Due to it being a novel the author made it so the girls parents happened to save money and visited one time after she'd been married 10 years. But I was so surprised and then realized that of course if you only had a wagon you couldn't move far away and expect to go back. So anyways this story randomly came to me again the other day and so I realized that we're all majorly fortunate to have:

1. Internet (facebook, e-mail and etc.)

2. Cars

3. Phones

4. Airplanes

So technically if we move far away then we really can go back to where our relatives live at least once a year if not more. Meaning due to modern technology we are pretty blessed!

Over the weekend we had a pump problem and didn't have water for almost 2 days. So my Mom and I were doing dishes by boiling storage water. Which means that we're majorly blessed to have electricity and things such as pumps to give us water.

Another common thing that happened back in the day was that people died of illnesses that most definately can be cured now. It's funny but when I go home we tend to watch shows like Little House on the Prarie alot. So anyways I ended up running into some of the seasons at the library since I volunteer there and all. Well I happened to be watching this one Little House on the Prarie episode where Laura's brother died. The symptom's were that the baby was losing weight and none of the doctors could figure out what was causing it. So then the baby died and only lived like a month or so. Another one when Laura was older was about her baby that died due to an unknown cause. Basically the baby died in the night, but now days we'd call it SIDS. (sudden infant death syndrome) So anyways the point being that we are majorly lucky to have modern technology.

But anyways my main thought lately has just been that times might be hard, but there are always things we have that are good. Basically we're never alone on anything and sometimes all we have to do is look around for the good things in life. Since sometimes they'll be there but in a small way, but they are there.

So my challenge to all of you is to be thankful for the good things in life, even when life is harder then hard. And especially now that it's not November I'd say it's still a good time to be thankful!! :D