Gratitude ...

These last few days were simply amazing. This week has been amazing. I have been noticing every little blessing that I get in my life... and I am just SO grateful ... I do not even know how to express the feeling of gratitude ... I love life, it is amazing! Seriously, everything is orchestrated in a perfect manner in my life once I make the right choices ... It is SO simple and so complex at the same time ...
Last week I got to go to California with my friend Gallia. We got to go to her grandma's funeral. It was such a good experience, I loved it. I mean it is sad she is gone, but it was such a positive event. A celebration of her life. Her family shared stories about her and it was just so amazing, it had such a great spirit! And do not get me wrong her family is mourning that she is gone, they are feeling the void and everything. But the Gospel gives you a different perspective. They all know that she is in a better place. It was cute to hear little kids saying how their grandma went to live with Jesus :)
The other thing I thought about a lot was that this life is just a blink. I thought about my life ... I mean I am not that old, but still I have been around for a while. I thought about how I am always waiting for something to happen to make my life better. I remember being a little girl dreaming about going to school, then I could not wait to go to college, then the mission, then jobs, now it is getting done with my degree again, looking forward to marriage, making more money, etc. etc. And I feel like I am missing out on what is happening in my life right now at this very moment ... noticing my little blessing and how loved I am by my family, friends, and most important my Creator ... I forget that I can do things right now instead of waiting for the future to bring something nice to me ... I know those are the things that everyone knows, we often quote that past is a history, future is a mystery, and today is the reality or something like that ... and this is true. We have got to learn to appreciate what we have today in our lives and sometimes we take things for granted. I personally am guilty of it. I love what Gordon B. Hinckley said about gratitude:
“Our society is afflicted by a spirit of thoughtless arrogance unbecoming those who have been so magnificently blessed. How grateful we should be for the bounties we enjoy. Absence of gratitude is the mark of the narrow, uneducated mind. It bespeaks a lack of knowledge and the ignorance of self-sufficiency. It expresses itself in ugly egotism and frequently in wanton mischief. We have seen our beaches, our parks, our forests littered with ugly refuse by those who evidently have no appreciation for their beauty.”This quote is just SO powerful, I love Gordon B. Hinckley, he is one of my favorite prophets. He says it so well, that I cannot even add anything to it. Let's be grateful, I guess.
I learned one other thing over the last few weeks. It is not important how much money we earn, it is not important what car we drive. But it is important what kind of a persons we are and what we bring to the world ... Because in the end once we are gone from this Earth ... we only take our deeds and testimonies with us ... I loooove the Gospel, it is perfect and beautiful!
I also got reminded that if I trust in the Lord I will be safe ... There is one last quote that I want to share with you and then I have to go to bed. It was said by Ezra Taft Benson:
"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that he can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace" WOW! This is quite a promise, isn't it? I want those blessings that is why I should stop telling the Lord what I need and start letting him lead me and teach me. And I am a Soviet, so, it is hard for me to be humble at times, but I am working at it, I promise :) And I tell you that once I do what I am supposed to do, I get blessed instantly, it is simply amazing, and once again it makes me grateful ... I am SO SO SO SO grateful I have the testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I love my Father in Heaven and even though my life seems to be so hard at times, I am happy cause He is there to "deepen my joys, lift my spirit, multiply my blessings, comfort my sour, pour out peace". How incredible it is!
Let's be grateful for what we have, let's enjoy our blessings, let's serve each other, let's make a difference in this world!
Life is fun, it is tough, but no one promised it was going to be easy. Let's make the best out of it. I am down who is with me? ;))))